Hart Bound by Our Constitution

Women, Workers, and the Minimum Wage
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-2156-3
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 40, 272 Seiten

Reihe: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives

What difference does a written constitution make to public policy? How have women workers fared in a nation bound by constitutional principles, compared with those not covered by formal, written guarantees of fair procedure or equitable outcome? To investigate these questions, Vivien Hart traces the evolution of minimum wage policies in the United States and Britain from their common origins in women's politics around 1900 to their divergent outcomes in our day. She argues, contrary to common wisdom, that the advantage has been with the American constitutional system rather than the British.

Basing her analysis on primary research, Hart reconstructs legal strategies and policy decisions that revolved around the recognition of women as workers and the public definition of gender roles. Contrasting seismic shifts and expansion in American minimum wage policy with indifference and eventual abolition in Britain, she challenges preconceptions about the constraints of American constitutionalism versus British flexibility. Though constitutional requirements did block and frustrate women's attempts to gain fair wages, they also, as Hart demonstrates, created a terrain in the United States for principled debate about women, work, and the state--and a momentum for public policy--unparalleled in Britain. Hart's book should be of interest to policy, labor, women's, and legal historians, to political scientists, and to students of gender issues, law, and social policy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hart, Vivien

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgments

Ch. 1 Constitutional Politics 3

Ch. 2 No Sweat: Work and Women, Britain, 1895-1905 14

Ch. 3 Low-Paid Workers: The Trade Boards Act, Britain, 1906-1909 39

Ch. 4 A Sex Problem: The Politics of Difference, U.S.A., 1907-1921 63

Ch. 5 Police Power: The Welfare of Women, U.S.A., 1907-1921 87

Ch. 6 Gender Trap: Protection versus Equality, U.S.A., 1921-1923 108

Ch. 7 Due Process: The Welfare of the Economy, U.S.A., 1923-1937 130

Ch. 8 Labor and Commerce: The Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S.A., 1937-1938 151

Ch. 9 Conclusion: The Minimum Wage in the 1990s 173

Abbreviations 183

Notes 185

Index 247

Über Autor(innen)

Vivien Hart is Reader in American Studies at the University of Sussex.