Contenu du sommaire : Tenir au travail

Born from preoccupations of equality and trade union demands in the 1970s, partnerships between universities and trade unions led to training and research on the health of women workers in Quebec. Various themes emerged, including the recognition of particularly difficult and demanding tasks mostly performed by women, conciliation of women's economic needs and their role in biological reproduction, obstacles to integrating and maintaining women in jobs as a whole, as well as the right to compensation for women suffering from work-related lesions. The study of several of those themes obliged researchers in ergonomics and law to reexamine the methods of – and the approaches to – their respective disciplines, trying to help women workers access professional equality while preserving their health.

This article deals with the pertinence of an ergonomic study of economic activity to understand how work-related muscular-skeletal disorders come about, as well as on the strategies that women and men workers develop to deal with pain. After putting the phenomenon in a statistical framework, two cases of research and subsequent action highlight differences in exposition due to a gendered division of labour. The first case concerns men and women in the automotive industry and the second case concerns women in the food and agriculture industry. Taking gender into account in ergonomy sheds new light on work and on physical suffering at work.

The studies in work psychology and ergonomics of the activity hereby presented compare the signs of a transformation of the work organization in public road transport professions. In a first study (in France), the arrival of women to a profession historically performed by men has indirectly led to a different representation of time, between the professional and domestic scope. On the other hand, a Portuguese study suggests that this fact may be parallel to a rather negative destabilization of the management of human labor. In what concerns working time, women seek in a more obvious way an adaptation of work to the activities of their "private" scope. The answer to their request is never direct; it exists occasionally. But its "cost" in terms of health and / or career is often obvious.

Working conditions in the cleaning sector are difficult and constraining. They result from a combination of two factors: deregulations that stem from generalization of subcontracting and part-time work with variable time schedules, which especially effect women workers in the cleaning business. This article offers a number of answers – still rare and emergent – to questions raised by gender inequalities and precarious jobs, produced by the organization of work in this field of activity. Some of these answers can be considered to be collective, for they result from initiatives taken by labour and management in that sector. However, the last experience referred to results from a private and individual initiative, based on management's awareness of particularly difficult working conditions in a cleaning company – and on the fact that they take such awareness into consideration – as well as the difficulties of women workers to conciliate professional and family obligations.

Is there a feminization of the public effected by cannabis consumption in social assistance structures? In 2007, nearly 20% of those drug users encountered in the “consultations for young drug abusers” were women. The article describes the specificities of this female public, highlighting the structural differences with male users, considering socio-demographic factors, as well as currently used practices and motivations to consume. Female users, older on average, include higher proportions of those who spontaneously ask for help to reduce their drug consumption levels. Women welcomed in these assistance structures declare high levels of cannabis consumption, often more intensive than men's and associated with consumption of several illicit substances or of psychotropic medication. Female consumption of cannabis is more motivated by “self-therapy” in an attempt to regulate anguish. In contrast, male users are mostly sent to these structures by the courts. They are usually between 18 and 25 years of age, are socially integrated, and explain their consumption by hedonistic considerations and by a context of sociability.

The Indian information technology industry is popularly believed to be a very hospitable employer for women. It is known for fairly progressive policies intended to include and retain women in its workforce and its strong stand against sex discrimination and harassment. However, in spite of written policies and procedures, cases of sexual harassment do occur and require investigation. This article explores women's experiences of sexual harassment in the Indian information technology industry, juxtaposing these with managerial responses to harassment complaints. Using qualitative research it investigates how cultural ideals of Indian womanhood and prevalent norms of regarding women's behaviour in public spaces can influence management's attitudes to sexual harassment. Moreover, while few women can avoid being re-inscribed into gendered positions or being subjected to one form of gendered hostility or another, women in the management track have very different experiences of harassment from those in non-managerial positions. This difference in experience can influence responses to harassment complaints. The article concludes that while written policies and procedures may constitute a vital step towards creating a conducive work environment for women, they may not always be successful in protecting women from sexual harassment or from mitigating the influence of an andro-centric culture in the management's or recipient's response to sexual harassment.