Women who work in construction need period dignity too Women we heard from say the lack of clean toilets, the supply of sanitary bins and shower facilities is a big issue

Unite is launching a campaign to call for period dignity in construction because we know women’s most basic needs in this area are not being met.

We recently surveyed more than 2,000 women working across the construction industry about their experiences. Many of them described a lack of facilities which affected them when they were on their periods.

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The majority of women (65 per cent) said their employer had failed to make adjustments to accommodate their needs as women workers. A recurrent issue was the lack of clean toilets, the supply of sanitary bins and shower facilities.

Locked or used for storage

One woman described her frustration at trying to use a toilet on a construction site: “Toilets for women are a basic requirement but are usually locked. You have to get the key from someone so by the time you find the person (who is usually male) with the key and after asking several other people (who are also usually male), half the site know you want to use a loo. Then when you open the door, is usually being used for storage.”

‘For period dignity to be achieved, women construction workers need to be able to access free products’

This is not good enough and needs to be urgently addressed. With ever-growing skills shortages in our industry, it is absolutely essential that construction becomes more attractive to women workers. A small step in achieving this is to ensure that women construction workers can have period dignity at work.

Our campaign also revolves around period poverty because we know some workers are struggling to pay for sanitary products, such as those on apprenticeships or in other low paid roles. For period dignity to be achieved, women construction workers need to be able to access free products.

Four policies which can achieve this

We are asking construction companies to sign up to four simple policies to achieve period dignity. These are:

1. Designated female toilets, always accessible, regularly cleaned and lockable

2. Handwashing facilities with running water and soap provided

3. Sanitary bins provided which are clean and regularly emptied

4. Sanitary products provided in a dispenser in a discreet location and ideally free.

Implementing these simple four steps will make a significant improvement to the lives of women construction workers. The industry needs to be more accommodating so in future surveys, we don’t receive more comments like these:

“There are female toilets available but generally the ones on site are unisex portaloos. These are usually disgusting.” “I have to keep my sanitary products in my toolbox because there are no machines in the toilets. I have been told to keep them in a drawer – but I don’t work in office.” “Asked for sanitary bins, got ignored. If a woman says anything they don’t like, they put it down to PMT.”

Women already face sexism in a perceived male-dominated industry. With construction facing ever-growing skills shortages, excluding half the population means the industry is trying to tackle the issue with one arm tied behind its back. Employers who step up to the mark and do what is right have a far greater chance of retaining and attracting a skilled workforce.

Gail Cartmail is an assistant general secretary at Unite