Protective laws were enacted to protect

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

from certain hazards or difficulties of paid work. These

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

s had the effect of reducing the employment available to women, saving it for men. These were enacted in many jurisdictions in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and some were in effect until the mid or late 20th century. The

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

case '' Muller v. Oregon'' set a

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

to use

sex differences Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

as a basis for separate legislation. The name is not a formal one but is a widely-used colloquial term, as was the term ''protective legislation''.

Range of laws

Over laws affected work hours, wages, occupational choice, mandatory seating, homework, and rights to do business and make contracts.Grant, Jane, ''Confession of a Feminist'', in ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

'', vol. LVII, no. 240, December , 1943, pp. 684–691, esp. pp. 688–690. Specifically, various laws required a

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

for women and childrenFolbre, Nancy, ''Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas'' (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009 ()), p. 276 & n. 37 (author prof. economics, Univ. of Mass. Amherst). (criticized because women allegedly did not need the money, the

was opposed for men and ruled unlawful in 1923) and forbade or regulated lifting heavy loads, working at night or for long hours, or tending

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Stansell, Christine, ''The Feminist Promise'', ''op. cit.'', p. 197. and required some safety and breaks from work for rest, lunch, and bathroom use. The ban on long hours often denied the possibility of earning overtime pay. Some of the laws were irrelevant to work but were intended to protect women's ability to become mothers and not be subject to sexual issues that were often categorized as moral issues.

Rationale for passage

Protection of women was a rationale for the enactment of the laws. Women were considered more vulnerable than men in factories and sweatshops, and one supporter of the laws was the

Amalgamated Clothing Workers Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Ind ...

, a labor organization, which supported the laws for nonmembers of unions. Some supporters in unions and women's organizations, concerned that courts in the 1950s would oppose pro-labor legislation generally, wanted to preserve whatever such laws were already in place. By 1972, however, the year the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and ...

(ERA) to the U.S. Constitution passed the Congress and was proposed to the states for ratification, unions supported the ERA and considered female-only protective laws as against women's interests. Another rationale was put forth by an organization which, in 1836, adopted a resolution that said, "Whereas, Labor is a physical and moral injury to women and a ''competitive menace to men'', we recommend legislation to restrict women in industry." The minimum wage was supported except for men because of "widespread agreement that the labor market did not function effectively where women and the family were concerned"Folbre, Nancy, ''Greed, Lust and Gender'', ''op. cit.'', p. 276. and among feminists because women needed to support their own dependents.

Criticisms

They were criticized on several grounds. * They failed to require protection from the hazards or difficulties for all workers who needed those protections. * They denied jobs to women who did not need the protections at all or needed the jobs more than the protections and could make that choice. * Many denied jobs rather than required changes, either at the workplaces or elsewhere, that would have reduced any reason for protection. * Few, if any, of these laws applied to women's unpaid work at home or with families, which could be more hazardous or difficult than some of the restricted employments. * Some women may have advocated for such laws, but many were put into effect when women did not have

the vote ''The Vote'' is a 2015 play by British playwright James Graham. The play received its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse as part of their spring 2015 season, where it ran from 24 April to 7 May 2015. Directed by Josie Rourke and set in a f ...

or the right to hold electoral office, so the people ultimately responsible for legislating them were almost exclusively

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

, and they were responding to voters who were men. * The laws disincentivized employers from hiring women. Protective labor laws were criticized because they excluded women from prestigious well-paid male-dominated occupations, and they confined women's work to the home, thus reinforcing

Separate Spheres Terms such as separate spheres and domestic–public dichotomy refer to a social phenomenon within modern societies that feature, to some degree, an empirical separation between a domestic or private sphere and a public or social sphere. This o ...

ideology and the

Cult of Domesticity The Culture of Domesticity (often shortened to Cult of Domesticity) or Cult of True Womanhood is a term used by historians to describe what they consider to have been a prevailing value system among the upper and middle classes during the 19th ce ...

. An opponent of these laws was the

National Woman's Party The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NW ...

(NWP), which led support for the Equal Rights Amendment. It opposed the laws as interfering with women's right to make contracts and as preventing them from offering their full capabilities at work, objecting, for example, to a 20-pound limit on lifting, if a woman wanted that job and could lift the weight.

Modernity

Eventually, most or all were amended,

repealed A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

, ruled unconstitutional (i.e., in violation of the

US Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...

and thus invalid), or not enforced anymore because they singled women out for unequal treatment. (Laws in the US may not be enforced if they are unconstitutional or otherwise unauthorized in law.) Had the

to the Constitution been enacted in the 1970s or the 1980s, it was believed the laws would have been invalidated by the amendment and subsequent litigation and, as a result, most liberal organizations opposed the amendment. The laws had earlier been supported by social feminists for decades. Some of the laws have been replaced by laws that apply to both genders, such as the

Occupational Safety and Health Act The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is a US labor law governing the federal law of occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States. It was enacted by Congress in 1970 and was signed by P ...

. An argument for protective laws still sometimes arises, as with debates over the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...

's continuing legal ban on women in certain combat positions, when it is argued that the ban should remain in effect because women might be killed or raped.

Worldwide

Besides the United States, many others may have laws with comparable intent or effect and that constrain employment of women or of other groups of adults defined by characteristics at birth, although the laws may not be called by the same name. In

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, around the 1920s, the

Egyptian Feminist Union The Egyptian Feminist Union () was the first nationwide feminist movement in Egypt. History and profile The Egyptian Feminist Union was founded at a meeting on 6 March 1923 at the home of activist Huda Sha'arawi, who served as its first presiden ...

advocated for protective legislation.Badran, Margot, ''Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences'' (Oxford, Eng.: Oneworld, 2009 ()), p. 124 (author sr. fellow, Ctr. for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown Univ., U.S., & fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Ctr. for Scholars, Washington, D.C.).

Range of laws

Rationale for passage

Criticisms

Modernity

Worldwide

See also

Footnotes

Further reading