WOMEN’S PPE: TIME FOR A TAILORED APPROACH

Ill-fitting personal protective equipment is not only damaging for morale but also potentially dangerous. Women in particular must have the items they need to do their jobs effectively.

One of the biggest issues in the field of personal protective equipment (PPE) is the need to ensure women receive properly fitting and tailored equipment, rather than having to rely on generic stock that has been designed for men.  

It’s an area that has been getting some traction, and the message seems to be getting through. More than four in five (82%) of those who responded to the 2024 Health & Safety Report, produced by RS in association with Health and Safety Magazine, believe more needs to be done to ensure PPE is suitable for women. And with women accounting for at least 40 per cent of the workforce in one in four organisations that responded, there is good reason why this issue is beginning to climb the agenda.  

Yet just one per cent of people who purchase PPE list the need for women’s PPE as an important factor when buying items, suggesting there is still much work to be done. Much of this is likely down to cost, with 11 per cent identifying product cost as the main consideration when buying items.  

Katherine Evans is the founder of the female support network Bold as Brass. She has made it her mission to raise awareness of the topic, after working in different roles where she was expected to wear ill-fitting or sub-standard PPE. “I’m a mining geologist,” she says. “I started off working offshore in oil and gas in the North Sea and mid-Atlantic and that was bad for PPE. My flotation suit didn’t fit me at all because it was made for very tall Dutch men, and I'm 5”2. It should have been tight so as to not let water in but mine would have filled with water.” 

The emphasis on price – with lower unit costs often coming as a result of buying in bulk – over fit is all too familiar to her. “The bulk-buying side of it is difficult because people aren’t average and it’s supposed to be personal,” she says. “That’s the first P of PPE. PPE is treated like a commodity, not lifesaving equipment.”  

Areas of concern

The priorities when it comes to buying PPE for women specifically are identified in the survey as safety footwear (62%), workwear (59%) and high-visibility clothing (45%). But Evans says this issue extends to virtually any type of clothing or equipment. “It starts from the head and goes down to the toes,” she says. This includes hard hats which need room for natural afro hairstyles, dreadlocks or ponytails; glasses and ear plugs, which generally need to be smaller for women; trousers; gloves and shoes.  

“Shoes need to be specific women’s shoes because there are so many issues that come from having a bad pair of shoes, from backache all the way up to migraines,” she says. “Glasses also need to be shaped differently for different ethnicities. Women who have Asian heritage will struggle with a pair of glasses made to fit a Caucasian male.” Nor is this confined to physical issues, she adds; wearing ill-fitting PPE can lead to derogatory comments and impact negatively on women’s mental health.  

Ryan Plummer, Senior Director at RS Safety Solutions, adds that ill-fitting PPE isn’t just an inconvenience but can also pose serious safety risks for businesses and employees. “If you have ill-fitting PPE and you’re working by a piece of machinery, there’s potential for the machine to snag that loose-fitting clothing and pull you into it,” he says. “We’re here to make sure that people go home in the same condition that they entered the workplace at the start of the day.” 

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has been working with Katy Robinson, a construction project manager and founder of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Yorkshire group. In August 2023, the group launched a campaign on women and PPE, with the aim of raising awareness of the women’s PPE that is available on the market.  

Dr Karen McDonnell, Occupational Health and Safety Policy Adviser at RoSPA, says conversations with Robinson have revealed that, while women’s PPE is on the market, nearly 60 per cent of UK employers do not offer this to staff, with similar experiences found in the US, Canada and Australia. “Organisations should be carrying out person-centred risk assessments for each employee or visitor carrying out activities that require PPE to be used,” says Dr McDonnell. “This should not be limited to employees’ inductions, but instead an ongoing and regularly updated process. To put it simply, PPE should protect.” 

Taking action

“Along with sustainability, this is an area where the manufacturer, the distributor and the end-user must work hand in hand.” points out Plummer. “If you’re going to invest many millions of pounds into developing a product for an end-user, you need to have a route to market. We’re increasing the ranges and have done several on-site footwear discussions, where we've allowed people to come in and try on footwear so we’re taking the proposition to market in a slightly different way.” 

Customers need to be clear about what they require, agrees Evans. “Businesses need to speak to the end-users, and the first P is important,” she says. “From there, they need to combine that with risk assessments and feed that back to the distributor that they have chosen already or go for a brand-new tender and write into it that they require inclusive PPE. A distributor is not going to stick on an extra quotation for women’s requirements if it hasn’t been expressed in the tender document.” 

Dr McDonnell makes the point that ill-fitting PPE is not necessarily just an issue for women, even if this is where it manifests itself most obviously. “We talk about a person-centred approach, because some PPE isn’t a good fit for men either,” she says. “Businesses need to make sure, if the risk assessment identifies that PPE is required as a control measure, that it fits the individual because that is a requirement of the regulations.  

“If PPE is not a good fit, irrespective of who it’s for, it’s not going to be used,” she adds. “That puts people at risk, which is unacceptable. PPE must account for safety as well as comfort. We want to raise awareness among workers, employers and regulators and encourage PPE producers to innovate and address gender inequality.”