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. 2019 Mar 20:2019:6740207.
doi: 10.1155/2019/6740207. eCollection 2019.

The Prevalence and Health Impacts of Frequent Work Discrimination and Harassment among Women Firefighters in the US Fire Service

Sara A Jahnke  1 , Christopher K Haddock  1 , Nattinee Jitnarin  1 , Christopher M Kaipust  1 , Brittany S Hollerbach  1 , Walker S C Poston  1
Affiliations

The Prevalence and Health Impacts of Frequent Work Discrimination and Harassment among Women Firefighters in the US Fire Service

Sara A Jahnke et al. Biomed Res Int. .

Abstract

Intro: Both discrimination and harassment directly impact mental and physical health. Further, workplace discrimination degrades workplace culture and negatively impacts health behaviors, job-related outcomes, and family dynamics. Women represent a small proportion of the fire service and are often the targets of discrimination/harassment, yet little research documents the impact of such experiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between chronic work discrimination and/or harassment and women firefighters' (FFs) physical and mental health, substance abuse, and job efficacy, stress, and satisfaction.

Methods: Snowball sampling was used to solicit participation from women career FFs. Participants completed an online survey regarding physical and mental health, health behavior, job efficacy/stress/satisfaction, and family well-being. Logistic regression examined the impact of work discrimination-harassment severity on dichotomous variables.

Results: 1,773 had complete data on their experiences with work-related discrimination and harassment. Women reported experiencing verbal (37.5%) and written (12.9%) harassment, hazing (16.9%), sexual advances (37.4%), and assaults (5.1%) in the fire service. FFs in the highest tertile of work discrimination-harassment severity reported over 40% more poor health days in the last 30 days (OR=1.42; 95%CI=1.33-1.51; p<0.001). Women who experienced moderate and severe discrimination/harassment had negative mental health outcomes including higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. Those who experienced high rates of discrimination and/or harassment also were more likely to report issues with alcohol consumption.

Conclusion: The impact of discrimination and harassment, related negative physical and mental outcomes, low levels of job satisfaction, and negative impact of these experiences on family/home stress likely take a significant toll on women in the fire service. Findings confirm and extend previous work suggesting there is a need to improve the mental and physical health of women FFs. Future work should examine the prospective relationship between discrimination/harassment and poor health outcomes and potential policies/practices to reduce these negative behaviors.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of frequent, infrequent, and never categories of job discrimination-harassment items.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence and severity of verbal and written harassment, hazing, sexual advances, and assault.
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