Who is the author of The Radium Girls?

The author of The Radium Girls is Kate Moore.

Biography & Memoir

The Radium Girls Book Summary - The Radium Girls Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

The Radium Girls summary

Name: The Radium Girls
Rating: 4.7 (25 reviews)
Author: Kate Moore

Kate Moore

The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

4.7 (25 ratings)

16 mins

Brief summary

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is a non-fiction that tells the shocking tale of radium dial painters who suffered gruesome deaths and indecent fortunes, resulting in groundbreaking labor laws in the US.

Topics

Women's Stories Biographies

Table of Contents

The Radium Girls
Summary of 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Learn about one of the most tragic tales of corporate misconduct in American history.

It may be reasonable to assume that any legitimate job would come with safe working conditions, and that an employer would not knowingly put employees in harm’s way. But to hear the true story of the radium girls is to hear just how willfully negligent an employer could be; inflicting all manner of horrible suffering upon its workers – some of whom were still teenagers.

While this is a sad story, it’s also one of amazing perseverance. Once the cause of the worker’s suffering was understood, a David-and-Goliath battle broke out between corporate lawyers and those hired to represent the workers, who at this point were quickly dwindling in number.

Ultimately this story is still relevant today, as there continues to be far too many companies that care more about their bottom line than the health and well-being of their employees.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

what the dangerous practice of lip pointing is;
the devastating effects of radium poisoning; and
just how far a company will go to avoid responsibility.

Radium is a radioactive element that was used in a wide range of products in the early twentieth century.

At the turn of the twentieth century, scientists made a breakthrough discovery. They found that radium, a chemical element present in uranium, could be used against cancerous tumors and kill diseased tissue. Suddenly radium was seen as a miracle cure, and this is how it was marketed to the public. Beauty and health products were soon popping up, advertising radium as a special ingredient.

One such product was an expensive glass jar lined with radium. Supposedly, a person could buy the jar, fill it with water and enjoy the benefits of radium-infused water. The recommended dose was to drink five to seven glasses of radioactive water per day.

Another use for radium was as an ingredient to make paint glow-in-the-dark. The paint was applied to the hands and markings of watch dials so that they could be read at night.

Around the same time, the dangers of radium were being discovered and made public. But few in the manufacturing industry were paying attention.

The radioactive isotopes of radium were first discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. What they found was that radium had different isotopes depending on the number of neutrons they were made up of. The most stable isotope, now known as radium-226, has a half-life of 1,600 years. That means it takes 1,600 years for the radium’s radioactive properties to deteriorate to half of its original strength. Another isotope is mesothorium, or radium-228, which has a half-life of six years.

So what did this mean for the people exposed to radium? As the paint at the watch factory contained radium-228, the workers dealing with this material were poisoned, with the damage taking six years to weaken in strength by half. If you were exposed to radium-226, your body would continue to be ravaged by the radioactive poisoning until long after death.

In the early 1900s, literature began to be published explaining how potentially harmful radium was. But this fell on deaf ears at companies eager to make quick and easy profits from their radium-enriched products.

Starting around 1915, many working-class girls in America were employed as dial painters.

Radium brought an unexpected windfall of income to some morally questionable businesses, which in turn led to some new and unexpectedly deadly jobs. One of the more popular jobs was with the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) in New Jersey. From around 1915 the company began hiring women to hand-paint watch dials using poisonous, radium-based paint. These positions were highly sought-after among working-class women. They were paid far more than what was typical; while the fact that it wasn’t your typical factory work gave the job a somewhat glamorous air.

The USRC hired a range of female workers – some only 15 years-old – with others in their early to mid-twenties. They paid these workers not by the hour, but by the watch. The faster they worked and the more paint they exposed themselves to, the more they earned. As a result, some made as much as $2,080 a year – around $40,000 these days. This was considered a very high salary, and put the watch ladies in the top five percent of female wage earners.

A vast majority of the dial painters fell extremely ill due to radium poisoning.

It could be considered ironic that your life would be ruined from exposure to a supposedly life-saving substance, but this is exactly what happened to the women at the watch painting studios. Similar to calcium, when radium enters the body it heads straight for the bones. It starts to eat away at them – eventually creating holes and causing them to crumble at the slightest touch.

The first signs began to appear around three years after the painting began. Some of the girls complained of loose teeth that needed to be removed, but then once the teeth were gone their gums wouldn’t heal. Workers also complained of jaw pains – with more than one girl having their jaw disintegrate – and abscesses in the bone oozing pus into their mouths. On at least two occasions, a girl reached into her mouth and actually plucked out a piece of her jaw.

The radium girls sued for compensation, but had to contend with dirty legal practices.

Despite ruining the lives of their employees, both the USRC in New Jersey and the Radium Dial Corporation (RDC) in Illinois continued to act in deplorable ways, all in an effort to escape culpability. Adding to their troubles, the girls in both New Jersey and Illinois had a hard time finding lawyers who were willing to take on these companies.

Both the USRC and the RDC were staffed with professional legal teams. The USRC even had a “doctor” willing to testify that what the girls were suffering from was not radium poisoning. This so-called expert witness was actually a man with a PhD in physiology and not a medical doctor at all.

