Gender Dimensions of Occupational Health and Safety in Canada: the Case of Fetal Protection from Toxins in the Workplace

Reproductive-health protection ¹ for women in the paid-labour force is a clear illustration of the interconnectedness of the public and private spheres of women's lives. It touches on the lives of women both as producers in the paid-work force and as reproducers of children and the family. By exploring the evolution of reproductive-health protection policy in Canada, ² this paper highlights those factors that influenced policy change and shifted the boundaries between the public and the private, expanding the public sphere in an area that previously had been acutely private.