Implications of Gender and culture on Occupational Safety and Health in Construction; the Case of Uganda

Introduction
This paper highlights the significance of gender and culture in construction and why these aspects warrant explicit attention in addressing safety and health concerns in the sector. It presents an overview of the different social-economic positions that men and women occupy in society that result into gendered safety and health needs, opprtunities and interventions. Further, it shows how the sector has responded to the gender inequalities arising out of the identified cultural norms and beliefs.

Methods
A retrospective study was conducted on Uganda National Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey Reports compiled for the last five years. Special focus is on the percentage involvement of women in the workforce, the work they unertake and interventions made.

Results
Women constitute over 50% of Uganda's population and they especially in rural Uganda, predominate the care economy, being responsible for biological and social reproduction of the labour force; cooking, cleaning, fetching water, nursing the sick, the young and the old.Their work in the productive economy is largely agro-based as opposed to the men's work which is predominantly in the productive market economy. Women's opportunities to benefit from developments in the construction sector are constrained due to a number of cultural beliefs and gender biases which tend to limit women's education / literacy levels and formal or skilled employment opportunities.

Discussion
From findings, gender analysis systematically examines gender division of labour, gender resource distribution and potential consequences on men and women, as a result of impact of culture; emphasising differences in resource distribution, plans and interventions, targeting an increased proportion of women in the workforce, effective sensitisation and training programs to enlighten all role players on the benefits of engendered interventions, introducing flexible working hours to balance with domestic chores, increasing women's access to training opportunities and introducing legal framewok to address issues of gender equality.