Can you help find a better fit for female PPE?

Forestry England highlights the need for suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) and welfare units for female and non-binary workers.

In 2019, the Forestry Commission, including Forestry England, began a ‘Women in Forestry’ programme to make positive changes for women in our workplaces. A series of focus groups and surveys were carried out over the course of a few months and one common piece of feedback received from the colleagues who took part was a feeling that there was a real lack of suitable, well-fitting and appropriate PPE and welfare facilities for women working in the forestry industry.

One action resulting from the internal programme’s work at the time was to improve access to PPE and welfare facilities. Now, a group from across Forestry England have begun to work together to look at how we can encourage the wider industry to improve female-fit PPE, including that specifically for chainsaw use.

Forestry England survey on PPE

The first stages of this work have completed with an internal survey of PPE wearers allowing Forestry England to take stock of the current need, determine how broad the issue is and get more views and opinions of predominantly female, but also other wearers, of PPE. The survey was open to all those who feel that clothing fit has been an issue for them in the past and recognised that more inclusive PPE could benefit other groups such as trans women, trans men and non-binary people.

• 57% of respondents have encountered difficulties in accessing PPE which fits their body shape properly • Only 50% felt their current chainsawspecific PPE and only 55% of wearers of other PPE felt the items fit ‘quite well’ or ‘very well’ • Sizing of chainsaw trousers were highlighted as a particular issue for female wearers – with waist sizes and leg lengths not being appropriate for many • Many struggle to find appropriate boots and gloves in the smallest sizes • Although ‘female-fit’ chainsaw trousers are now marketed by some brands they are often still not suitable for female body shapes and options continue to be very limited

Share your experience

Forestry England is now calling for more experiences, feedback and opinions from across the wider industry on this topic. Do you or your organisation have similar experiences in struggling to get the correct PPE products for your female staff? Have you already started work on, or made changes, to address this issue? Are you interested in becoming involved in helping to address this issue across the forestry industry? If so, and whatever your individual or corporate experience, Forestry England would love to hear from you.

SURVEY RESPONDENTS

“I want to see a lot more women in this industry feeling comfortable and like they belong. I know it’s only clothing but it’s still a barrier that we have to overcome...among the many others! I feel like it would be an amazing step in the right direction to get some inclusive PPE!”

“I feel like the message, throughout the industry is that women can work with chainsaws but only at a low level. I feel I have fought for well over a decade to be accepted in this industry, but equality will never be possible when the underlying message is that women are not viewed as equal as the PPE is not available unless you wear things which are not suitable.”

“Even looking at (PPE supplier) catalogues women rarely feature in the ‘hard’ work, if they appear at all it’s either with lightweight gardening type machinery… as an industry as a whole, I don’t believe there will ever be equality when the underlying message from those who make PPE etc is that we are not equal and that we are not good enough.”

The FTN editor’s real life experience of chainsawing in oversized PPE, at a product launch event in 2016.

Contact Please email operationsadmin@ forestryengland.uk with ‘Female PPE’ in the title by the end of March 2022