Gender, Race, and Constitutional Change

GENDER, RACE, and CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE in the PROGRESSIVE ERA & NEW DEAL ERA: THE FEMINIST LABOR MOVEMENT & INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURAL BARRIERS

The objective of this work is the research the convergence of factors that surrounded the simultaneous labor and women's movements in the early 20th century intersected how this intersected and affected legal, political and economic structural orders over time.

The work of Manza (2000) entitled: "Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal" published in the journal of the Annual Review of Sociology relates that: "The U.S. New Deal raises issues of class, race, gender, region, social movements, and institutional constraint in the context of a societal-wide economic and political crisis, and has not surprisingly generated a considerable body of work by political sociologists over the past twenty years. In particular, the New Deal has served as a major empirical context for developing, testing, or applying broader theoretical models of political change in the United States." Manza relates that there are four theories, which compete in terms of empirical research of New Deal political change, which include: (1) Those emphasizing the importance of social movements from below in generating momentum for political reform, (2) those highlighting the centrality of business influence on successful New Deal reform initiatives, (3) feminist models, and (4) historical institutional models. This work specifically examines the historical institutional model in combination with the feminist model as related to the centrality of business influence and including the social movements within the feminist model during this specific era of time in American politics. Therefore, Manza is correct in one aspect but to properly understand history the social movement that existed within the feminist movement, which next, existed within the business arena or specifically labor in terms of women in the workforce all must be inclusive as these three movement in combination worked to change the shape and face of the institutional model as the structural barriers to real equality for women who worked and who pushed toward social change propelled these movements forward for change.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Both Howard Gillman and Barry Cushman systematically analyze key cases involving protective labor legislation for women exampled in the cases of Muller v. Oregon, Adkins v. Children's Hospital and West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish. However, the focus of Gillman and Cushman fails to fully recover what Rogers Smith refers to as "...multiple traditions in America' recognizing the conflictual and contradictory history of the roles of women and minorities in the nation. Gillman makes only one explicit reference to women's suffrage and the external influence of the Nineteenth Amendment in his quote by Justice Holmes' dissent in Muller stating: ." "..[i]t will take more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account." (171). A closer examination of the multiple actors and influences of the changing institutions, orders, and rules surrounding women's and racial minorities legal and political status may improve understanding the interpretive context and evolving constitutional frameworks during this era.

The work of Margaret Weir entitled: "States, Race, and the Decline of New Deal Liberalism" published in the Journal of Studies in American Political Development states that in the study of twentieth century American politics "there is not escaping the New Deal's pivotal place..." (Weir, 2007) Many debates have surrounded the "causes of the New Deal's distinctive features" and the debate continues surrounding the "consequences for subsequent American political development." (Weir, 2007) Weir argues that: "...the national focus of the New Deal narrative neglects crucial aspects of state politics and policy that limited liberalism and ultimately contributed to its political failure. Indeed, states occupy a peculiar place in the history of the twentieth century state-building and political reform.

States were an important target for the early twentieth century Progressive reformers but they largely drop out of accounts that track the development of activist government for the next half century, apart from occasional references to them as political blackwaters." (Weir, 2007) Weir states that alternatively to holding a view of states as being "...governed by an invariant structural logic" that she argues that: "...there are political arenas with their own distinctive capacities and political logics that must be understood in terms of earlier reform efforts. " (Weir, 2007) the reform efforts of the Progressive era failed in bolstering the executive power of state governments as the New Deal bolstered that of the federal government. In fact, power within the states was effectively decentralized by the New Deal and new actors were never mobilized in terms of alteration of the terms of state politics as was effectuated through the New Deal with labor. The truth is that progressive reforms "ultimately amplified elite voices and demobilized ordinary voters." (Weir, 2007)

Weir holds that the pattern differentials between the reform of state and federal government during the era of the New Deal are "...of enduring significance because the reform impulse that transformed the federal government in the 1930s had no enduring counterpart in the states.." And ultimately the emphasis on federal action during this era effectively weakened the forces in the states and "this is true of states across the union, not only those in the South." (Weir, 2007) Weir states that when one takes federalism seriously "subsequent twentieth century political developments" are "cast...in a new light." (Weir, 2007; p.4) From this view, the United States is seen as "...a layered polity in which federal initiatives were overlaid on state political systems that operated with different administrative capacities and political logics." (Weir, 2007; p.4) Weir posits that the role of the state, in the demise of the New Deal Liberalism, while poorly understood nevertheless, played a central role. (Weir, 2007; paraphrased)

