Implementing Safety and Health Regulations for Women in the Workplace

The acronym OSHA was introduced to the American public in December of 1970, bringing with it, for the first time, uniform safety and health protection for the worker in the occupational environment. Nearly seven years later, concerned students and faculty members at Smith College held a special conference to discuss the impact of this legislation on women. In a relatively short period of time, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 has managed to challenge the advances won by women's rights groups over a long period of time. What was the intent of the Occupational Safety and Health Act? Was the legislation designed to protect or to restrict the worker? To some, the occupational safety and health legislation designed to protect the worker is actually being turned into a vehicle for restricting worker's rights-specifically those of females of childbearing age, working or aspiring to work in nontraditional roles. If societal groups, institutions, labor unions, and other concerned citizens do not monitor existing and potential regulations, great setbacks could occur to all special groups of workers, not only women. Olga Madar, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, made the following statement at the March 1977 OSHA hearings on lead: Industry prefers excluding a group with a problem rather than dealing with it. After the fertile women are removed, who will be next? Blacks who carry the sickle-cell anemia trait in their blood? Older male workers who have the highest probability of heart problems? The list of groups with special susceptibility goes on and on, until a strain of superworkers has been bred.' Currently, three federal regulatory agencies directly impact upon the issue of discrimination against women of childbearing age on the basis of reproductive hazards: OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), EPA (Environmental Protection

Business · Environmental health · Occupational safety and health · Political science · Workplace safety · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Medicine · Occupational Health and Safety Research

• Gender, international relations and the case of the ILO

  Open Access•Sandra Whitworth•Review of International Studies•1994

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• The political economy of sexism in industrial health

  Open Access•Marcia Felker, Marcia V Felker•Social Science & Medicine•1982

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