Women in Safety

President and Owner of Safety PACE, LLC

vpppa.org.

Women in Safety have seen a dramatic change from the past roles of women, where women are now, and what the future has in store for females in the Occupational Safety and Health industry. My personal experience includes working in the mining and tunneling industries along with heavy construction, nuclear remediation, and environmental permitting. For the first five years of my career (early 90s) I was the only woman on the jobsite—other than administrative assistants. I was often misplaced as a secretary.

Finding a woman doing safety 50 years ago was almost unheard of. However, women played a pivotal role in formulating the laws and regulations that are still in place today. My career experience is quite varied and has shaped the way I mentor and teach new safety and health professionals entering the workforce. During the last few years with the trend of working remotely, the impact of women in safety has improved. Women are more appreciated to greater extent for what they provide on a technical and programmatic basis. The playing field has equalized very quickly through telework where “people” are the asset, regardless of gender.

Many safety professionals are aware that President Richard Nixon signed into law the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, which gave the Federal Government the authority to set and enforce safety and health standards for most of the country’s workers. This act was the result of a hard fought legislative battle which began in 1968 when President Lyndon Johnson unsuccessfully sought a similar measure. However, the roots of government regulation of workplace hazards dates back to the late 19th century.

Laying the groundwork for this act were strong and tenacious women who worked tirelessly to improve the working conditions for Americans. Dr. Alice Hamilton (now considered the founder of industrial medicine in America) met U.S. Commissioner of Labor Charles Neill at the 1910 European conference on occupational accidents and diseases. At only the beginning of her career, Hamilton was already pioneering investigations as director of the Illinois Occupational Disease Commission. Neill invited her to work as a special investigator for the Bureau of Labor. She accepted, and until 1921, traveled around the country visiting lead smelters, storage battery plants, and other hazardous workplaces. In

1911, she published a study of the white lead industry that was the first of a series of Bureau of Labor reports known as the “Federal Survey.” She found many examples of deplorable conditions and gross neglect.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor and the first female Cabinet member. She brought to the Labor Department extensive experience in occupational safety and health with the State of New York. To help assure that workplaces would be safe by applying science and technology, Perkins created a Bureau of Labor Standards in 1934 initiating the platform for those interested in job safety and health. This was the first permanent Federal agency established primarily to promote safety and health for the entire workforce. The Bureau helped state governments improve their administration of job safety and health laws and raise the level of their protective legislation.

My personal history started in the early nineties graduating from Indiana State University with a degree in Safety Management and Industrial Hygiene. My education journey started with medicine as my chosen field of study. By chance, pre-med students were a part of the School of Health and Human Services, which also included individuals choosing a career in Occupational Safety and Health. I was approached by professors who convinced me to change my career to Safety and Health for the protection of our nation’s workers. It was an emerging field with very few women. I was usually the only female in my classes, which was both exciting and a learning experience that I carried with me to the workplace.

My first job was on a very large construction and tunneling project in Texas. Of the hundreds of employees, I was one of three women on this project that held technical positions. I was young, inexperienced, and female—a difficult combination. I had to remain professional and technically competent in face of discrimination by the very seasoned workers and management personnel who were all men. I was often seen as “bad luck” when underground with the miners. Women were seen as a risk, as opposed to providing ways to protect the workers. This theme lasted for 20 years into my career, where at each new job, I had something to prove.

As more women entered the workforce, so did the number of women safety and health professionals. Women were hired because of their skill set and technical expertise. However, the bias between men and women continues to exist. Females still had to demonstrate their abilities as opposed to the men who were seen as professionals upon stepping onto the jobsite. This applied to me as well.

I became a Safety and Health Program Manager after 20 years of working in the field. I had men and women working for me with safety and health professionals both in the office and the field. I had the opportunity to mentor and teach the new female professionals what I learned and how to navigate the opinions and bias that still existed. I worked with six very talented and intelligent women just coming out of college. I provided the lessons that I learned and methods I used to be the advocate for the workers while maintaining a professional posture. Women were gaining acceptance but still were not afforded those high-level management roles.

I recognized that I could change the dynamic by starting my own Environmental, Safety, and Health company, which I did in 2019. I took the lead from others who encouraged me to use my specific talents and experience to take charge and ownership of my career. I reached out to my trusted mentors (both men and women) to navigate the next steps for me and my company. The results were both positive and career affirming. I noticed that I was being viewed as a professional and not a female.

Women currently have more opportunities and options in the workplace. Women-owned businesses are on the rise in the Safety and Health field and provide a necessary perspective in the protection of our workers. Women are applying the talents and skills that are unique to women offering an empathetic perspective to worker protection. That nurturing perspective is being accepted and welcomed by the workers; translating to workers looking out for themselves and each other. This is the basis for the Voluntary Protection Program.

The pandemic has changed the way we work and support the workers who we are committed to protect. Meetings are conducted virtually where individuals are identified as a name as opposed to a gender. Products are evaluated based upon technical expertise, minimizing the gender role. Telework has contributed to leveling the playing field for all professionals allowing the talents of the individuals to be recognized.

Many companies are recognizing that a hybrid path forward (telework/field work) to support a work/ life balance is needed to keep their professionals engaged. Women have been doing this for years. This opens the door for additional women to put their talents to use and enter the workforce. This could also allow women to be in roles that were traditionally held by men, and for the equal alignment of the compensation for men and women working the same job.

Women are making a mark in the Safety and Health profession and the future shows optimism for that trend to continue. The best outcome is to talk about how safety and health professionals are protecting our workers each day where the gender of the professionals is not considered. The objective is to protect the nation’s workers to the best of our ability using technology, science, and innovations. Ours is a noble profession, inclusive and passionate, where women and men are making the workplace safer while inspiring those we protect to join in our pursuits.

Stacy Thursby has 30 years of experience in Environmental, Safety, and Health with emphasis in Occupational and Construction Safety, Environmental Permitting, Nuclear Clean-up and Remediation, and Mining and Tunneling Operations working with the Department of Energy and private industry. Specialty areas include VPP, Safety Systems, Industrial Hygiene, and Occupational Medical Reporting.