EHS – Occupational Safety Officer – Health Safety Officer – Safety officer : A field that ‘was’ completely
male dominant field with relatively less or even no woman working in the field.
Have we ever wondered at the first instance, why women were not considered for this field, initially?
When women were the ‘home-makers’ where they took care of ‘fire – safety’ while cooking, ‘road
safety’ while taking their children to the school, ‘ergonomics’ while they correct the posture of the
“working” husband and kids, ‘Health safety’ while feeding the family..?
When the home maker woman
considers the safety of her family members as her priority in all possible ways, why was a woman not
considered fit for a “Health Safety Officer”?
As difficult as it is for the society to visualize a male for a nurse, it is for visualizing a female officer for
construction safety or biosafety or as a whole, Industrial safety.
Of recent, a woman is not considered a rare face in the (mid)leadership of safety. Looking at the
improvements, one can confidentially say that the percent of women working in safety field has
tremendously increased from then to now.
Way back in 1986, when one of the first females – Abrams
was joining the field, she was taken aback by the statement that she would be terminated from the work
if she gets pregnant. One may see a woman as safety managers, safety directors, very rarely vice
president within a larger corporate safety program. Don’t you think this needs to change ? Don’t you
think we need to Recognize women who are qualified for these positions? Don’t you think we must not
discount them because of their gender?
Why don’t we break the gender stereotype in professions?
