ABSTRACT
A gender perspective on regulatory interventions in OHS requires not only a discussion of the regulation of women’s work over the last century, but also reflection on gendered regulatory choices. Historically, the idea that men’s health was less worthy of state protection than that of women was as much a result of gendered policymaking as was protectionist regulation limiting women’s access to jobs perceived as dangerous. Today, some issues forgotten by regulators disproportionately affect women workers. This chapter begins with thoughts on gender differences in OHS regulation and then examines, through a gender lens, occupational health hazards associated with women’s work and the regulatory effectiveness of current frameworks. It concludes with illustrations of ways in which the basic principles of Safety or Profit? (Nichols and Armstrong, 1973) play out when applied to women workers in the “modern” workplace.
