Gender and maternity considerations and techniques in occupational health services: The Spanish case

Abstract

This qualitative paper shows the lack of gender considerations that the Spanish prevention service tech- nicians demonstrate in their evaluations, namely, in the maternity or breast-f eeding states of female employees. Likewise, it offers courses of action for the improvement of the activity developed by these services with the aim of improvin g the preventive practices and, therefore, the work safety and health of vulnerable groups, as is the case of women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. It is framed within the processes of qua litative research based on a questionnaire sent to occupational health technicians. This paper is innovative because this gender app roach has not been studied empirically. It also makes relevant findings to consider in future developments or organizational policy regarding occupa tional risks assessment.