| Line | Acting on the recommendation of a British |
| government committee investigating the high | |
| incidence in white lead factories of illness among | |
| employees, most of whom were women, the Home | |
| (5) | Secretary proposed in 1895 that Parliament enact |
| legislation that would prohibit women from holding | |
| most jobs in white lead factories. Although the | |
| Womens Industrial Defence Committee (WIDC), | |
| formed in 1892 in response to earlier legislative | |
| (10) | attempts to restrict womens labor, did not discount |
| the white lead trades potential health dangers, it | |
| opposed the proposal, viewing it as yet another | |
| instance of limiting womens work opportunities. | |
| Also opposing the proposal was the Society for | |
| (15) | Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW), |
| which attempted to challenge it by investigating the | |
| causes of illness in white lead factories. SPEW | |
| contended, and WIDC concurred, that controllable | |
| conditions in such factories were responsible for | |
| (20) | the development of lead poisoning. SPEW provided |
| convincing evidence that lead poisoning could be | |
| avoided if workers were careful and clean and if | |
| already extant workplace safety regulations were | |
| stringently enforced. However, the Womens Trade | |
| (25) | Union League (WTUL), which had ceased in the late |
| 1880s to oppose restrictions on womens labor, | |
| supported the eventually enacted proposal, in part | |
| because safety regulations were generally not being | |
| enforced in white lead factories, where there were | |
| (30) | no unions (and little prospect of any) to pressure |
| employers to comply with safety regulations. |
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