Women's Headgear

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WOMEN'S HEADGEAR

Interview: April 28th - May 8th

668 women were interviewed including 153 subject to hazards of heat and burning, 299 to oil, grease and fats, and 208 to acids and corrosive substances.

I. TYPE OF HEADGEAR WORN AND TYPE CONSIDERED BEST FOR WORK

Below are given proportion of women in the three hazard groups naming different types of headgear as best for their work and types actually worn at time of interview.

	HEAT & BURNING		OIL, GREASE AND FATS		ACID & CORROSIVE SUBSTANCES		TOTAL
	Type Worn	Type best for work	Type Worn	Type best for work	Type Worn	Type best for work	Type Worn	Type best for work
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
With peak	5	10	14	14	2	3	8	9 ± 2.0
Without peak	15	13	12	13	12	11	13	12 ± 2.6
Turban	19	16	21	20	14	12	18	17 ± 3.0
Net	8	11	9	8	7	7	8	8
Not worn	51 ± 8.0	49	43 ± 7.0	39	64	64 ± 6.6	52	49
Not answered	1	1	1	7	1	3	1	4
SAMPLE	153	153	299	299	208	208		660

More than half the women interviewed wore nothing on their heads for work. There are no marked differences between types worn and types preferred. The proportions of women who preferred or wore turbans are significantly higher than those who wore nets or peaked caps and caps without peaks were second in popularity.

Significantly, smaller proportions of women in the acid and corrosive hazard group than those working with oil, grease and fats were any kind of headgear.

Numbers of women wearing various types of headgear in the three hazard groups are too small to justify comparison of the preferences of older and new workers: but total figures for all three groups show that a significantly higher proportion of women who had been in their jobs over 2 years preferred net caps than did newer workers.

	Up to 2 years	Over 2 years
	%	%
Cap with peak	23	15
Cap without peak	27	20
Turban	36	36
Net	13 ± 4.6	29 ± 9.4
SAMPLE	213	93

Tables showing comparisons of (1) type preferred by type worn and (2) type preferred by alternative, are not included because in all cases the numbers of women who had given preferences were too small.

II REASONS FOR PREFERENCES

Reasons for preferences are given below in the case of turbans and caps without peaks. (see table on Page 2)

	Turban	Cap without peak	Total of 2 types
	%	%	%
Keeps all hair in, tidy, clean	42	60	50
Cool, comfy, light, becoming,	25	18	22
easy to wear, stays on head prefer it, suitable	6	3	5
Protects hair and eyes from Sparks, metal, oil, etc.	11	15	13
No reason given	18	14	16
SAMPLE	110	80	190

Sample analysed by Area and Hazard Group

Hazard Group	London		S., S.W. & E. Anglia		Midlands & Wales		Northern England		Scotland		Total
Hazard Group	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
1.Heat & Burning	31	23	27	22	35	21	44	26	20	27	157	24
2. Oils, grease & Fats	50	37 ± 8.2	74	60 ± 8.8	76	46 ± 2.8	72	43	30	41	302	45 ± 3.8
3 . Acids & Corrosives	55	40 ± 8.2	22	18 ± 7.0	56	33	53	31	23	42	209	31 ± 3.6
SAMPLE	136		123		167		169		73		668

The only significant differences between the distribution of workers in the three hazard groups is that there was a smaller proportion of workers in oil, grease and fats interviewed in the London area than in the South, South-East and E. Anglia area, and a smaller proportion of acid corrosive workers interviewed in this latter area than in London.

Best Type of Headgear	London		S., S.W. & E. Anglia		Midlands & wales		Northern England		Scotland		Total
Best Type of Headgear	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
With peak	3	2 ± 2.4	21	17	17	10	18	11	4	5	63	9
Without peak	18	13	23	19	14	18	27	16	2	3	84	13
Turban	21	15	17	14	41	25 ± 7.2	29	17	2	3	110	16
Net	13	10	2	2	25	15	14	8	-	-	54	8
Not worn	78	57	56	46	67	40	66	39	62	85	329	49
Not answered	3	2	4	3	3	2	15	9	3	4	28	1
SAMPLE	136		123		167		169		73		668

It may be seen from the table above that the percentage of workers in London who considered a peaked cap best for their work is significantly lower than in all other regions except Scotland. In this latter area the proportion of women not wearing any type of headgear for work is significantly higher than in the four other areas.

Analysis by Five areas of Questions

5. Where do you get the type of headgear you consider best for your work?

6. Have you tried to buy any headgear since Christmas?

7. If yes: was there any difficulty?

REPLIES TO QS 5 -8 Q.5.	London	South, S.W. & E.Anglia	Midlands	Northan England	Scotland	Total
REPLIES TO QS 5 -8 Q.5.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	No.	%
Dept.store, Large Local shop	13	10	27	21	3	74	23.8
Small local shop	15	8	15	15	-	33	17.0
Employer	16	36	39	43	3	137	44.0
Mail order	-	-	-	-	-	-
Second-Hand	-	-	-	-	-	-
Not answered	11	9	16	9	2	47	15.1
All who stated Preference for headgear	55	63	97	88	8	311
Q.6. Tried to buy since Xmas	18	20	22	13	2	73	24.1
Has not tried to buy	26	32	59	45	2	164	52.7
Not answered	11	11	16	30	4	72	23.1
All who stated preference	55	63	97	88	8	311
Q.7. Difficulty in buying	4	-	1	4	1	10
No difficulty In buying	13	20	21	9	1	64
Not answered	1	-	-	-	-	1
All who have tried to buy since Xmas	18	20	22	13	2	75

Of the 10 women who had had difficulty in buying headwear, 1 said that this was because it was unobtainable.

Below is given a table showing sources from which four types of headwear were usually obtained.

	Cap with peak	Cap without peak	Turban	Net	Total
Dept.store or large shop	8	19	27	20	24
Small local shop	4	10	28	10	17
Employer	44	61	23	17	44
No information	7	11	22	7	15
SAMPLE	63	101	110	54	311

Comparison of (1) preferred and type worn and (2) Type preferred and suggested alternative , in three hazard groups.

TYPES PREFERRED

TYPES WORN	Cap with Peak	Cap without Peak	Turban		Net	Total of types worn
TYPES WORN	No.	No.	No.	%	No.	No	%
With peak	45	2	2	2	1	53	17
Without peak	6	68	2	2	5	81	27
Turban	6	9	103	94	4	122	40
Net	2	1	4	4	47	54	18
No information	3	-	-	-	-	3	1
TOTAL of preference given	62	79	110		54	305
ALTERNATIVE TYPES
With peak	20	6	13	12	2	41
Without peak	7	34	15	14	2	58
Turban	18	24	54	49	20	40
Net	2	2	17	15	19	40
No alternative given	15	13	11	10	11	50
TOTAL of preference	62	79	110		94	305

(Note. Vertical totals under “Types worn" add to more than horizontal totals of “Perferences given” because in some cases women mentioned two types of headgear, either of which they usually wore for work)

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