Narrowing the welding PPE gap for women in fabrication

Despite recent improvements, PPE manufacturers, distributors, and employers have a ways to go to eliminate one of the largest barriers for women welders: accessibility to properly fitting PPE. hobo_018/E+/GettyImages

Have you ever worn gloves, fire-resistant clothing, or other welding personal protective equipment (PPE) that didn’t fit you properly, putting you at risk of injury or unsatisfactory work performance? Many women in welding will say they have.

“I have been injured multiple times from products not fitting me right. From safety vests catching on a door handle to oversized shoes that made it difficult to walk through the mud and caused me to trip,” said Amy Roosa, founder of social media initiative The Safety Rack. “This is the experience of the majority of women in the workforce.”

Women make up only about 5% of the welding workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is growing, though, as is the number of companies and businesses catering to these skilled professionals. While improvements have been made to make women welders safe on the job, PPE manufacturers, distributors, and employers have a long way to go to eliminate one of the largest barriers for women welders: properly fitting PPE.

“It is hard working in male-populated industries. We don’t need to call more attention to ourselves with PPE,” said Melanie Adams, founder of Embher, a flame-resistant clothing company for women.

The Welder spoke with Adams, Roosa, and Diane Butchart, director of business development for Airgas Safety, about PPE for women welders and other skilled professionals, the risks women face when wearing ill-fitting equipment, how some businesses are creating PPE products specifically for women, and the recent developments being made to narrow this particular gap.

Melanie Adams

TW: When did you decide to start your own workwear business?

MA: I had this idea for a really long time. I was laid off by my company in 2019; I spent 18 years working at the company. At that point, I decided it was time for me to do something different and for me to solve this problem. I still knew after all those years that nobody was doing this. While there are some products in the market, they’re still not adequate for what women are looking for. There was just a big gap in the market that I knew existed and that it was up to me to solve.

I have been working on it for the last three years and really getting it right. I took a patternmaking class so that I could understand how to make the garment really comfy. I took a 3D design software course, an online class that really helped me understand how to make these garments. We scoured the world for the most comfortable fabric and we’re really proud of what we have in the market today.

TW: What PPE options does Embher offer?

MA: I call it the “Embher ensemble.” It includes a long-sleeve shirt; it’s been really popular because it’s super soft. One of the hardest things to achieve with flame-resistant fabric is getting it soft. We have a soft, comfortable knit shirt. The pants have a very comfortable elastic waistband that stays up when you’re moving and twisting and bending. And then we have our vest, which has a lot of pockets—a utility vest.

Some workwear manufacturers have taken into account the differences in men’s and women’s bodies to make comfortable fire-resistant clothing for women. Melanie Adams

TW: Who is purchasing these products?

MA: I have a lot of energy companies, a lot of oil and gas. I do have a handful of welders that are using it. There are utility companies that are interested, as well as mining and rail. We have a high-visibility vest that has striping.

We are outfitting all the way to the top. We’ve outfitted board of directors, executive VPs, some board members, as well as the everyday workers.

TW: You won a $10,000 grant from M&M’s “Flipping the Status Quo” program. What other grant opportunities are available for this type of business endeavor?

MA: It's a unique, niche market. Unless you work in industry, you don’t know what flame-resistant clothing is and why it’s necessary. That award I won ... it recognized people that were going outside the norm and looking for innovative things. The market is filled with a bunch of products that aren’t quite adequate for women.

There are several grants out there for women entrepreneurs. Women are starting businesses at a higher rate than men, but the funding options are still not as plentiful. Women are getting funded at way less rates than male entrepreneurs.

Amy Roosa

TW: How would you describe The Safety Rack?

AR: The idea is to provide a platform where we talk about the brands that are out there for women and how they work in the field.

The reason for [videos] is they’re quick, concise, and show the products on the female body and how it works over a set amount of time, whether it’s weeks, months, or years.

The other part you don’t get to see on social media channels but will eventually see via a website is the advocacy work to bring awareness to the industry about these gaps.

Several female-owned companies have taken it upon themselves to address the lack of properly fitting PPE available to women in skilled trades, like welding. Amy Roosa

TW: How do you decide what brands and products to test? Is it through recommendations or word of mouth?

AR: It's a lot of research. Either buying a product or something given to us. We research it to see if it truly is designed for a female and not unisex. And then once we find out about it, whether through word of mouth or research or people reaching out, we’ll test it and then we’ll share it.

We only share the stuff that works. We don’t talk about the negative stuff; I want to keep it positive. Eventually we’ll talk about stuff that doesn’t work, but for now I want to talk about stuff that works.

TW: What have you learned so far by doing this?

AR: There's a lot more brands out there that people aren’t aware of. There's a lot of female-owned companies that are developing their own products out of their own frustration. A lot of smaller businesses produce these lines but it’s not getting out there. And it’s not getting out there because there’s a barrier between the manufacturer and distributor and another [barrier] between the distributor and employer.

