The Invisible Evils: The Repercussions of Work on Women’s Health

“The repercussions of work on women’s health are still largely unknown and minimized. » This is the finding of the new report of the Senate published Wednesday, June 28, produced by the delegation for women’s rights.

Title “Health of women at work: invisible evils”, this 100-page document highlights the insufficient recognition of the professional risks that affect employees in the exercise of their profession (physical and mental wear and tear, musculoskeletal disorders, cancers, etc.). Consequently, the health of women at work remains an unthought of public policy, particularly in terms of prevention.

Women, the first victims of musculoskeletal disorders

The first conclusion of the report concerns the lack of gender data in occupational health. According to Annick Jacquemet, Centrist Union senator and co-rapporteur, “this supposed neutrality leads to a focus on the average man, the male worker” and excludes, in fact, the specificities affecting women.

Moreover, the latter are often put aside because of a double segregation by profession and by task: they hold positions and/or carry out tasks that are a priori less risky than men. They are therefore “mainly exposed to invisible and silent risks” and therefore underestimated.

Lack of recognition of professional wear and tear

However, the impacts of work on their health are very tangible: 60% of people with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in France are women. In addition, there are on average three times more reports of psychological suffering in women than in men.

The report also points to the lack of recognition of professional wear and tear in highly feminized trades. This is particularly the case for care or cleaning professions, where 80% of employees are women and where there is a strong presence of hardship (carrying heavy loads, atypical hours, “strong emotional and organizational demands”).

Lifting the taboos of women’s health

The study also focused on returning to the specificities of women’s sexual health, which are insufficiently taken into account or even considered taboo in the business world. « To be a woman is to have periods, one or more pregnancies, perhaps miscarriages, or even menopause, adds Laurence Rossignol, PS senator and co-rapporteur. With the exception of maternity, these specifically female conditions are not taken into account in public occupational health policies, even though they have direct consequences on the professional life of women. »

The report recalls, for example, that 10% of women of childbearing age (ie 1.5 to 2 million women in France) are affected by endometriosis. The delegation calls for the addition of this chronic illness, which often causes painful and incapacitating menstruation, to long-term conditions in order to “eliminate the waiting period and therefore the financial losses in the event of repeated work stoppages”.

The issue of menstrual leave

As for menstrual leave, which provides for this lifting of waiting days for all women suffering from menstrual pain with a medical prescription, the report does not retain a proposal due to the lack of unanimity on the subject.

«The divisive question is whether this would be an additional factor of discrimination against women in companies”explains Senator Laurence Rossignol, who says she is personally in favor of it: « LThe women gritted their teeth a lot. Yet inequalities persist. We have to try something else and stop hiding. »