Gender-Responsive Workplace Design: Ergonomic Needs of Pregnant and Menstruating Workers in Garment Factories

Wuri Ratna Hidayani (STIKes Respati)
Irma Darmawati (Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia)
Fisla Wirda (Politeknik Negeri Padang)
Lukman Handoko (Politeknik Perkapalan Negeri Surabaya)

Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management
Vol 4, No 1 (2026)

Garment lines employ mostly women, yet workstations are usually designed for a worker who is never pregnant and never unwell during menstruation. We examine whether three ordinary provisions, a seat, a usable rest room, and task rotation, together with a load limit, reach the workers who need them most, and what they are associated with when they do. The data describe 210 women in six garment factories and are simulated, calibrated to published parameters where a published anchor exists and are not a reproductive health survey. Workers formed four need groups by pregnancy status and days of menstrual interference. Provisions were not allocated by need. High-need workers had 1.22 of the three facilities on average against 1.32 for others, and 17 of 22 pregnant workers had no seat, although pregnant workers had six times the odds of others of having a load limit. In a proportional-odds model, a seat, a rest room, and rotation each cut the odds of a higher pain-interference level by 59 to 77 percent. Every high-need worker lost some hours in the observed month; among them, the three facilities were associated with shorter absences, not with whether absence occurred. Giving every high-needed worker all three facilities would save an estimated 0.59 hours per worker per month, about 300 hours per 1,000 workers. The load limit showed no association with pain, absence, or output. We translate the results into a six-line design specification that factories can count and audit internally