The Empathy Gap

I doubt if more than a handful of the readers of this publication are familiar with the name Karen Messing or with her field of expertise, ergonomics. I am sure, however, that many will enjoy learning about the author and her research field by reading this informative and provocative little book.

Karen Messing is a retired professor of occupational health and safety who taught for three decades at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is an American who came to Montreal in the 1970s, after doing undergraduate studies at Harvard. After graduate studies in genetics at McGill University and postdoctoral research in the United States, she landed a tenure-track job in the biology department at UQAM but rapidly gravitated toward research on occupational health and safety with a focus on the work situations of low-income women. In part, this short volume is her intellectual...