Women's Labor History, 1790-1945

Abstract

Before 1968, books that dealt with the history of women and work in the U.S. barely occupied one library shelf.' Stimulated by the reemergence of feminism, the activism of the New Left, and the advent of the social history in the 1960s and 1970s, not only have scholars created a new literature in women's labor history, but their work has burgeoned in size and matured in conceptualization during the past twenty years. The concern of feminists and the New Left for issues of class, gender, and work inspired the growth of the field; its continued vitality reflects the central importance of its paradigms to women's history. By contrast with traditional labor historians, feminist historians refused to accept descriptions of women's secondary role in the labor force without inquiring how that subordinate position came to be and continued to be reinforced. They sought evidence as well that women were active agents in the creation of history and they valorized their activities in strikes and protest movements. Analytically they joined reproduction with production; understanding the intersection of home and workplace became a hallmark of women's labor history.2 Yet the field's gaps reflect the influence of white and male models in labor history. Scholars of women's labor have accorded the most attention to industrial work although in no historical period was it the major employer of women; far less studied are agriculture and service occupations, not only the source of work for most women in the nineteenth century, but also the primary employers of black and Mexican women until the postwar era. More diversified in their analyses of organizations, women's labor historians have not only examined women's union militance, but analyzed uniquely female forms of protest in women's auxiliaries and cross-class alliances. Relatively few monographs treat women of color, and only a tiny handful compare racial, gender, and class hierarchies as they were played out among differing groups of women. The proliferation and complexity as well as the limitations of the field demand codification and a compass to chart the direction of further research. The following essay will review the terrain U.S. women's labor history has mapped and will suggest fields for future exploration.