Desegregation and occupational health: how male and female hospital attendants collaborate on work tasks requiring physical effort

It is suggested that the desegregation of jobs should be accompanied by both observation and discussion to identify problems and adapt work practices and environments.

Abstract

Until recently, hospital attendants in Québec were assigned tasks on the basis of gender, but now few hospitals practise segregation explicitly. However, some attendants suggest that women attendants do not carry out their fair share of tasks involving physical effort, resulting in male attendants being exposed to increased risk of injury. To examine this assumption, the authors observed attendants carrying out 1,169 physical operations for a total of 61 hours. Surprisingly, women performed significantly more operations per hour than their male counterparts. After discussions with participants, a number of factors were proposed to account for the divergence between the assumption (that women did not share equally in physical tasks) and the authors' observation (that women carried out more tasks per hour than men). These factors include: retention of stronger women, stereotyping, and recourse to men for rare, extremely demanding operations. In conclusion, the authors suggest that the desegregation of jobs should be accompanied by both observation and discussion to identify problems and adapt work practices and environments.