Abstract
A gender analysis of workers injured while commuting in Spain is presented, distinguishing between injury due to traffic-related accidents and injury due to other causes. Method. A total of 266,646 traffic-related injuries and 168,129 nontraffic-related injuries are studied over the period 2006–2010. Results. In Spain, the accident rate recorded in working hours is much higher among men; nevertheless, it is curious that commuting-related accident rates are higher among women than men, in both traffic-related injuries and nontraffic-related injuries. The study of the frequency distribution confirmed that many more injuries occurred in Spain while commuting to work rather than from work and that women suffered twice as many injuries as men at nine in the morning. Musculoskeletal disorders are the only injuries that registered a higher number of cases among women and falls to the same level are the most relevant cause among women. Conclusions. The analysis of these and more findings established that a great effort should go into the promotion of preventive measures in favour of women workers. These results may encourage companies to modify their accident prevention plans, so as to increase their effectiveness in the struggle against occupational accidents following the five points described in this article.
Highlights
In the European Union, the number of women employees has been increasing, following a trend that is moving towards equality with men
It appears to confirm a horizontal segregation by gender, as for every 100 workers in the construction sector, 11.6 are women and, in contrast, for every 100 workers in the services sector, 54.1 are women
Improvements to workplace organization and the moderation of physical effort in jobs mean that women are occupying jobs that were traditionally occupied by men [9], significant horizontal segregation persists as shown by their significantly lower representation that continues in jobs such as construction, mining, the wood industry, and the iron and steel industry [11, 37]
Summary
In the European Union, the number of women employees has been increasing, following a trend that is moving towards equality with men. In Spain, it is moving towards greater equality, such that, in 2008, the average working population among women increased by 2.0%, while it fell among men by 2.2% [2]. In 2011, a drop in the working population took place in both groups, that reduction was greater among men (−2.9%) than among women (−0.7%) [3]. These trends have prompted one of the most extensive debates currently underway in the scientific literature: to establish whether gender is a risk factor in occupational accident rates. Do men suffer more injuries at work than women or do women have more injuries? Various studies on heavy industry in the USA [4] and in the health sector of the Canadian province of British Columbia [5] have arrived at the conclusion that it is women who have a greater probability of suffering occupational injuries
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