Improving PPE for women
“In the early months of the pandemic, I had a front-row seat to the situation of nurses in the US, most of whom are women. I worked with National Nurses United, the biggest and most radical nurses’ union, and interviewed many nurses working on the frontline. I watched as for months they worked gruelling 12-hour shifts filled with agonising choices and trauma, acting as midwives to death. On their short lunch breaks, they had to protest over their own lack of personal protective equipment, which put them in even greater danger. In the same way that no one thought what it would mean to lock women and children in houses with abusers, no one thought what it would be like to send nurses into an extremely contagious pandemic without proper PPE. In some US hospitals, nurses were wearing garbage bags instead of gowns, and reusing single-use masks many times. They were being forced to stay on the job even if they had fevers.”
In response to the challenges faced by women health workers on the front lines of COVID-19, Women in Global Health is launching a survey to assess the availability and fit of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for women and document gender specific challenges around use. This survey will collect experiences from women as well as solicit recommendations on how to improve PPE to meet their needs. The findings will be synthesised into a report for advocacy at the UN General Assembly and beyond.
Working with partners including Women@TheTable, building on the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s ‘Gender-responsive Standards Declaration’, and under the umbrella of Gender Equal Health and Care Workforce Initiative, this survey is part of a wider project on gender equity and medical PPE.
Complete the survey here by Friday 16 July 2021.
Quote source: V (formerly Eve Ensler), 'Disaster patriarchy: how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women,' The Guardian, 1 June 2021