Women’s occupational health and safety management: An issue for corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This study measures the extent to which the gender perspective is taken into account in Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) management and proposes an innovative approach for managing it. This work is an exploratory study of the relations between women´s OHS and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the examination of the main management practices that literature supports in a survey conducted at 117 companies in Spain with different levels of commitment to gender equality. Overall, the practices in question are found to be deployed to a moderate extent and their impact is limited. The most relevant initiatives are those related to the prevention, punishment and eradication of sexual harassment in the workplace and violence against women. Our findings indicate that compliance with the law and the importance of external recognition in CSR are main drivers in promoting the gender perspective in OHS. A coherent framework is suggested for addressing women’s OHS management based on a voluntary, preventive, systematic approach that goes beyond sexual and reproductive issues, namely the CSR.