Reform was a creeping type of reform that was not in any manner instantaneous and the "tempos of reform and divergent political logics of reform had significant implications for the politics and politics capacities of states. First, states across the union, not just in the South, remained incomplete democracies well into the 1970s. Progressive patterns of success and failure "left state politics biased toward the interests of traditional elite." (Weir, 2007; p.7) Traditional elites included small business, real estate, agriculture and insurance groups all who maintained a political voice in the legislatures of the states that was greater than the proportion of the population, which they represented. In the beginning of the New Deal era a shift began among liberal activists and experts attention and effort from the state to the national levels as the policies being focused upon during that period were at a federal level Local and state development planning was overtaken by national interests during the era of the New Deal. This is stated by Weir to be due to decentralization in authority over land use, which, resulted in the states lacking the power to influence the development of the metropolitan areas of the country as monstrous cities poured across the land and once having been: "...delegated, this power proved impossible to reclaim." (Weir, 2007; p.9) Powerful interests in the area of real estate development among developers realizing the benefits of the arrangements "...tenaciously defended them. Where Progressive reform was most successful, mechanisms - such as the initiative and referendum - reinforced elite power." (Weir, 2007; p. 9)

Results in the slow reform in state governments resulted in race and gender disparities most particularly in terms of the women in the labor force. While on the national-level reforms were accomplished within the individual states, women were still greatly struggling with equal pay for equal work. Furthermore, individual states in terms of women's suffrage and property rights lagged far behind the advances of reform at the national level of government. Multiple Traditions in America as noted in the introduction to this study was referenced in the work of Rogers M. Smith's (1993) work entitled: "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal and Hartz." What Smith spoke of and that to which Weir has referred in the work reviewed is the fact that synchronization simply did not exist among the various levels of government of national government and government at the state level and in fact, problems remain in this area of government's workings, at least to some extent today. Because of these 'multiple traditions' or in actuality this may be understood as "the way we do things around here" women, as a gender, and specifically relating to civil, constitutional and citizen rights experienced great differentials across the United States at this time in history.

The work of Cobble (2003) entitled: "The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America" examines the cultural characteristics and influences of the women who were involved in the women's labor movement during the era of the New Deal. This work, published by Princeton University Press relates the story of a: "...23-year-old Myra Wolfgang" who in 1937 "strode to the middle of one of Detroit's forty Woolworth's five-and-dime stores and signaled for the planned sit-down strike of salesclerks and counter waitresses to begin. The main Woolworth's store was already on strike, and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) was threatening to escalate the strike to all of the stores in Detroit." (Cobble, 2003)

Myra had been nicknamed the: "Battling Belle of Detroit" by media in the Detroit area because Myra is said to have:.." relished a good fight with employers, particularly over the issues close to her heart. A lifelong member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) she insisted, for example, on sending out racially integrated crews from the union's hiring hall, rejecting such standard employer requests as 'black waiters only, white gloves required." (Cobble, 2003) Myra was involved in many more organized protests and strikes and is stated to "consider herself a feminists...outspoken about her commitment to end sex discrimination...lobbied against the ERA until 1972...chaired the national committee against a repeal of women-only state labor laws.." among other activities into the 1970s. The women who were like Wolfgang leading the women's labor movement "can best be described as 'labor feminists'...who recognized that women suffer disadvantages due to their sex and because they sought to eliminate sex-based disadvantages." (Cobble, 2003)

These women were those who "articulated a particular variant of feminism that put the needs of working-class women at its core and because they championed the labor movement as the principle vehicle through which the lives of the majority of women could be bettered." (Cobble, 2003) Cobble 2003 states that these labor feminists during the post-depression decades "were the intellectual daughters and granddaughters of Progressive Era 'social feminists' like Florence Kelley, Rose Schneiderman, and Jane Addams." The belief of these feminists, similar to earlier social feminists beliefs held that "women's disadvantages stemmed from multiple sources and that a range of social reforms was necessary to remedy women's secondary status." (Cobble, 2003) the individualism of 'equal rights feminism' did not set well with these women and it was these labor women who assisted in the modernization of 'social feminism'.

