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Social History of Medicine 1988 1(2):165-181; doi:10.1093/shm/1.2.165
© 1988 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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Women Health Workers: The Case of the First Women Factory Inspectors in Britain

HELEN JONES *

SUMMARY Although the Factory Acts in the nineteenth century had covered women and children, women were excluded from the factory inspectorate until 1893. This paper discusses the early struggles for the appointment of women inspectors, their initial problems, their incorporation into the mainstream of inspection, and the problems of assessing their impact on the health of women workers. Women inspectors were regarded by contemporaries as a great benefit to working women, yet they had the negative effect of keeping the working conditions of working-class women as an apolitical issue, and their main achievement lay in their contribution to changing attitudes about middle-class women's capabilities and worth in the labour market.

Keywords: Factory Acts; factory inspectorate; feminism; First World War; occupational health; trade unions; Trades Union Congress; women and work; women inspectors

*Lectures in Social Policy, University of Liverpool


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