92 pages • 3 hours read
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PROLOGUE
Reading Check
1. Who are the discoverers of radium mentioned in the book’s prologue?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What point is the author making in the Prologue by describing the media coverage of radium?
PART 1, CHAPTERS 1-3
Reading Check
1. Who is Sabin von Sochocky?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do the workers end up exposing themselves to radium through their own mouths, and why are they not afraid to do this?
2. What evidence does the text provide that the workers’ skin is being contaminated?
PART 1, CHAPTERS 4-8
Reading Check
1. What is the official cause of death doctors provide for Mollie Maggia?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do the laxer policies of The Radium Dial Company unintentionally allow the workers to be exposed to even more radium?
2. Why do Irene’s symptoms lead her to push for an investigation of her former place of employment?
PART 1, CHAPTERS 9-12
Reading Check
1. What substance does Dr. Reed mistakenly think is causing the women’s health problems?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. When lip-pointing is finally banned where Marguerite Carlough works, what is the reason given?
2. Why does Lenore Young write to Katherine Wiley?
PART 1, CHAPTERS 13-19
Reading Check
1. What substance do the Drinkers say radium is structured like, explaining why it is easily absorbed into bones?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the Radium Dial Corporation respond when they hear about Marguerite’s legal case?
2. What important contribution does Dr. Martland make to the cause of diagnosing radiation sickness?
PART 1, CHAPTERS 20-25
Reading Check
1. Why do the glass pens not succeed as an alternative to lip-pointing?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why are the conclusions of the study conducted by Martland, Knef, and Conlon rejected by the radium industry?
2. Why is Grace unable to take advantage of the changes in the worker’s compensation laws that recognize radium necrosis as a compensable condition?
Paired Resources
“When Beauty Products Were Radioactive”
- This CNN article describes the practice of incorporating radioactive materials into beauty products and medicines in the early 20th century. (Note: This resource is offered here in order to contextualize the dial painters’ attitudes toward radium; however, it does refer to Eben Byers, who will not be discussed until Part 2 of Moore’s book.)
- This resource relates to the themes of The Perceived Objectivity of Medical and Scientific Testing, The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics, and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.
- Why do you think these products were so popular? According to the article, what turned public opinion against radioactive products? What point does this make about the power structures surrounding the dial painters?
- This article from the Society for Theatre Research discusses the fad for incorporating radium into theatrical productions in the early 20th century.
- This resource relates to the theme of Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.
- How do these performances reflect the optimism and excitement people felt about science and technology in the early 20th century? How does this information impact your understanding of the young women working with radium in the watch factories?
- This report from the Union of Concerned Scientists explores how corporations manipulate science to advance their own goals.
- This resource relates to the themes of The Perceived Objectivity of Medical and Scientific Testing, The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics, and The Failure of the System To Protect Workers From Corporations.
- What techniques do corporations use today to manipulate science and the public understanding of science? What impacts might this have on our quality of life? Which of these techniques do the corporations in The Radium Girls use? Whose responsibility is it to prevent science from being manipulated in this way?
PART 2, CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
1. What cause of death is given for Ella Cruse?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is Mollie Maggia’s body exhumed, and what is found when her body is examined?
2. Why do the dial painters feel betrayed by von Sochocky’s testimony?
PART 2, CHAPTERS 31-36
Reading Check
1. Whose collapse and death in August of 1929 does Radium Dial go to great lengths to keep quiet?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What two conditions does USRC place on accepting the settlement of the dial painters’ case?
2. What two main ideas does Radium Dial try to get across in their newspaper ad claiming that their workers are safe?
PART 2, CHAPTERS 37-40
Reading Check
1. Why does Radium Dial fire Catherine Wolfe?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What common denominators in the illnesses of women like Katherine Schaub and Irene Corby La Porte does Martland notice and write about?
2. What consequences do the watch companies suffer after the death of Eben Byers?
Paired Resources
“‘Radium Girls’ Remembered for Role in Shaping US Labor Law”
- This article discusses the legacy of the Radium Girls in Ottawa, Illinois and the efforts of 8th-grader Madeline Piller to create a memorial to them.
