The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Media Portrayals of the Radium Girls”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of themes related to The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Opinion and in Politics and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium by creating news articles representing the way media of the time responded to the dial painters’ claims.

When the media’s tone regarding radium and the dial painters’ claims changes, public perception also shifts, making the Radium Girls’ path toward justice an easier one. Imagine that you are a journalist in the early 20th century. From this perspective, write two articles of about 250 words each, covering the dial painters’ claims: one from before 1928 and one from after 1933.

Write Your Articles:

• For each article, choose an event mentioned in the book (for example, an inspection or a trial) as the focus of your article’s coverage.
• Incorporate key figures and events from Moore’s account.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the media’s general attitude toward radium, science, the workers, and the corporations during the relevant period of time.

Read and Review:

Read one set of articles written by a peer. Then answer the following questions:

1. How do these articles use language and detail to demonstrate the change in the media’s attitude? Are there any improvements you can suggest to strengthen the contrast between the two articles or their accuracy in portraying the media’s attitude shift?

2. How easy is it to identify the two textual events being used as the focus of these two articles? Are there any key figures or events that might be added to these articles to strengthen their relationship to Moore’s text?

Teaching Suggestion: Students should note the “Read and Review” questions at the end of the activity before drafting their articles so that they anticipate and incorporate the specific techniques their peers will be evaluating. This “Read and Review” section can also be used as a form of peer editing, if students will have time for revision before they turn in their work for evaluation.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with anxiety or perfectionism may benefit from assistance with choosing two events from the many available. A prepared “shortlist” of possibilities or pre-assigned topics may be helpful. More literal thinkers may benefit from a brief period of discussion and a few examples on how to convincingly create the required perspective. Students who benefit from accommodations in written expression might complete the activity in stages, first writing a list of ideas for each article, then transforming their lists into articles; these preliminary lists might serve as an alternative form of assessment for students who do not fully demonstrate their understanding in more elaborate written forms.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Each of the book’s 3 main parts has its own title.

• How do these titles work together to create a larger idea? (topic sentence)
• Explain at least 1 piece of evidence from each of the 3 sections that supports your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on the relationship of the larger idea you have identified to one or more of the book’s key thematic concerns: 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 From Corporations, and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.

2. Several times in the narrative, corporations team up with scientists to investigate the health effects of radium paint.

• In describing these various collaborations, what point is Moore making about how corporate funding can impact scientific rigor? (topic sentence)
• Explain at least 3 pieces of evidence that support your interpretation. Choose examples and details from a variety of locations in the text.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on what this aspect of the novel communicates about both The Perceived Objectivity of Medical and Scientific Testing and Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.

3. Science fiction of the early 20th century is referred to as “Radium Age” science fiction. Conduct research on this genre and its characteristics.

• How does Radium Age science fiction reflect a popular and scientific culture that creates a context for problems like those experienced by the dial painters in The Radium Girls? (topic sentence)
• Summarize at least 2 (cited) pieces of evidence from outside sources that support your interpretation of the characteristics of Radium Age science fiction. Analyze and discuss at least 2 pieces of evidence from Radium Girls that support your interpretation of the influence of cultural context on the workers’ situation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on how Radium Age science fiction relates to the book’s thematic interest in Technological Optimism and the Changing Perception of Radium.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. The Radium Girls takes place in the early part of the 20th century. How does Moore keep the reader engaged in a narrative about events that happened such a long time ago? How does she use details of plot and characterization to create emotional impacts on readers? How does she use structure to create suspense and narrative tension? How do other narrative techniques impact the reading experience? Write an essay analyzing how Moore creates reader engagement. Comment on how this engagement amplifies the reader’s response to the book’s thematic interest in The Failure of the System To Protect Workers From Corporations. Support your arguments with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite all quoted material.

