‘Some of Them Gets Lead Poisoned’: Occupational Lead Exposure in Women, 1880-1914

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Abstract
This article examines occupational lead exposure in women in the years 1880-1914. In this period there was unprecedented intervention by the state in women‘s working conditions, and this intervention is examined with respect to the particular case of lead poisoning It is argued that three important ideas about workers were dominant in the analysis of the problem and the actions considered with respect to it: the greater susceptibility of women to poison, the class origins of workers resulting in material and attitudinal vulnerability, and the failure of workers to protect themselves. The part played by employers and factory inspection in eliminating poisoning is examined, and an assessment is also made of the role of the medical profession These factors are critically assessed in the context of theoretical debates about state intervention and women workers, and it is argued that the ’protective‘ model of intervention in the case of industrial disease and women in the paid labour market was fundamentally flawed.

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