This new Report by the European Agency for Occupational Safety and Health (EAOSHA) presents an update to the Agency´s previous research on gender issues at work. That earlier report found that inequality both inside and outside the workplace can have an effect on the health and safety of women at work. The report offers both an update and reconsideration of the available literature and is a contribution to the European Risk Observatory‘s programme on the specific challenges in terms of health and safety posed by the more extensive integration of women in the labour market.

The new Report provides a statistical overview of the trends in employment and working conditions, hazard exposure and work-related accidents and health problems for women at work. It explores selected issues, such as combined exposures, occupational cancer, access to rehabilitation, and informal work, and also “emerging” female professions such as home care and domestic work. The research highlights the type of work carried out by women, issues faced by younger and older women, the growth of the service sector, violence and harassment, and increasingly diversified working time patterns as major risk factors.

Dr Juliet Hassard, Centre for Sustainable Working Life, Birkbeck University of London, was one of the contributing authors. The Report was formally published on 20th December 2013 and is available at:
https://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/reports/new-risks-and-trends-in-the-safety-and-health-of-women-at-work/view.