G
ender
e
quality
, W
ork
and
H
ealtH
: a r
evieW
of
tHe
e
vidence
Aside from legislation overtly designed to apply to working conditions
of women, it is also important to ensure a gender-based analysis
of seemingly gender neutral legislation aimed to prevent or to
compensate for occupational injury and disease. As mentioned above,
even in countries where equality is guaranteed by law, application of
occupational health and safety legislation may have discriminatory
effects. Swedish and Canadian (Quebec), studies revealed that women
and men are often offered different rehabilitation measures for similar
work-related health problems. Men are more often offered training,
access a wider variety of new jobs, and are offered more help in the
home, while women receive rehabilitation benefits for a shorter time
(Lippel and Bienvenu, 1995; Lippel and Demers 1996; Bäckström,
1997). Women may have more difficulty in accessing compensation for
their injuries because of discriminatory effects of seemingly neutral
criteria (Lippel, 1999, 2003). In many countries, claims for workers'
compensation benefits for psychological problems or musculoskeletal
disorders (more common among women) are sometimes excluded
from the purview of the law or subjected to greater scrutiny than claims
for injury attributable to a work accident (more common among men).
This means that systemic discrimination may be at work even if the
legislation appears to be gender neutral. When prevention priorities
are determined by compensation costs, women are then less likely to
benefit from protective legislation (Messing and Boutin, 1997).
Policy analysis should also take into account gender differences
in precarious and non-standard employment. Specific health risks
are associated with specific types of precarious or contingent work
5
(Quinlan et al., 2001). Home-based work (Bernstein et al., 2001)
presents very different challenges to those presented by temporary
or part-time work (Butler et al., 1998). Sex distribution of workers in
Women may have
more difficulty in
accessing
compensation for
their injuries
because of
discriminatory
effects of seemingly
neutral criteria
5 Precarious employment is defined by Quinlan and others as jobs that do not correspond to the norm of fulltime,
relatively secure employment performed at the employer's place of business during a specified time, usually during
the day.