MINIMUM wage in the 1920's
Before the 1920's, women had different minimum wages than men as they were regarded as “frail and dependent”. However, the 1920's brought feminists who wanted equal minimum wages and not “domestic” wages as they wanted a rise in social and economic equality. This caused a rise of the National Woman’s Party who supported the ERA, which was the Equal Rights Amendment that was proposed to give the same civil rights to all regardless of gender. However, after going to Supreme Court, nothing really happened of the situation and the court “struck the minimum wage in a decision that upheld the sanctity of free contract and denied the validity of an interventionist state, while hiding behind a mask of equality for women.” But without increasing the pay of women it made no difference and achieved next to nothing, leaving the minimum wage for women still significantly lower than that of the men. Also, this only reflected on how the court was able to limit change in the ways of the American life and controlled women's lives and any rights they fought for.
Social Feminists, who advocated the minimum wage, diverged from their earlier ideology of 'domestic feminism'. No longer suggesting women needed state protection because they were frail and dependent, feminists urged state intervention on behalf of women as part of a woman's right to 'industrial equality'. Influenced by the symbolic meaning of suffrage, feminism became increasingly egalitarian and rights-oriented in the 1920's (LIPSCHULTZ).
Walter Lionel George's claim (Document 1) reveals that although women were given more freedom, they chose not to take advantage of it, revealing the small immediate impact that the women's rights movements had in their time.
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Although "the American Woman has made herself a good position, when I go through a business reference book I find that not one in a hundred of the leading names is the name of a woman. In America man still rules" |