Women’s Workplace Rife With Dangers

Sally McMillian, a Texas correctional officer, was violently assaulted one day while locked in a dorm with inmates. An angry woman charged her, screaming.

“She had a combination lock in her hand and she hit me in the left side of my head,” recounts McMillian, who worked at a maximum security prison for women.

“It addled me. My glasses fell, and I thought she had burst my eyeball. Blood was going everywhere. She started pounding my head, and I passed out.”

The inmate continued kicking McMillian’s head and shoulders with steel-toed boots until officers rescued her. Injuries included a gash over the eye, a dislocated left shoulder and two ruptured disks in her back, which required surgery. She’s now unable to do her job.

“It’s ruined the rest of my life,” she says. “I can’t do anything like I used to.”

Workplace violence - including physical assaults, rape, robbery and murder - is a significant risk to women, says a new study by the Center for Women in Government. In a 1993 survey of women at work, more secretaries were murdered on the job than police officers and bartenders combined.

That same year, more nursing aides were assaulted on the job than any other profession - including police, detectives, sheriffs, bailiffs and other law enforcement officials.

“As a society, we are just now trying to understand workplace violence, particularly in regard to women’s jobs,” says Carolyn York, assistant director of the women’s rights department at the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, which co-sponsored the study.

“There are a lot of myths about women’s jobs being clean and safe. There are a lot of misconceptions about what women face on the job.”

Women in service professions such as health care, education and social welfare are primary targets, the study found. Two-thirds of nonfatal injuries to women are assaults by patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities for the mentally ill, developmentally disabled or prisoners. “More than four times as many women as male workers are injured by health care patients,” the study reports.

The riskiest jobs are those of women government employees - they’re 5.5 times more likely to be assaulted than women in the private sector.

“Public sector jobs are some of the hardest,” says York. “Often these people are caring for mentally ill patients and very frustrated members of the public. A public employee often has to tell someone, ‘No, I’m very sorry, but you can’t get food stamps,’ or ‘Your wages will be garnisheed to pay child support.’ They’re in jobs where the potential for violence is greater.”

African-American women are twice as likely to be seriously injured by assaults than white women in the same occupations. Asian and African-American women have the highest on-the-job homicide rates.

“It’s alarming,” says York. “We were shocked.”

More research is needed to determine why women of color are more often targets of workplace violence than white women, she says. The study cites possible explanations to be investigated.

Concentration of jobs in high-crime areas.

More societal tolerance for violence against people of color.

Concentration of women of color in the most dangerous jobs within occupational categories.

Greater proportion of minority women working in government.

Recently, the death of one African-American woman led to fundamental changes for women in her state. Dorothy Redd was killed by a patient at a New Jersey psychiatric hospital while working alone on a ward housing 38 patients.

“Her death has saved lives by mobilizing co-workers, her union, and her employer to make sure she is the last victim,” the study reports.

Since then, New Jersey has issued guidelines for dealing with violence in public health care facilities. They include training in managing violent behavior and maintaining safe staffing levels.

The study’s purpose, says York, is to encourage more of the same precautions against workplace violence.

“Nobody, employer or employee, wants to see people hurt,” she says. “When employers realize the problem, we often get a lot of cooperation in finding solutions.”

Most workplace violence, she believes, is both predictable and preventable. Creating a safer workplace begins with the employees, who should not hide the violence, but begin talking to co-workers about attacks.