Recently I was strolling through a store with some friends. They pointed out a clock that was bright neon green. The store was perfectly light, but the clock looked like it was glowing. 

My mind instantly flew to the Radium Girls. 

The Radium Girls were a group of women in the late 1910s-early 1920s. The United States had just joined World War I. There were women working, however, they were never offered jobs that paid well. An “elite” job opening appeared, specifically targeted toward women. The job consisted of painting watch dial faces. What made the job special was that it was one of the highest-paid jobs for women. Also, these were new watch faces. They were painted with a new chemical, which made the watches glow so that the soldiers could see them in the dark during the war. The chemical is called radium.

Women were wanted for this job, especially young women, because their hands were small enough to get the numbers precise. When they couldn’t, they would lick the end of their paintbrush, a technique that became taught and encouraged. The factory workers told them that a small amount of radium was good for them and would make them look “rosy.” The male manager told them that it wasn’t dangerous and not to be afraid.

Yet the male factory workers wore aprons and only handled radium with tongs. The women, however, touched and ingested the chemical for hours every day. 

The girls were glowing after their shifts at the factory, earning the nickname of “ghost girls.” They had a green shine, almost as if it was coming from their bones. 

By 1922, one girl got sick. Mollie Maggia, whose teeth began rotting. She was unable to walk from limb pain. Her jawbone rotted. Her whole body followed. As did the other girls that were painters for the factory. Mollie eventually died at 24, and her cause of death was listed as syphilis. 

 Over 30 more women from the same factory died. Their bones rotted from the inside out, breaking at the touch. The company’s solution was to discourage women from licking the paint brushes. 

The Radium Girls filed reports but were only accused by the president of the company of trying to get financial aid for their medical bills. Dial painters continued to be employed all over. They were turned down by lawyers, who didn’t believe them or thought they were silly or unprepared. By 1927 their case was accepted by a lawyer. However, the remaining girls had been given only four more months to live. The company was trying to drag the legal battle out for that reason, forcing the girls to settle the case. 

The companies tried everything to keep the girls’ stories and activism quiet. They went as far as stealing the girls’ bones, which were still traced with radium prior to autopsies. After trying to keep the dangers of radium quiet, the experts finally took the case seriously. Conveniently, this only happened once a male employee of the radium firm died. 

While I could continue to go on about the Radium Girls’ story, now is a good time to point out that you won’t find this in history books. While we are familiar with radium poisoning, it’s not common knowledge that it took many deaths and a decade of poisoning to acknowledge it as an illness. 

The sexism that the Radium Girls faced is tragic. They were dying —  and accused of sexually transmitted diseases while their bodies were rotting and growing football-sized tumors. 

What’s horrible is that only men were allowed the knowledge of the dangers of the chemical. But nobody told the women, who made up the entire painting employee population. Men told the girls’ families that they died of syphilis, stole their bones, and continued to withhold knowledge and safety measures for the women they hired after. The girls figured it out for themselves but were still told they were wrong. 

Until a man died after dozens of women. Then, society addressed the dangers of radium. 

There are books and movies telling the Radium Girls’ story, including diaries and quotes from the girls.

This was an extreme, tragic form of sexism. Without the radium girls’ determination and intelligent minds, radium would’ve probably stayed in many products, becoming fatal for consumers. 

They deserved so much more. They never got the treatment or wins that they deserved, but it’s important to remember them and their bravery. Their legacy continues, and workers’ rights and health policies are where they are at because of them. The story of the Radium Girls needs to be told. 

Sexism is still prominent in workspaces, through what jobs are “normalized” based on gender. For example, a lot of women in STEM feel outnumbered or diminished in the field. Women today are still making 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. The gender pay gap has barely budged in the last twenty years. While the Radium Girls fought, the battle is not over. 

Audrey Trevarthan is an opinion writer. Contact her at [email protected].