Managing Danger in the Home Environment, 1900-1940

Abstract

A growing awareness in the first decades of the twentieth century of the prevalence of accidents threatened the concept of the home-as-haven and gave rise to the safety movement. Organizationally, safety began as part of the National Safety Council, but it never achieved the recognition accorded to industrial nor traffic safety. Increasingly, safety experts as well as society at large designated women as home safety managers, responsible for creating a risk-free environment. The rise of economics as a professional science for women encouraged a complementary thrust towards providing the with the efficiency and managerial values of the factory. The development of accident statistics and the entrance of the insurance industry into the arena helped set priorities in terms of reducing accidents. The Red Cross and the General Federation of Women's Clubs both launched campaigns against accidents, based largely on education and admonitions of proper actions, but with only limited results. Throughout these years, women remained the socially designated responsible party, given authority roles in the that they were often denied in the outside world. Home accident rates, however, remained high, pointing to the limitations of the strategies of the various safety organizations.