KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

2018 KWDI Abstract

 

Policy Tasks for Strengthening Safety by Life Cycle of Women (Ⅲ) - Focusing on Women Safety in the Workplace

 

Young-taek Kim

Aigyung Yang

Miyoung Gu

Jiyoun Jeoung

Cheon Jaeyoung

Kyung Yong Rhee

Soukyoung Kim

 

This study aimed to analyze the safety situation of female workers in the workplace from a gender perspective. This study reviewed domestic and foreign regulations and policies on safety and health at a workplace and examined how much the differences between men and women were reflected in the regulations and policies. For speaking of a method of the study, this study conducted an analysis of the Fifth Labor Environment Survey in Korea to investigate the health status and disease occurrence of female workers in terms of life cycle. Also, this study conducted a survey on the status of safety awareness among female workers and conducted a focus group interview. The following sentences described the results of the study. Domestic regulations and laws related to safety among workers were found to be that a standard (male) worker image was set up without considering the physical, social and psychological differences between men and women. The female wage earners that thinks that it is dangerous to health or safety in the workplace was found to be that their health condition got worse in their life cycle than the reference group. Musculoskeletal risk exposure in the workplace was found to be higher for female wage earners than for male wage earners. Female wage earners were found to be higher rate of disease occurrence than male wage earners in terms of back pain, upper limb muscle pain, lower extremity muscle pain, headache/eye/fatigue, and depression. In terms of safety information , safety communication, and the existence of the Safety and Health Committee, female wage workers were found to have a disadvantageous working environment than male wage workers. 14.8% of all female wage earners said that tools in the workplace are inadequate for female workers. 83.3% of female wage workers said that they did not receive guidance on safety health guidelines or risk factors for pregnant women workers. Based on the results, this study suggested that a risk appraisal should be undertaken to better understand the female work-related risk factors resulting from gender differences. Also, as a concrete measure to ensure the participation of female workers in the decision-making process, gender should be considered when selecting members of workers' in the Safety and Health Committee.