Yep, forbade any female worker from working underground and you had to be 10 as a boy to work underground. And of course they didn't frame it as a safety issue for the public, but as a way to protect women's modesty.
Lord Ashley deliberately appealed to Victorian prudery, focussing on girls and women wearing trousers and working bare-breasted in the presence of boys and men, which "made girls unsuitable for marriage and unfit to be mothers". Such an affront to Victorian morality ensured the bill was passed.
Because you know what's more important than preventing children as young as five from working a dangerous and physically intensive job? Protecting the chastity of women.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_and_Collieries_Act_1842
Yep, forbade any female worker from working underground and you had to be 10 as a boy to work underground. And of course they didn't frame it as a safety issue for the public, but as a way to protect women's modesty.
Because you know what's more important than preventing children as young as five from working a dangerous and physically intensive job? Protecting the chastity of women.