“The Workmen’s Compensation Law Is a Direct Slap in the Face”: Industrial Medicine, Safety Engineering, and the Problem of Disabled Workers, 1910s–1940s (2024)
Sarah F. Rose (Author)
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 39
Pages: 185-204
In the wake of workmen’s compensation law, the modern category of disability began to be represented in even more highly negative ways than in the late nineteenth century, linking inability to work and blame for one’s impairment, thanks to the efforts of industrial surgeons, safety engineers, and other applied scientists. While safety work had begun before workmen’s compensation laws passed, safety engineering (and safety inspection work in general) kicked into high gear once compensation was legally required for workplace injuries: safety engineering burgeoned as a parallel force helping to define disability. In effect, applicants deemed to have disabilities, especially visible ones, were pushed out of the mainstream, industrial labor market and some small businesses and farms. Those injured on the job were increasingly held responsible. But workers were well aware of the hazards and outcomes of dangerous working conditions both prior to and after lawmakers started passing workmen’s compensation laws.
...MoreArticle Mara Mills; Jaipreet Virdi; Sarah F. Rose (2024) Disability, Epistemology, Sciencing. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-24).
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