- This resource relates to the themes of The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics, The Failure of the System To Protect Workers From Corporations, and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.
- Moore hopes that her book will serve as a memorial to the Radium Girls. What impact can media like this have on public knowledge? How does this relate to the story of Madeline Piller? Why does it particularly matter that people in Ottawa have access to information about the Radium Girls? In what sense do these two types of memorials serve different purposes?
“Radium Girls (Curie Eleison)”
- This 6-minute video features Rachel Sumner performing her song that memorializes the Radium Girls. (Lyrics can be found here.)
- This resource relates to the themes of The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics, The Failure of the System To Protect Workers From Corporations, and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.
- What is the meaning and significance of the allusion in the title (“Curie Eleison”)? How does this song function as a memorial to the Radium Girls? How does the medium of a folksong impact the audience differently than a statue or a book?
PART 3, CHAPTERS 41-47
Reading Check
1. Where does Luminous Processes open its new factory in Ottawa?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is the community so unsupportive of the women who file a claim against Radium Dial in 1933?
2. In an attempt to avoid liability and stay in business, what new tactic does Radium Dial try in December of 1936?
PART 3, CHAPTERS 48-52
Reading Check
1. Who represents the women in their 1938 suit against Radium Dial?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What severely limits the amount of money available to the women in their case against Radium Dial?
2. Why does Arthur Magid present neither evidence nor witnesses?
PART 3, CHAPTERS 53-56
Reading Check
1. To whom do Catherine and Pearl write to ask for prayers shortly before Catherine’s death?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What are the lasting impacts of the women winning their case against Radium Dial?
2. After losing the court case, how does Radium Dial continue to resist accountability?
EPILOGUE AND POSTSCRIPT
Reading Check
1. According to the text, which governmental body is created thanks to the dial-painters’ case?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What global event begins shortly after the conclusion of the trial, and how does the trial’s outcome impact the way radium is used during this event?
Recommended Next Reads
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
- Higginbotham tells the story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, examining the roles that economics, bureaucracy, and propaganda all played.
- Shared themes include The Perceived Objectivity of Medical and Scientific Testing, The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics, The Failure of the System To Protect Workers, and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.
- Shared topics include nonfiction narrative, workers’ safety and rights, media and scientific misinformation, systemic weaknesses in government and culture, and the impact of historic events on ordinary people.
- Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster on SuperSummary
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle
- Von Drehle explores conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and narrates the story of the horrific fire that led to changes in American workplace safety.
- Shared themes include The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics and The Failure of the System To Protect Workers From Corporations.
- Shared topics include nonfiction narrative, workers’ safety and rights, systemic weaknesses in government and culture, and the impact of historic events on ordinary people.
Reading Questions Answer Key
PROLOGUE
Reading Check
1. Marie and Pierre Curie (Prologue)
Short Answer
1. The media depict radium as a kind of magical gift to humankind; they are seemingly unaware of its dangers. This makes it clear that uninformed or incomplete media coverage can endanger the public. (Prologue)
PART 1, CHAPTERS 1-3
Reading Check
1. The founder of the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation (Chapter 2)
Short Answer
1. The workers use their lips to shape their brushes into fine points, which transfers radium into their mouths. Some do not really understand what is in the paint and those who do understand believe that trace amounts of radium cannot hurt them. (Chapters 1-2)
2. The text mentions that their skin takes on a visible, “unearthly” glow. Katherine Schaub’s skin breaks out badly enough that she consults a doctor. (Chapter 3)
PART 1, CHAPTERS 4-8
Reading Check
1. Syphilis (Chapter 5)
Short Answer
1. Radium Dial is not as worried about waste as the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation; the watch painters there are allowed to play with the paint—for instance, they decorate their faces and teeth with it. (Chapter 6)
