Background

Women are more often affected by work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Accurate risk assessments are important, and there are indications that female workers are rated differently from their male counterparts.

Aim

To investigate whether female and male ergonomists rate hand activity and force differently in female and male workers.

Method

Ergonomists (n = 54) assessed videos of female and male workers performing identical hand-intensive tasks. Workers' and ergonomists' genders were compared.

Results

Female and male ergonomists did not differ significantly in how they rated workers' hand activity or force. However, force was consistently rated higher in female workers than in male workers (mean difference: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.18–0.52, p < 0.001). There was no significant interaction between ergonomist sex and worker sex.

Conclusion

Ergonomists' hand activity and force ratings showed no sex-related observer bias. However, ergonomists detected higher force levels in female workers, likely reflecting sex-related strength differences among workers rather than sex or gender differences among ergonomists. These findings support prioritizing risk assessment of female workers' hand force exposure in hand-intensive work.