Labor feminists claimed that women had equal rights to what is termed "full industrial citizenship...gaining the right to market work for all women..." which meant social rights being secured for women or alternatively the required social supports in family caretaking instead of waged work. Thee women looked to both the states and unions in assisting the transformation of the structures and norms of wage work and in curbing the inequalities of a discriminatory labor market. (Cobble, 2003; paraphrased) This impact has traditionally placed states and labor unions in a supporting role in transformation of the labor market at the request and behest of women who clearly speak and require the other parties to this system to react in a manner that is productive and positive in terms of ridding the labor market of inequality and discriminatory behavior toward working-women.

Cobble writes that: "...the numbers of women unionists rose after the 1930's both in absolute and percentage terms. By the early 1950s, some three million women were union members a far cry from the 800,000 who belonged in 1940, and the percentage of unionists who were women had doubled, reaching 18%. In addition, some two million women belonged to labor auxiliaries at their peak in the 1940s and early 1950s. Few of these women sat at the collective bargaining table. Fewer still stood behind the podium gaveling the union convention to order." (Cobble, 2003) However, the fact is the lack of visualization of these women in roles of leadership "should not necessarily be taken as an indication of female powerlessness or lack of influence." (Cobble, 2003) Specifically, the work of Karen Sacks revealed structures that were informal and hidden in the system of power that were different from the more obvious formal powers but that were however, still quite influential powers. Sack's research states findings that in unions and organizing communities the "male union leaders and spokesmen took positions only after consulting with and gaining the approval of key women on the shop floor - women who never held formal positions of leadership but who wielded considerable influence nonetheless." (REF 19; in Cobble, 2003)

Just as significant was the movement of women into leadership positions in local, regional and national levels within the labor movement. While "gender parity was not achieved by any stretch of the imagination, and men continued to predominate in top executive positions..." even still, there was an evident increase in the influence of women as well as in "the emergence in many unions of a critical mass of labor women committed to women's equality and social justice." (Cobble, 2003) Among these ranks are named: "Ester Peterson, Gladys Dickason, Dorothy Lowther Robinson, and Anne Draper of Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) as well as many others from other organized unions across the United States. The reform agenda championed by these women put to "...end unfair sex discrimination, equal pay for comparable work, a family or living wage for women and men, the revaluing of the skills in 'women's jobs', economic security and shorter hours, social supports from the state and from employers for child-bearing and child-rearing..." (Cobble, 2003)

All of this culminated in expansion of "...a fundamental reassessment of the norms and practices governing employment that is still going on." (Cobble, 2003) While these labor-women did not always accomplish specific contract provisions they sought and neither were they always successful in welfare state expansion as they had hoped these women were "among the principal actors in the postwar struggle over the course each would take." (Cobble, 2003) Cobbles states that study has brought to light: "...the myriad ways women have affected states policies. They also demonstrate how concerns over gender and race have figured as prominently in the creation of the social and economic policy as has redistributive impulses and anxieties about consumer purchasing power. In the United States, however, social welfare cannot be understood without analyzing the employment-based entitlements developed in the private sector. The United States developed a mixed welfare system: supplemental income, health and welfare coverage, and other benefits were as much a function of one's employment status as of one's citizenship. Labor women operated in both the public and private realms, pursuing a dual strategy of reform through legislation and collective bargaining." (Cobble, 2003) it is the contention of Cobble that "class differences remained salient in the New Deal and after, although in newly disguised forms, and that labor ideologies and institutions had a powerful effect on the formulation and implementation of social and employment policy." (2003)

During the second World War women replaced men in factories and "Rosie the Riveter" is said to have "become the model of the patriotic women working a defense plant." (Walls,

However, following the war, the women were expected to remove themselves from the places of work and back into the role of homemakers and while women "continued to move into the workforce..." It was in the traditional occupations. Women were achieving higher levels of education than previously and when the birth control pill came, available fewer women became pregnant after sometime in 1964 and women began to plan their children around their work and educational pursuits.