SeeHerWork, a new apparel company launching in mid-September with pre-orders available August 1st, aims to put female workers in clothes that fit and perform.
The number of women in non-traditional careers, such as construction, energy, utilities, logging and emergency response is on the rise. According to a 2017 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 150 women per year lose their lives to work activities that can be prevented through properly fitting Personal Protective Clothing and Equipment.
“We want to empower working women,” says Jane Henry, founder of SeeHerWork, who realized the need for women’s workwear while working with others to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. Henry immediately noticed a huge gap — there were no well-designed, well-fitting work clothes for women. Gloves did not fit. Work pants were made of yoga material and tore easily. Overalls, designed for men, required women to undress almost entirely when they took bathroom breaks.
Henry found that tradeswomen all said the same thing: “It doesn’t fit.” Safety was a huge concern, with extra material flopping around and putting the women at risk of getting caught in machinery, and so was performance. The root of the problem is that while there is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) “expectations” for fit standard, there are no required ANSI tests to ensure compliance.
