Autoren-Bilder
9 Werke 31 Mitglieder 1 Rezension

Werke von Karen Messing

Getagged

Wissenswertes

Für diesen Autor liegen noch keine Einträge mit "Wissenswertem" vor. Sie können helfen.

Mitglieder

Rezensionen

This is an incredibly interesting book dealing with a complex subject that asks more questions than it can possibly answer.

The author, a proclaimed feminist, is a PHD in Biology as well as an ergonomist, and has spent decades studying women’s bodies amidst our relatively recent (historically speaking) foray into a variety of occupational roles, and what this means in terms of workplace health and safety in a world where tools, techniques, policies and a socio-political environment have been defined primarily by males and for males.

The author is quick to point out the taboos (with a capital T) that this work taps into, particularly in traditionally male-dominated occupations - female personal support workers will lift heavy patients, female communications technicians will carry ladders that weight as much as they do, and women, in general, will perform their jobs stoically, and in the process suffer three times the workplace injuries that men do.

Women’s bodies are smaller, lighter, with a lower center of gravity and we menstruate, have babies, feel pain differently, and cannot lift or carry half the weight than men can - (these are biological facts - as applied to women in general).

“This is really a story about the power of shame and denial. Think about all those women feeling ashamed because they were doing less than the men, and feeling compelled to hurt their backs to make up for it. “

At the same time, women and men (even with the exact same job title) are often assigned different tasks (this is where we start to cross over into gender, not biology, and how it affects job treatment). So female hospital cleaners, for example, may be expected to dust and clean toilets, while men push mops and run vacuums. The end result is the pattern of workplace injuries we see for both are different - with women’s injuries often more subtle, more chronic and as a result, less visible and often dismissed.

Where do we go from here and how do we affect positive change? The author discusses the difficulties in leading workplace policy change, along with the thorny subject of job desegregation, which in itself may or may not help women. Although separation of light and heavy job roles may excuse women of some tasks which are problematic - it raises a host of other issues that seem to take us backward, politically, into battles already fought (and won) around workplace and pay equity.

This was a wonderful read, and the author provides a ton of context on this subject. It’s clear the work she and her colleagues are doing with unions, women’s committees, employers, and policy makers on this important topic has a long way to go but is surely a great start.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts presented are my own.
… (mehr)
 
Gekennzeichnet
porte01 | Apr 28, 2021 |

Statistikseite

Werke
9
Mitglieder
31
Beliebtheit
#440,253
Bewertung
4.0
Rezensionen
1
ISBNs
12
Sprachen
2