2. The dial painters working with the radium paint are mostly women from lower-class backgrounds, and many of them are also recent immigrants. How do gender and social status contribute to their vulnerability? Why are these jobs important to them? Analyze the reaction from the medical establishment and their employers when they begin to get sick, and consider their access to legal representation. Write an essay analyzing how gender and social status contribute to the victimization of the dial painters. Support your arguments with evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

3. Moore focuses attention on both the women’s bodies and their individual personalities. How does Moore use physical description to emphasize the importance of their bodies? What is Moore’s purpose in giving graphic details about the effects of radium on the women’s bodies and describing the invasiveness of the medical testing they undergo? How does Moore also undercut the perception of women-as-bodies? How is the metaphor of the women as “ghosts” significant? Write an essay analyzing Moore’s purpose in focusing on these women as both bodily objects and human subjects. Support your arguments with evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Throughout the narrative, to what idea are the young workers metaphorically compared?

A) Clouds

B) Flowers

C) Vampires

D) Ghosts

2. What point does Moore make by juxtaposing the incident with the forgotten vial of radium in the Prologue with later scenes of lip-pointing and face-painting with the radium paint?

A) The wages paid in the factories were a more powerful motivator than fear of radium.

B) The women in the factories were too young to take health risks seriously.

C) Scientific concerns about radium were not communicated to the working class.

D) Even at the end of the 1800s, scientists were aware of the dangers of radium.

3. What is similar about the outcomes when Radium Dial Corporation tests workers after Marguerite’s case against USRC and when they again test workers after the settlement of the 1928 USRC trial?

A) The workers who test positive are fired.

B) The tests are used as the basis for new lawsuits.

C) The testers deliberately falsify the results.

D) The workers are not told the results of the tests.

4. What point is conveyed through the detailed descriptions of legal actions in this book?

A) Judges often unfairly favor corporate defendants, while juries are often biased in favor of working-class plaintiffs.

B) Because of the way laws are structured, bringing suit against a corporation is a difficult and complex undertaking.

C) Attorneys representing plaintiffs against major corporations are often solely motivated by potential monetary damages.

D) The structure of the legal system creates a balanced tension between economic and personal interests.

5. Which is an important lesson the women learn as they pursue justice?

A) Both plaintiffs and defendants can manipulate science in their favor.

B) The most famous lawyers are not always the most competent.

C) Obtaining justice is more likely when the media is on your side.

D) The public is not always able to see clearly where its own best interests lie.

6. Which is a symbol used paradoxically in this text to convey both justice and injustice?

A) Light

B) Flowers

C) Color

D) Machinery

7. Which statement represents the most accurate characterization of the doctors and scientists in this story?

A) They are doing their best with the limited knowledge available at the time.

B) Although many are honest, others misuse their power in dishonest ways.

C) Their biases against the poor prevent them from making reliable judgments.

D) Many allow government agencies to pressure them into falsifying their work.

8. What larger struggle does media link the dial painters’ plight to?

A) Discrimination against immigrants

B) Women’s rights

C) Workers’ rights

D) Protecting the environment

9. Which phrase is used as a refrain at the end of several chapters?

A) “Lip, dip, paint”

B) “Paint, lip, point”

C) “Line, point, line”

D) “Lip, line, dip”

10. Throughout most of the book, who exercises the most control over radium’s image?

A) Scientists

B) Media

C) Government

D) Corporations

11. To what idea does the book point as the main reason for the failure of corporations like Radium Dial to protect workers?

A) Ignorance about radium’s dangers

B) The desire to increase profits

C) A fear of criminal prosecution

D) Disdain for immigrants and the poor

12. Whom does the book portray as the most honest and moral?

A) Grossman

B) Flinn

C) Roeder

D) Knef

13. In many cases, what characteristic do doctors blame for the dial painters’ illnesses?

A) Their ethnicity

B) Their socioeconomic status

C) Their gender

D) Their lack of education

14. Whose death was a turning point in the public’s attitude toward radium?

A) Marie Curie’s

B) Eben Byers’s

C) Mollie Maggia’s

D) Sabin von Sochocky’s

15. Which of these Radium Girls did not successfully obtain a settlement from her employer?

A) Pearl Payne

B) Inez Vallat

C) Catherine Donohue

D) Grace Fryer

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. What is the rhetorical purpose of the book’s “cause of death” motif, in which erroneous causes of death are listed for several dial painters?

2. How are the corporations in this book able to manipulate the system using a kind of “hierarchy of credibility”?