Historically, as women enter professions, they have seen a reduction in both pay and prestige. This has been the case across the spectrum and is now being repeated in the attention to their mental health has received.
While the gender pay gap is well known, the gender PTSD and workplace stress gap is less so.
Work done by women is invaluable and we need to start acting like it!
[Transcript]
What do child care providers, nurses and teachers have in common? If you said they were typically occupations that employed women, you would be correct. If you said they’d been historically undervalued because of this fact, you would be correct. And if you said that they are three of the jobs with the highest levels of workplace stress and levels of mental health issues, you would be correct.
In Canada, 95 percent of nurses are women. These numbers increase when you consider the particular types of nurses that deal with society’s most vulnerable population: children, the elderly and those with mental illness. Sixty-eight percent of teachers in Canada are women, while 84 percent of elementary school teachers are women, and 94 percent of early childhood educators are women.
Women are trusted to take on the job of ensuring that the minds and bodies of young and vulnerable Canadians are taken care of, but who is ensuring that nurses and teachers in B.C. are shared the same courtesy? Studies have shown that teachers and nurses are tied for first place in levels of harmful workplace stress.
In Manitoba, 52 percent of nurses report experiencing physical assault, and at least 30 percent to 40 percent exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s possible this number is higher, because not only is PTSD misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression but symptoms are often based on men with PTSD, which can differ from those experienced by women.
Historically, as women enter professions, they’ve seen a reduction in both pay and prestige. This has been the case with both nurses and teachers and is repeated in the attention to how their mental health is received. While the gender pay gap is well known, the gender PTSD and workplace stress gap is less so.
Work done by women is invaluable, and we need to start acting like it. Thank you, Kayla.
A coworker was assaulted by another in my workplace. The assaulted coworker left the job, never to return; the assaulter was convicted in court, returned to work, had concessions and accommodations. The assaulted coworker’s Worksafe claim was denied. She has never been able to achieve any fairness or treatment for the harassment she suffered, and the workplace remained toxic, with other workers leaving when the assaulter began to harass others. When I left I did not even bother with a Worksafe claim, because I knew I didn’t have a chance. Every worker in that workplace knows the union isn’t interested in defending them for workplace harassment. Every worker there works while injured because their managers have forced them to do so under threat of job loss. There is a union there and it is a post secondary institution where all coworkers at the lowest levels know that their jobs are always on the chopping block and that they have no protection. People in these jobs are 90% women. The single mothers don’t dare ever speak up for their rights or they will end up like me–unemployed and almost homeless with two kids. Yes, women are treated very badly in the workplace, even in the unionized workplaces. And I get zero treatment for PTSD. Try this therapy suggested to me: Get over it and get a job.