A Class by Herself

Protective Laws for Women Workers, 1890s–1990s

Nancy Woloch (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

352 Seiten

2017
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-17616-1 (ISBN)

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A Class by Herself explores the historical role and influence of protective legislation for American women workers, both as a step toward modern labor standards and as a barrier to equal rights. Spanning the twentieth century, the book tracks the rise and fall of women-only state protective laws--such as maximum hour laws, minimum wage laws, and night work laws--from their roots in progressive reform through the passage of New Deal labor law to the feminist attack on single-sex protective laws in the 1960s and 1970s. Nancy Woloch considers the network of institutions that promoted women-only protective laws, such as the National Consumers' League and the federal Women's Bureau; the global context in which the laws arose; the challenges that proponents faced; the rationales they espoused; the opposition that evolved; the impact of protective laws in ever-changing circumstances; and their dismantling in the wake of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Above all, Woloch examines the constitutional conversation that the laws provoked--the debates that arose in the courts and in the women's movement.
Protective laws set precedents that led to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and to current labor law; they also sustained a tradition of gendered law that abridged citizenship and impeded equality for much of the century. Drawing on decades of scholarship, institutional and legal records, and personal accounts, A Class by Herself sets forth a new narrative about the tensions inherent in women-only protective labor laws and their consequences.

Nancy Woloch teaches history at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her books include Women and the American Experience and Muller v. Oregon: A Brief History with Documents.

Introduction 1 1 Roots of Protection: The National Consumers' League and Progressive Reform 5 Progressives Mobilize 6 Florence Kelley and the NCL 11 Rationales: The Perils of Pragmatism 18 Roadblocks: Business and Labor 25 Law: Constraint and Opportunity 28 2 Gender, Protection, and the Courts, 1895-1907 33 Freedom of Contract versus the Police Power 35 A Lowell Mill: Commonwealth v. Hamilton Manufacturing Co. (1876) 38 A Chicago Box Factory: Ritchie v. People (1895) 39 A Utah Mine: Holden v. Hardy (1898) 43 Women's Hours Laws: Pennsylvania, Washington, Nebraska 45 A Utica Bakery: Lochner v. New York (1905) 48 A New York Bookbindery: People v. Williams (1907) 51 3 A Class by Herself: Muller v. Oregon (1908) 54 Local Roots of the Muller Case 55 Muller Goes to Court 58 The NCL Steps In 61 The Brandeis Brief 64 Curt Muller's Brief 70 The Muller v. Oregon Opinion 73 Assessing the Law of 1903 79 4 Protection in Ascent, 1908-23 85 Maximum Hours Cases 87 Night Work Laws 93 Protecting Men 97 The Minimum Wage 103 War and Peace 109 Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) 112 5 Different versus Equal: The 1920s 121 Alice Paul, the National Woman's Party, and the ERA 122 The NCL, Social Feminism, and the Minimum Wage 125 Factions Collide: The Women's Movement 130 Close Combat: The Conferences 133 The Women's Bureau Report of 1928 137 Did the Laws Work? Enforcement and Effectiveness 141 Working Women's Voices 145 6 Transformations: The New Deal through the 1950s 152 New Deal Women 153 The Minimum Wage and the Revolution of 1937 158 FLSA: Protection Triumphant 162 The 1940s: War and Postwar 167 Bartending: Goesaert v. Cleary (1948) 174 Women in Unions 180 The Women's Bureau and the NWP 184 7 Trading Places: The 1960s and 1970s 191 The Early 1960s: PCSW and Equal Pay 193 Title VII, the EEOC , and Protective Laws 197 Protection Debated: Pressure and Politics, 1965-69 202 Protection Challenged: Three Landmark Cases 207 Protection Dismantled: The Courts and the States 212 Closing Arguments: 1970 221 The ERA and the Women's Movement 224 8 Last Lap: Work and Pregnancy 235 Pregnancy Cases: The 1970s 236 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) 242 Toward Family Leave 248 The Toxic Workplace 250 The Johnson Controls Decision (1991) 255 Conclusion: Protection Revisited 261 Looking Back: The Clash over Overtime 263 Moving On: After Protection 267 Acknowledgments 273 Notes 275 Index 321

Erscheinungsdatum	01.02.2017
Reihe/Serie	Politics and Society in Modern America
Verlagsort	New Jersey
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 235 mm
Gewicht	539 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Recht / Steuern ► Arbeits- / Sozialrecht ► Arbeitsrecht
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
ISBN-10	0-691-17616-7 / 0691176167
ISBN-13	978-0-691-17616-1 / 9780691176161
Zustand	Neuware