Some gains were finally made in the corporate negligence cases.

For those who remained determined to see their case through to the end, there were some silver linings. The first trial was held in New Jersey in 1928, with five radium girls represented by the lawyer Raymond Berry. During the trial, Berry convinced the families to agree on a settlement, since he wasn’t sure that the companies wouldn’t drag out the case for so long the girls would never see a penny. This settlement, however, was much better than the paltry sum others had already received.

The five girls were given a lump sum intended to cover past and future medical bills, their court fees, and a pension. Unsurprisingly, the USRC managed to add extremely unhelpful conditions designed to make future payments as difficult as possible to receive.

We owe a lot to the radium girls but dangerous business practices have persisted.

When the incidents of this story first unfolded in the 1920s and 30s, women struggled for a modicum of the respect ascribed to men. But the tragedy of the radium girls brought about some of the most profound changes in society.

First, there were the effects the case had in both science and law.

Want to see all full key ideas from The Radium Girls?

Key ideas in The Radium Girls

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is The Radium Girls about?

The Radium Girls (2016) tells the tragic yet ultimately inspiring story of American female workers in the early twentieth century who endured some of the worst corporate negligence imaginable. Their incredible fight for justice and responsibility continues to be a relevant story to this day.

The Radium Girls Review

The Radium Girls (2017) by Kate Moore is a compelling account of the brave young women who were poisoned by their work with radium and their fight for justice. Here's why this book is worth reading:

It uncovers the untold stories of these remarkable women, shedding light on their strength, resilience, and determination.
The book delves into the devastating effects of radium poisoning, providing a sobering reminder of the dangers faced by workers in the early 20th century.
Through meticulous research and poignant storytelling, Moore brings these women to life, ensuring their experiences are not forgotten and inspiring readers to advocate for justice.

Who should read The Radium Girls?

Those interested in the history of women’s rights
Students of corporate law
Readers interested in nuclear science

About the Author

Kate Moore is a bestselling author whose work has been translated into over 12 languages. Her other books include Felix the Railway Cat, which reached number three on the Sunday Times Bestsellers list.

Categories with The Radium Girls

Biography & Memoir

Book summaries like The Radium Girls

The Rest Is Noise

Alex Ross

Listening to the Twentieth Century

34 min

4.2

How to Love Someone Without Losing Your Mind

Todd Baratz

Forget the Fairy Tale and Get Real

How To Create Products Customers Love

17 min

4.4

Walmart

Natalie Berg and Bryan Roberts

Key Insights and Practical Lessons from the World's Largest Retailer

How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

How to Build Habit-Forming Products

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

21 min

4.2

Secrets of Dynamic Communication

Ken Davis

Prepare with focus, deliver with clarity, speak with power

Rethinking Infidelity

How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

18 min

4.6

The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

From ancient myths to Han Solo

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

The history and core principles of the Eastern philosophy of Zen

23 min

4.5

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Shoshana Zuboff

The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

27 min

4.5

How to Think More About Sex

Alain de Botton

Sage sex advice from a philosophical polymath

How Empowering Women Changes the World

22 min

4.2

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Katherine Boo

Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum

16 min

4.3

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

A Coming-Of-Age Murder Mystery About Love, Nature & Abandonment

25 min

4.8

How to Become a People Magnet

Marc Reklau

62 Strategies for Powerful Relationships and Positive Impact

20 min

4.4

The Art of Reading Minds

Henrik Fexeus

Understand Others to Get What You Want

Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

19 min

3.9

The 12 Traits of the Greats

Dave Martin

Mastering The Qualities Of Uncommon Achievers

Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine . . . for Now

How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

19 min

4.0

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

A journey into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer

38 min

4.5

The Truth About Immigration

Zeke Hernandez

Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers

Thinking in New Boxes

Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny

A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

20 min

3.9

Thoughts Without a Thinker

Mark Epstein

Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective

The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism

28 min

4.3

Zero to One

Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

Notes on Startups, or How to Build The Future

26 min

4.6

Financial Intelligence

Karen Berman & Joe Knigh with John Case

A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean

The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom

The Truth about Women, Power, and the Workplace

24 min

4.4

In the Name of Identity

Amin Maalouf

Violence and the Need to Belong

The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies

20 min

4.7

Nudge

Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness

14 min

4.1

The Fine Art Of Small Talk

Debra Fine

How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills – and Leave a Positive Impression!

How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in the Future of Work

25 min

4.4

The Saad Truth about Happiness

Gad Saad

8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life

What Everyone Needs to Know

A Political Satire on the Corrupting Influence of Power

31 min

4.8

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

Step Into an Enchanting World of This Postmodern Masterpiece

What It Is, Why It's Scarce, and How to Get More

Poverty and Profit in the American City

16 min

4.0

Active Listening Techniques

Nixaly Leonardo

30 Practical Tools to Hone Your Communication Skills

19 min

4.2

Managing Transitions

William Bridges & Susan Bridges

Making the Most of Change

20 min

3.8

I Hate Job Interviews

Sam Owens

Stop Stressing. Start Performing. Get the Job You Want.

16 min

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.