Suffer the working day: Women in the “Dangerous trades”, 1880–1914

Abstract

This paper examines the threats to the health of women who worked in particular industrial occupations, which became the focus for public agitation and state intervention from the 1880s onwards into the 20th century. These “dangerous trades” represented a shift from concern with working conditions generally to those occupations where particular health hazards could be identified. Using lead poisoning as an example, the paper argues that intervention by the state was based on an assumption that there was sex-specific susceptibility, and that this resulted in measures of surveillance, restriction, and exclusion of women, and not the elimination of poisoning itself. The paper critically assesses the consequences of this approach for women themselves, and in terms of its effectiveness in eliminating the threats to health in general.