When gender bumps into health and safety training: working conditions, readings and challenges drawn from a case study in an industrial chemicals company

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

vasconcelos, r (Author) Other; teixeira, s (Author) Other; castelhano, j (Author) Other; lacomblez, m (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Work

Vol. 41 No. Supplement 1/12

Pages: 4291-4296

ISSN: 1051-9815

Publisher: IOS PRESS

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Health sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-FNE

DOI: 10.3233/WOR-2012-0098-4291

Abstract (EN): Health, safety and environmental issues are at present a social concern and an increasingly referred topic in the so called gender studies. This paper focuses on the relations between training, gender and risk perception in an industrial chemicals company, in Portugal, characterized by a mainly male population and by the presence of high occupational and environmental hazards. After characterizing the company and the training project that started up this reflection, the paper presents the reasons for its focus on gender followed by the essential methodological explanations: 14 interviews were made with male and female workers from the company; their content was transcribed from the audio recordings and it was systematically analyzed. A gender-attentive socio demographic analysis was also undertaken. Although at the beginning the company did not consider the gender issues as a problem nor was it the central topic of the training, which focused on the prevention of occupational and environmental hazards, the results reveal that the gender factor brought to light some working conditions, which so far have not been properly discussed within the group meetings. As a consequence, there is now room for the transformation of the representations on those working conditions.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6