The manufacturer has a product, they go to the distributor, but the distributor tells them it doesn’t have a need for this. I know several manufacturers that have run into this problem. But then the distributors send their people out to talk to construction and manufacturing [PPE providers] out there and they don’t bring up women's product lines. So when the employer goes out to purchase, they just purchase what they already know they can get.

TW: What are the risks for women who wear ill-fitting PPE?

AR: If I wear something that’s oversized for me that doesn’t hug my body, I'm constantly adjusting it throughout the day. Let's use welding gloves as an example. If a glove is too big for my hand, I can’t adequately grip it for work. And now I'm at risk for having an accident or at risk of taking the glove off and exposing myself. Or even worse, because I’m wearing the glove that doesn’t fit, the extra force I’m putting on my hand is actually going to hurt me in the long term and create more issues for me.

If it’s an oversized jacket or safety vest, I could get it caught on something and now I'm more vulnerable at work. And now I'm also putting my fellow employees at risk.

But there's also a psychological safety component to it. If my employer is just handing me men's clothing and calling it good, do I feel like my employer values me?

Experts said ill-fitting PPE can increase the risk of injury—minor and major—resulting in a less productive work environment for everyone. RichLegg/E+/GettyImages

Diane Butchart

TW: You've been working in safety—including welding safety—for a number of years. How has welding PPE for women changed and evolved in that time?

DB: Safety is a priority at Airgas, first and foremost. We aim to promote safety to all company associates and to our customers. When it comes to PPE—the first P being personal—fit, form, and comfort play into keeping workers safe. And by listening to our customers, we’re hearing more and more people asking about proper-fitting PPE for women. We recognize there is an unmet, growing need for PPE that properly fits and is designed to fit a woman’s body.

Specifically related to welding, we’ve taken a special focus because we really felt this was where some of the biggest gaps are, especially when it comes to gloves. To address the overall needs, we developed an Airgas team made up of a very broad group of people who could bring feedback and ideas together to be able to say, “How do we create something that can bring this to the forefront for us and have us focus on getting a proper representation of PPE designed based on the feedback?”

TW: What kind of feedback have you received from end users?

DB: We conducted a survey of some of our customers and some of our female Airgas associates. Of the three areas of feedback we predominantly saw, one was about improving size and fit—to take the differences between the men's and women's bodies into consideration and not just provide a smaller size of men’s PPE for women. The second thing was about selection and purchase options—not only to find the right products, but we also need to make them available with minimal lead times to be delivered. It's one thing to have the right product, but then to also have the manufacturers produce it and then make sure we have it stocked and readily available.

The last piece of feedback is about improving the design of PPE. One of the terms we heard is that women don’t want us to “shrink it and pink it.” Don't make the color pretty pink; just make sure it takes into account the differences in the body parts—the tapered waist, the smaller hands, all of the different things that make up the differences—so that it keeps female workers just as safe and productive as their male counterparts. Because having ill-fitting PPE can make workers less productive.

TW: What PPE products will Airgas make available for women welders?

DB: We created a women's collection on airgas.com based on what’s available from our manufacturers. A lot of manufacturers are putting some focus on different industries.

Welding is one industry with PPE options—welding gloves and jackets—but not very many options specifically for women. For welding, we want to focus on flame-resistant clothing and getting the gloves right. When I first put on a standard glove, especially a welding glove, I could take and bend the fingertips over because they’re so long. One of the things we found in our research and working with one of our manufacturers is that the thumbs and pinkies tend to be way too long for women [on gloves]. And our hands are narrower in width. We really want to focus on getting the fit right. We feel that there's a lot of work to do, so we're working diligently to build up that collection.

TW: Agencies like OSHA have made an effort to clarify PPE requirements for workers. This includes language on properly fitting PPE that seems to address concerns raised about women in industry. What are some of these developments?

DB: The general industry standard (1910.132) states that an employer has to do an assessment to understand hazards. If they can’t engineer them out or eliminate the hazards altogether, they need to provide the PPE. While it does state the PPE needs to fit properly, it doesn’t specifically address women.

In July, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a proposed rule to have the construction, general, and maritime industries standards align. The construction industry didn’t specifically call out that the PPE sizing must fit each affected employee properly, which OSHA’s general industry and maritime standards do. What the Department of Labor wanted to do was create uniformity between all three industries to make sure they all are addressing the PPE needs.

Another thing that happened was the American Society of Safety Professionals recently released a technical report. In the report, they commented on the disconnect between the design and fit of PPE between men and women. They called out that 10% of the construction workforce is women, 30% of the manufacturing workforce is women, and those numbers continue to grow. They recognize that as women continue to enter these industries, they really need to address the sizing and proper fit of PPE.