Isaac Max Rubinow (1875 – September 1, 1936) was a leading theorist on social insurance and one of the most influential writers on the subject.

[2] He grew so upset with the misery of his patients that he decided he could do more good for the common man by helping to alleviate their economic woes than he could as a physician.

[4] Rubinow's 1934 book, The Quest for Security, established him as the most recognized theorist on social insurance in the first three decades of the twentieth century.

Rubinow argued that the reluctance and refusal of white native-born and immigrant women to enter domestic service reflected the feudal labor conditions that informed the occupation.

In particular, Rubinow criticized mistresses for failing to open their homes to the same reforms that had been implemented in industrial workplace such as contracts, set hours, and other standardizations.