PROTECTION FOR WHOM - MAXIMUM HOURS LAWS AND WOMENS EMPLOYMENT IN THEUNITED-STATES, 1880-1920

Around the rum of the century, many states enacted laws restricting th e hours women could work Pet little research has been done on the impa ct 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 t hese laws were weakly implemented and enforced, allowing employers con tinued 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 sho w 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.