To place a male perspective on this thread, without a doubt the recovery of HGV vehicles that have rolled over can be one of the most hazardous operations any person can be involved in. In that, it is not the recovery of the actual vehicle that contains the dangers, but the removal of the freight from the vehicle before it can be lifted.
With tankers, pumps can usually be attached to mechanically extract or steam out the contents of the tank. However, with an articulated vehicle box trailer, it inevitably involves a significant amount of very hazardous heavy manual handling. By, example, if the vehicle has rolled off the road into a ditch, the trailer can roll beyond 90 degrees, and therefore those trying to extract the load will be working at exceptional angles with uneven footholds with the added risk of heavy pallets etc falling onto them. In almost all circumstances the entire load of the vehicle has to be removed before the vehicle recovery can begin.
In terms of labour to carry out such operations, then it is usually a male preserve of employees from the local council or the transport company involved. However, undoubtedly these days there are women who could carry out such work, but they do not seem to have in general progressed to this type of manual handling at this point in time. However, I believe that may be a somewhat dated resilient attitude as people for this type of emergency work usually are "thrown together" and the attitude may well be in these pressure situations "lets get any gang of blokes we can find out there". That perhaps is not the correct attitude in these days, but one that at times has in all probability prevailed.
In other non-manual handling employment, I find the difference between men and women is still very surprising at times in regards to their attitudes toward various types of jobs. I would emphasise the following is my experience in regards to our office work over more than 15 years but may not be prototypical of everyone's experience in an office environment.
In regard to the attention to detail, concentration required and ability in researching facts etc, then women by far make the best Legal secretaries in our business with all four of those positions now back in the hands of female employees. That stated, the positions of Assignment Controllers and handlers seem to be better placed in male employees. In that and by example, holding an interview with someone who has been injured in a workplace accident seems to go better with a male taking the interview than a female. It may well be that men are more sensitive in those situations, where a woman is more "full-on, especially where it may become clear an accident is due to the person being interviewed flaunting company safety procedures and practises and in that may well be dismissed by their employer to add to their troubles.
In the above, we have four assignment teams with one being led by a female controller and a female assignment handler in another. Along with that a Legal Secretary is normally attached to each assignment team who as stated are all female.
I believe that in terms of employment we are in a transition period were women are yet to gain full equality in many fields of employment. However, that situation is fast changing but as yet has some way to go.
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