Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection
A new Northwestern University study examining the history of labor laws for women says men ultimately benefited from laws meant to protect women in the workplace.
The study looks at protective labor policies across the history of the United States.
For about 60 years, those laws imposed restrictions on women’s work.
Northwestern University Professor of Economics Matthias Doepke said the study questions whether these laws were genuinely put in place to protect women from harm.
“The main reason these laws were successful, indeed was less a need to protect women at work and more a need to protect men from competition,” said Doepke, “because this happened when men and women were starting to increasingly compete for the same jobs.”
Many old protective labor laws were eliminated alongside the rise of the Equal Rights Movement.
Doepke said the rise in gender equality was partly due to the alignment of men’s and women’s interests, influenced by factors like the increase of married women in the labor force, and a shared concern for children.
Doepke claimed that gender equality has historically correlated with economic growth. He said the female workforce rose in the mid-20th century, fostering support for increased opportunities for women and anti-discrimination laws.
However, he thinks this support may be weakening, due to falling marriage rates and differing views between men and women.
“Young women increasingly turn to the left and become more liberal,” said Doepke. “Young men also used to be liberal, but they have started to turn further to the right. It’s been talked about a lot, for example, in the recent presidential election — that Trump had a lot of success with young men. And you can see this on particular issues such as gender equality.”
Doepke added that recent legal changes and Supreme Court decisions also indicate a shift away from gender equality.
