75% of the UK’s NHS workers are women. But average hospital protective-wear designed for the average man

Staff in my dept are all tested yearly to ensure our ffp3 masks fit. A few female staff always fail. These were good quality masks which are now dangerously low in stock.
We have had the army in my hospital doing fit tests on the staff for various alternative ffp3 masks. Most of the women are failing due to the masks just not fitting our faces. The only men that are failing are those with beards. This means only a small number of staff can work in certain areas ( we're radiographers) so putting those staff at higher risk.

I used to have this problem with scrubs (retired doc). They’re all cut to fit men, so the trousers are straight up and down - they don’t flare out to cover female hips. I had to take a bigger size than my waist required, and pull it all in with the drawstrings- but then the legs were too long and I was tripping up.
At the time, just an inconvenience, but ill fitting PPE can endanger life.

Gloves are available in all sizes though.

My medic pal is considering chopping all her lovely long hair off because she can't get it to fit under the disposable PPE surgical caps they get issued.

Men can have long hair too and many male medics are shaving off beards they’ve had for years. Hair will grow back. A mask not physically fitting a smaller, female face is, however a significant problem.

This is a real problem in lots of different industries and professions.

One size fits all means average man size.

The consequences are non trivial.

On the too big better than to small thing, not really. Gloves that are too big will impede your ability to work with your hands, and other equipment that's too big may slip and need to be moved back into place. which really isn't something you want to be doing all the time in this scenario.

I've worn a N95/FFP3 mask and they've been too big for me. What that means is that the mask sits so high on my face it's almost covering my eyes, and if I was wearing protective goggles would be interfering with those. If I pull it down even slightly, the bottom part then cuts right into my throat, making it difficult to breathe. The same mask on my DH fits fine, and he can put his on and be good to go. I'm constantly fiddling with mine. In a virus protection scenario that's a big problem.

It may be because outside of medicine the majority of people that wear ppe are men. Although I’d have thought that it must surely be manufactured for women as well.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000hgh7

It's the first item on the programme.

If we're talking gowns, maybe @waltzingparrot (although, trip hazard?). But this was on Women's Hour today too, and and they were talking about masks, and one doctor having to tighten it so much that it caused ulcers in her skin .

But logically it's better to be too big than too small, isn't it.

That should read: *even in the simple things these male- default assumptions and decisions make life difficult for women.

Yeah. Even in the simple things these male-default choices. My medic pal is considering chopping all her lovely long hair off because she can't get it to fit under the disposable PPE surgical caps they get issued.