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Protection for Whom?

Maximum Hours Laws and Women's Employment in the United States, 1880-1920

Vanderbilt University

Around the turn of the century, many states enacted laws restricting the hours women could work. Yet little research has been done on the impact of these laws on women's employment. Traditional feminist political theories suggest that these laws disadvantaged women relative to men by reducing employers' willingness to hire women workers. Traditional class theories, focusing on employers' class interests, suggest that these laws were weakly implemented and enforced, allowing employers continued access to low-wage female labor. A third view, a feminist-class view, suggests that the effects of hours laws reflected both employers' class interests and their gendered interests and that ultimately the impact of the laws advantaged women workers. Quantitative analyses show that hours laws in certain circumstances increased women's share of employment but did not affect patterns of occupational sex segregation. The article concludes that both traditional class and feminist-class theories are supported.

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