Integration of sex and gender in interventions by students in ergonomics

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the integration of sex and gender (s/g) by ergonomics students during their internship at the master’s degree level, following training sessions on s/g issues in the workplace. This exploratory research used a descriptive mixed-methods design, encompassing evaluation of students’ intention to use the content from the training (n = 13 students), and a multiple case study (n = 5 ergonomics interventions). The results show that while students found the training relevant, they only minimally integrated s/g in their interventions and when they did, it was primarily from an anthropometric and physiological perspective. In addition to discussing the training format limitations, the article discusses barriers to this integration: combining learning about s/g issues with learning about activity analysis is challenging; employers’ and workers’ organisations may be reluctant to approach s/g issues; and it is difficult for an ergonomist to integrate these issues when the employer’s request does not specify it.

Practitioner summary: This article aims to analyse the integration of s/g by ergonomics students during their internships. Findings show that they only minimally considered s/g. The discussion examines s/g training, organisational obstacles to inclusion of s/g during interventions, and how ergonomists can consider s/g in their practice.

Keywords:

• Ergonomics intervention
• training
• sex and gender integration
• obstacles to s/g integration

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to warmly thank the entire ‘GESTE for knowledge translation’ team, several of whose members generously participated in the interviews that led to the results. A special thanks to Véronique Poupart-Monette for the revision process at the very end. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their great suggestions.

Notes

1 French acronym for “Gender, Environment, Health, Work and Equity”

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)/Institute of gender and Health [#IGK 153464]. The preliminary results of this study were first presented at the 2021 conference of the International Ergonomics Association held in Vancouver (virtually), Canada, with financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [Connexion initiative # 611-2021-].