WORK: A Journal of Prevention,Assessment & Rehabilitation

An understanding of what work means to women is provided with an overview of history; a review of unpaid work, including child care, parental care, and volunteerism; and the current status of women and work. Women's leadership style emphasizing team building, empowerment, and a consensus model is described. The need for validation of the multiple roles women play in society and for espousing balance in their lives is encouraged. Finally, strategies for eliminating bias are offered.

The majority of jobs available to personnel entering the U.S. military services are physically demanding. Soldiers must maintain high levels of physical fitness to optimally perform their duties. High fitness levels are of particular importance to women in the military. Only strong, physically competent women will be fully successful in performing the physically demanding tasks of many occupational specialties. This paper describes the research that has been conducted to compare the physical fitness, physical training, and occupational performance of women and men in the U.S. Army.

An increasing number of opportunities are available for women in nontraditional, blue-collar work. However, for many women the lack of job skills, poor work conditions, differential treatment, shift work, and heavy physical labor deter them from entering or remaining in such jobs. This case study attempted to uncover workplace issues, the socialization process, and adaptive strategies for a female steel worker. Her strategies for survival included hard work, high work standards, “courteous but cool” relationships with coworkers, “standing up” for herself, and good friends or support systems.

In 1986 employees of a private rehabilitation service (n = 22) participated in a career development workshop given by the senior author. They completed the Life Roles Inventory (Fitzsimmons, Macnab, and Casserly, 1986), the Strong Vocational Interest Inventory (Strong, Campbell, and Hansen, 1981), and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, England, et al., 1967). Participants documented the characteristics of their “ideal job” and the positive and negative aspects of their present positions. The results of this evaluation, along with their career path, were then reviewed with each participant on an individual basis. Economic factors later led to closure of the organization, and the employees were forced to find alternative employment. In 1990 the original participants agreed to participate in a follow-up study where they completed the same inventories and interview process. Results of this comparison indicated that in 1986 these individuals scored lower than the normative sample on the Life Roles Inventory Values Scales of Advancement, Aesthetics, Economics, and Working Conditions; in 1990 they only scored lower on Advancement. In addition, intrinsic satisfaction levels did not change substantially in 1990, but the level of extrinsic satisfaction was significantly lower.

Women's role has developed and changed dramatically in the last twenty years. Women now are prevalent in the work force and assuming work tasks not in their traditional pattern. Society and work injury managers are beginning to come to terms with women as a gender (different from men), women's specific strengths and weaknesses, and female oriented work injury problems. Science and logic blend to produce a clearer picture of women's physical parameters related to work.

To provide the highest quality treatment to mature female clients, all aspects of the clients' roles, occupations, and health standards must be understood. By focusing on societal and cultural constructs and their deleterious effects on modern women, occupational therapists are better able to assess the obstacles to full functioning at home and in the workplace. There are many obstacles to women gaining full satisfaction from work and social roles, including legal restraints, inaccurate health standards, and destructive societal value systems. Progress and proper therapy can be realized by reviewing recent research in women's psychology and using the unique strengths of the occupational therapy profession.

In this nonexperimental study, videofilmed, self-selected housework activities of rheumatic women were analyzed. The women gripped and manipulated objects in their homes. The activities were analyzed under the headings Activity, Actions, Objects, and Grip. The films were viewed frame by frame, and the data was computerized for statistical analysis. The women performed five self-selected housework activities and eight groups of actions (n = 340). During the actions the women handled 12 groups of objects using the eight grip classes of Sollerman's grip classification. The diagonal volar grip was the most common grip (20%), and the tripoid pinch was the least common (0.29%); 34% of the actions were right-handed, 19% left-handed, and 47% bimanual. No clear grip pattern was revealed by the activity analysis.

Clients with orthopedic and soft-tissue injuries (n = 53) who were settling insurance claims or currently in litigation were assessed using the Values Scales, Salience Inventory, measures of perceived exertion, physical capacity, and functional ability, and a structured interview, the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire. Participation in major life roles was compromised following injury. Role value scores for working and home/family roles also changed, but commitment to these roles did not. Women in this sample (n = 27) experienced disruptions in their social networks that were likely related to the compromise or loss of their working role.

Fourteen patients with osteoarthritis of the hand participated in an occupational therapy workshop group. Pre- and post-workshop grip strength and activities of daily living, with and without adaptive equipment were measured.