Women HP's Uniform

 

Hospital portering in Britain is a primarily male occupation. Over ninety percent of HP's are men. Feminists do not object to this because HPing is such a low status low paid job. In fact doing a job like HPing is one of the few places left in the western world where you can find a "male space". However, a number of women have always been present in our ancient and noble profession. I can't recall a time in my career when every single one of the seventy to eighty porters at the JRH were male. A number of these women were very good porters. I remember with particular fondness a fifty-something post room porter called Linda who kind of adopted me in the same way Barry did, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2022/11/finding-barrys-grave.html. I also had a female shift partner in A&E once called Sandy. There is no reason why women cannot be HP's. Great physical strength is not necessary for the occupation; in fact, as a manual handling trainer, I learned that if you're using too much muscle power to do something then you're doing it wrong. Today a female hospital porters' uniform is almost the same as the men's except the trousers and shirt are feminine lines. However, when I started out there was a female HP's uniform that was distinct to the job and very different to the men's. It consisted of a simple green nylon knee length clinical dress with black tights and sturdy flat-bottomed shoes. The above illustration is the closest I could get to the reality I remember. I like the fact there was a proper uniform for female porters that was different to the male one and identifiable with the job. I think it should be brought back in, along with all the other traditions and pleasant aspects of the profession that have been stripped from us. I'm sure many readers are wondering this and I'm willing to confess it. I do find the sight of a woman wearing a traditional HP's dress erotic. This is because of my general sentiments for hospital portering.