Acting on therecommendation of a British government committee investigating the highincidence in white lead factories of illness among employees, most of whom werewomen, the Home Secretary proposed in 1895 that Parliament enact legislation thatwould prohibit women from holding most jobs in white lead factories. Although the Women’s Industrial DefenceCommittee (WIDC), formed in 1892 in response to earlier legislative attempts torestrict women’s labor, did not discount the white lead trade’s potentialhealth dangers, it opposed the proposal, viewing it as yet another instance oflimiting women’s work opportunities. Also opposing the proposal was the Society for Promoting the Employment ofWomen (SPEW), which attempted to challenge it by investigating the causes ofillness in white lead factories. SPEW contended, and WIDC concurred, thatcontrollable conditions in such factories were responsible for the developmentof lead poisoning. SPEW provided convincing evidence that lead poisoning couldbe avoided if workers were careful and clean and if already extant workplace safetyregulations were stringently enforced. However, the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), which had ceased in thelate 1880’s to oppose restrictions on women’s labor, supported the eventuallyenacted proposal, in part because safety regulations were generally not beingenforced in white lead factories, where there were no unions (and little prospectof any) to pressure employers to comply with safety regulations.
Q8: Which of thefollowing, if true, would most clearly support the contention attributed toSPEW in lines 30-34 (“SPEW contended … lead poisoning”)?
A. Thosewhite lead factories that most strongly enforced regulations concerning workersafety and hygiene had the lowest incidences of lead poisoning among employees.
B. Theincidence of lead poisoning was much higher among women who worked in whitelead factories than among women who worked in other types of factories.
C. Therewere many household sources of lead that could have contributed to theincidence of lead poisoning among women who also worked outside the home in thelate nineteenth century.
D. Whitelead factories were more stringent than were certain other types of factoriesin their enforcement of workplace safety regulations.
E. Evenbrief exposure to the conditions typically found in white lead factories couldcause lead poisoning among factory workers.
