Stressors and Adverse Outcomes for Female Construction Workers

The authors examined the impact of a number of job stressors, including sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination, on female construction workers' level of job satisfaction and psychological and physical health. Results from a telephone survey with 211 female laborers indicated that having responsibility for others' safety and having support from supervisors and male eoworkers was related to greater job satisfaction. Increased reported psychological symptoms were also related to increased responsibility, as well as skill nndemtilization, experiencing sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination from supervisors and coworkers, and having to overcompensate at work. Perceptions of overcompensation at work and job uncertainty were positively associated with self-reports of insomnia. Finally, sexual harassment and gender discrimination were positively related to reports of increased nausea and headaches. Even though work-related injury rates in the construction industry have been declining, they are still 50% higher than the average for all private industry (Center to Protect Workers' Rights, 1997). Given the risks associated with working in construction, it is somewhat surprising that in comparison with other occupations, there is less published research looking at the health and safety of construction workers, particularly in the area of job stress and related health and safety outcomes. More to the point for the research reported in this article, the literature published has not looked at job stress and adverse outcomes for female construction workers. This, however, is not surprising given the relatively small amount of overall research attention paid to, and insufficient data on, job stress among women working in nontraditional occupations (Keita & Hurrell,