Women Not Included in PPE Design: Redesigning Safety Gear for Women Across Industries

Overview

The podcast examines how protective equipment is frequently designed around an average male body, leaving women less protected and often uncomfortable across multiple industries. It weaves historical examples with current research to show how gender-inclusive design can improve safety for astronauts, police, miners, nurses, and drivers.

Key insights

• Frontline workforces are predominantly women, yet many PPE items are sized for men.
• Historical gaps in spacesuit design and police vests caused safety and comfort issues for women.
• COVID-19 PPE highlighted gendered limitations in healthcare protection and work conditions.
• Emerging solutions include female crash-test dummies and gender-inclusive PPE procurement practices.

Overview: Why safety gear often misses women

The episode argues that design standards for protective equipment have long been anchored to male bodies, using examples from space exploration, policing, mining, healthcare, and vehicle safety. It foregrounds a recurring problem: one size fits most, which effectively means one size fits men. The host, Ella Hubber, and health journalist Candice Bailey, explore how this bias translates into real-world risks and uncomfortable equipment that can compromise safety and dignity.

Historical context: Notable misalignments and failed accommodations

The discussion opens with Christina Koch’s Artemis 2 mission, noting that while women have participated in spaceflight, earlier gear had to accommodate a female astronaut’s body. Sally Ride’s era illustrates how even basic protective gear like make‑up inclusion in personal kits did not translate into practical use. A pivotal moment cited is the cancellation of an all‑female spacewalk in 2019 due to insufficient female-friendly spacesuit tops, underscoring systemic sizing issues. The conversation then moves to policing, where female officers faced poorly fitting bulletproof vests and, in one famous case, breast-related discomfort that led to surgeries in the late 1990s. South Africa’s response—developing female-tailored vests—demonstrates that practical design solutions exist but took decades to emerge. The broader point is clear: “one size fits all” is not a neutral stance but a male-default standard that leaves women exposed and uncomfortable.

PPE in health care and COVID-19: A reveals gender-specific challenges

Dr. Rupa Datt highlights how PPE during the pandemic revealed that women, who make up a majority of healthcare workers, faced PPE that did not accommodate periods, pregnancy, or menopause. Many reported overheating in full suits, skin injuries from tight masks, and the need to improvise to cope with long shifts. The episode emphasizes that the problem extends beyond discomfort to safety, dignity, and retention in the health workforce. The discussion broadens to African mining and agricultural sectors, where gloves, overalls, and respirators often fail to fit women due to body shape, height, and other biological differences. The core finding is that PPE is frequently designed around a white male prototype from the 1960s, ignoring the diversity of female bodies and cultural contexts.

Vehicle safety testing: The male crash-test dummy standard

Astrid Linder explains how crash testing has relied on a male average dummy for more than 50 years. With 1.7 billion motor vehicles worldwide, the data show women face higher risks of certain injuries, such as soft tissue neck injuries in crashes. The testing framework uses a torso model representing an average male, with a female body not adequately represented. The dialogue outlines how geometry, center of gravity, breast and hip differences, and lower muscle strength all influence injury risk and gear effectiveness. The team discusses the potential of virtual models to represent a range of body types and pregnancy scenarios, enabling more accurate safety testing without prohibitive costs of physical dummies for every variation.

Advances: From data gaps to inclusive solutions

The episode showcases how teams are developing average female crash test dummies and virtual models to capture 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile ranges. It also highlights broader innovation in PPE—advocating for women to be included in procurement, partnering with brands that tailor PPE for women, and creating gender-conscious PPE such as hijab-friendly, fire-resistant protective gear. The narrative emphasizes that solutions exist and that including women in design and testing yields safer, more dignified equipment across industries, not just in health care or space missions.

Conclusion and forward look

Across mining, policing, health care, automotive safety, and spaceflight, the thread is consistent: female bodies have not been adequately considered in the design and testing of protective equipment. When women participate in design, testing, and procurement, better, more inclusive solutions emerge. The podcast closes by underscoring the need for ongoing data collection, diverse prototyping, and cross‑industry collaboration to ensure equipment protects and respects women everywhere.