2. When Irene starts having severe mouth pain, she thinks of Mollie’s death following similar symptoms. Since she has also heard that Hazel Vincent is having the same problem, she makes the connection to their work and asks for an investigation. (Chapter 7)
PART 1, CHAPTERS 9-12
Reading Check
1. Phosphorus (Chapters 10-11)
Short Answer
1. Lip-pointing is banned because it is alleged that saliva weakens the radium paint. (Chapter 9)
2. Lenore is frustrated by the investigation’s lack of progress and writes to Katherine Wiley because Wiley is the head of the Consumers League, an advocacy organization for women in the workforce. (Chapter 12)
PART 1, CHAPTERS 13-19
Reading Check
1. Calcium (Chapter 16)
Short Answer
1. The company opens a temporary plant in a smaller town, where employees are less likely to have heard rumors about the dangers of radium. (Chapter 15)
2. Martland invents a breath test for radon and a test that measures radium in bones. He is able to use these tests to prove that Marguerite and Sarah are full of radium. (Chapter 18)
PART 1, CHAPTERS 20-25
Reading Check
1. They are less accurate. (Chapter 23)
Short Answer
1. The industry has a vested interest in not acknowledging the dangers of radium, and so they seize on the fact that the study denies radium’s supposed health benefits. (Chapter 21)
2. The law does not provide for retroactive compensation and does not compensate for any radium-caused illness other than jaw necrosis. (Chapter 22)
PART 2, CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
1. Streptococcic poisoning (Chapter 26)
Short Answer
1. The women need evidence to prove that radium is the cause of the illnesses and deaths, so Mollie’s body is exhumed for testing. Her bones are full of radium, and her body is still glowing. (Chapter 27)
2. Von Sochocky lies on the stand, testifying that he never told Grace not to lip-point because it would make her ill. This damages the women’s credibility and causes them to feel betrayed. (Chapter 29)
PART 2, CHAPTERS 31-36
Reading Check
1. Peg Looney’s (Chapter 34)
Short Answer
1. USRC denies guilt and establishes that the women must be examined every month for signs that they are no longer suffering from radiation illness. If this is the case, USRC will be allowed to stop payments to them. (Chapter 31)
2. Radium Dial asserts that their testing of workers showed there is nothing to be worried about and that, in any case, the form of radium they use is purer than the form USRC uses and will not cause illness. (Chapter 32)
PART 2, CHAPTERS 37-40
Reading Check
1. Her work-related limp is attracting negative attention. (Chapter 38)
Short Answer
1. Both Katherine and Irene have sarcomas that have come on suddenly, years after their exposure to radium. (Chapter 37)
2. Radium is regulated more strictly, and radium-based medicines are banned. The most serious consequence is to USRC, because it is also involved in supplying radium to pharmaceutical companies: USRC shutters and then demolishes the Orange factory. (Chapters 39-40)
PART 3, CHAPTERS 41-47
Reading Check
1. Across the street from Radium Dial (Chapters 44-45)
Short Answer
1. The country is in the midst of the Great Depression, and Radium Dial has used the media to assert that workers are not being exposed to anything harmful and that the community desperately needs the jobs at Radium Dial. (Chapters 41-43)
2. Radium Dial suddenly disappears, offering no information about where it has relocated; subsequently, the women locate the company operating in New York City. (Chapter 47)
PART 3, CHAPTERS 48-52
Reading Check
1. Leonard Grossman (Chapters 48-49)
Short Answer
1. Radium Dial has been unable to get insurance; instead of shutting the company down for noncompliance with the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the Industrial Commission has allowed Radium Dial to carry its own risk. (Chapters 50-52)
2. The only issue that Radium Dial wants to focus on is whether or not radium is a poison; its contention is that if radium cannot be considered a poison, it cannot be held liable. (Chapters 50-52)
PART 3, CHAPTERS 53-56
Reading Check
1. Father Keane/a radio pastor (Chapter 56)
Short Answer
1. The women become icons for workers’ rights, and their case leads to legal changes that better protect workers. (Chapters 53-55)
2. Instead of accepting the verdict, Radium Dial appeals. When this appeal is denied, they try unsuccessfully to get the case heard by the Supreme Court. (Chapter 56)
EPILOGUE AND POSTSCRIPT
Reading Check
1. OSHA/the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Epilogue and Postscript)
Short Answer
1. World War II begins shortly after the case is decided, and demand for radium painting rises. New safety standards are in effect, however, and the use of radioactive material in other areas of the war is also more carefully scrutinized. (Epilogue and Postscript)
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