International Women’s Day and Workers’ Safety
Written by Marlo .
A good safety and risk management plan is the best way to limit risk, protect your workers, and lower business insurance premiums. Bad practices can lead to higher premiums and unsafe conditions for your workers.
In the last one hundred years, worker safety has improved exponentially and often business insurers were at the forefront of such change. But, sometimes, it takes a disaster for safe practices to be adopted.
Today, is International Women’s Day. In the U.S., the holiday is not officially recognized. But, in 1911, a tragedy of epic proportions in New York, occurring very close to this holiday, gives this day a special significance for our female workforce and provided the impetus for this day to be celebrated in the beginning of the century.
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire resulted in the deaths of 146 factory workers. Most of the workers killed were women. The event led to New York adopting strict building and fire codes. Other cities soon followed suit.
But the story does not end there. The fire led to more involvement by female workers in trade unions and pushes by those unions for safety standards in the workplace. Frances Perkins, who witnessed the fire, became Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in 1933. She was the first woman cabinet member and she held the post for 12 years. During that time she successfully pushed for comprehensive safety, minimum wage and hour, and workers’ compensation laws. She worked to reform the conditions she believed caused the terrible tragedy she witnessed in 1911.
In the years immediately following the tragedy, trade unions called attention to the event every March 8, International Womens’ Day. A terrible event in women’s history leading to safety reforms led by a woman and truly worth remembering today.
International Women’s Day and Workers’ Safety originally appeared on About.com Business Insurance on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 14:03:28.