| "The
Gendered Imaginary" |
Key
Legislation and Caselaw |
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1848:
(April) NY MWPL (becomes natl model) |
| Neither
19th century liberal theory nor practice recognizes women or slaves
as holding property in their own labor. Labor of slaves belongs to
masters; labor of wives belongs to husbands and families |
1848:
(June) Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (linked economic
dependence to lack of political rights) |
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1860:
NY Earnings Law |
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1873:
Bradwell v. Illinois (SCt upholds state lmtg practice
of law to men; right to practice a profession is not a privilege or
immunity of citizenship under 14th Amdmt; Bradley conc.: "The
paramount destiny and mission of women is to fulfill the noble and
benign offices of wife and mother." |
Few
believe that women have same right to work as men. Assumption that
women would benefit by virtue of their paid employment; women by
virtue of their family positions.
"Family
Wage" embraced by organized labor and many women's rights advocates;
assumed that working man entitled to wage sufficient to support
himself and his family. |
1874:
Protective Labor Leg. States begin passing laws re hrs/condns
of work for women & children; no enforcement mechanisms in early
laws |
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"Freedom
of Contract"
Assumptions
re men's superior right to earn help structure labor market to restrict
women's job choices
Female
reformers embrace maternalist legislation
Throughout
the Progressive Era, organized labor -- AFL led by Samuel Gompers
-- resisted government intervention regulating employment for men
as "insulting to their manhood," but supported legislation
for women in part to get women out of the workforce
Widely
shared assumption that men's respectability rested on their ability
to support a non-wage-earning-wife; also widely shared sense of
entitlement to sexual and household services of wives
Muller
wrote into Constitutional Law conception of citizenship for women
rooted in motherhood and family life that overrode women's rights
as individuals.
Muller
greeted by widespread enthusiasm among social reformers |
1894:
In re Lockwood (Belva Lockwood denied
right to practice law in VA) |
| 1895:
Ritchie v. IL (IL SCt strikes down state
hrs law for women as violation of 14th Amdmt "freedom of contract") |
1900:
Women constitute 1/4 of paid labor force (teachers, factory workers,
retail trades, agric work, clerical work, domestic service)
1905:
Lochner v. NY (SCt strikes down hours
law for bakers; 14th Amdmt "freedom of contract") |
| 1908:
Muller v. Oregon (SCt upholds OR hours law
for women in laundries & mfg estab; state interest in women as
mothers overrides 14th Amdmt "freedom of contract")(gave
green light to hrs/condns laws for women) |
| 1913:
16th Amdmt (income tax) |
1920:
19th Amdmt (woman suffrage)
1920:
Women's Bureau estab as permanent branch within Department of Labor |
| 1921:
Sheppard-Towner Act (funded maternity and well-baby
clinics to mostly rural women at govt expense, no means testing)(part
of effort to sustain women's domesticity)(repealed in 1927 - AMA opposition) |
AFL
exerts tremendous power although only about 5% of American workers
represented by organized labor at end of 1920s, mostly skilled white
males.
ERA
deeply divides women's rights advocates -- those who had worked
for protective labor legislation fear ERA |
1920s:
Corporate welfare. Corp. like GE, Westinghouse,
Ford institute special benefits limited to long-term, full-time
(hence, male) employees (pensions, paid vacations, life insurance);
Ford's five-dollar-a day "profit-sharing plan" for employees
meeting "good citizenship" criteria (incl. married men
supporting nonwkg wife and children); common corp rule to req. women
to quit work on marriage
1923:
Equal Rights Amdmt 1st introduced in Congress. |
| Increased
pressure to exclude women, esp. married women from workforce (feeling
shared by many women). |
1930s:
Great Depression - 1/4 of American workers out of work. Govt gets
into the business of defining what counts as "work" and
who counts as "worker" |
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1933:
Joint Income Tax |
| AFL
commitment to "voluntarism" - assumption that men have the
"courage, independence, and economic power to protect their own
interests." Govt regulation threatening to men's "manhood."
|
1934:
Committee on Economic Security, 30 hour work week scuttled. |
| Maternalists
continue to place motherhood at center of leg agenda for women and
sustain prevailing image of women's paid labor as supplemental; shared
commitment with labor leaders to male provider model |
1935:
Social Security Act passes, includes AFDC (needs based directed to
women and children = welfare); "unemployment insurance"
(largely defined women and all Af Am out of the "labor supply")"Old
Age Insurance" (exempted almost 1/2 working population;
most women excluded; most Af-Am excluded) |
Advisory
Council in debate on amt of widow's benefit (half? two-thirds? three-fourths?
all?): "She can look after herself better than he can"
she "can adjust herself to a lower budget on acct of the fact
that she is used to doing her own housework whereas the single man
has to go to a restaurant."
No
evidence that women on Advisory Council or other women raised questions
of gender equity in debates over old age benefits
Many
women pay into system, but don't collect benefits. Assumption that
they will eventually marry and reap benefits indirectly through
husbands
|
1937:
Breedlove v. Suttles (S Ct upholds GA law imposing lower
poll tax for women than for men "in view of the burdens necessarily
borne by them [women] for the preservation of the race."
1938:
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) passes. Provided for 44 hr wk week
(to be reduced in 3 yrs to 40 hrs) and req. overtime pay after that;
incorp min. wage (.25/hr)(to be increased over 7 yrs to .40/hr);
prohibited shipment of goods made w/ child labor; applied minimum
wage/hrs to mfr of goods at home; forbade classification by sex
for wage purposes. But only covered 20% of labor force; excluded:
domestic servants; agricultural wkrs, wkrs in retail & service
industries & food processing, and transp., all govt ees &
nonprofit org ees, and seaman. Meant women disproportionately excluded
(only 14% women ees covered; compared to 39% male ees). Af-Am men
and women almost completely shut out
1939:
1st Amdmts to Social Security Act providing for payments for dependent
wives and age widows; intended to shore up legitimacy of act; enhanced
benefits of those already covered - mostly white males; did not
extend benefits to surviving children of covered women or to aged
husbands; aged widowers, or widowed fathers of small children; domestic
workers and agric workers still not covered |
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1941:
U. S. enters WWII |
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1945:
Full Employment Act
1945:
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1948:
Goesaert v. Cleary (S Ct upholds MI law prohibiting
women from working as bartenders (unless wife or daughter of male
bar owner) against 14th Amdmt equal protection challenge on grounds
of state interest in protecting morals; so reasonable that "to
state the question is in effect to answer it."
1949:
Social Security expanded to include more veterans.
1950:
Social Security expanded to self-employed, employees of private
education, state and local govt employees; still excluded hotel
and laundry and agric workers. |
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1954:
Social Security expanded to include hotel, laundry, and agricultural
workers |
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1956:
Social Security amended to provide that all women and disabled men
currently over 50, collect benefits at age 62, but lower benefits |
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1960s:
More wage earning women; # of female headed households increases |
| New
York Times calls the provision relating to sex in the Civil Rights
Act the "bunny law" |
1960:
President Kennedy Commission on the Status of Women
1963:
Equal Pay Act
1964:
Civil Rights Act (bars discrimination in employment on the basis
of "sex")
1965:
Social Security amended to allow widows to collect benefits at age
60 |
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1972:
Social Security amended to provide that widows receive 100% of husband's
benefits |
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1973:
Reed v. Reed |
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1974:
Kahn v. Shevin |
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1975:
Weinberger v. Weisenfeld |
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