Presentation Topic

The Gender Gap in Personal Protective Equipment

Presentation Brief Description

Significant numbers of women report that their PPE does not fit properly, it is uncomfortable to wear, and the selection of women-specific PPE is inadequate. Despite evidence that anthropometric differences exist between the sexes, PPE continues to be designed for “all workers” based almost entirely on male anthropometry. This is problematic as research on the gendered and sexual division of labour – and its impact on occupational health and safety – reinforce the need to pay attention to sex and gender differences in exposures and hazards as well as the unique needs of each sex in mitigating those hazards and risks. This presentation will discuss the gender gap in PPE, highlight the challenges that women in British Columbia experience with their PPE, and offer some suggestions on mainstreaming gender and equity into workplace risk assessments and occupational health and safety practice

Biography

Anya Keefe is an occupational and public health consultant with nearly 40 years of experience in occupational disease prevention, policy and research. Since 2006, she has consulted for a number of academic and research institutions, government and regulatory agencies, charitable organizations and private industry. Prior to launching her consulting practice, Anya was the Director of the Research Secretariat at WorkSafeBC, where she created and superintended a systematic process for research, knowledge transfer and strategic initiatives. During her time at WorkSafeBC, she also gained considerable policy and public consultation experience developing occupational health and safety regulations as well as occupational disease compensation policy. Her initial career was with the BC Cancer Agency, where she performed retrospective exposure assessments for occupational epidemiological studies in British Columbia and internationally. Since 2014, she has provided pro bono assistance to workers diagnosed with occupational diseases (or their surviving spouses), helping to identify possible sources of exposure and working with them to create comprehensive occupational histories to support their claim for workers compensation.

Anya has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and a graduate degree in Occupational Hygiene, both from the University of British Columbia. She is also a formally trained chef and chocolatier.