Protective laws

Protective laws were enacted to protect women from certain hazards or difficulties of paid work. These laws had the effect of reducing the employment available to women, saving it for men. These were enacted in many U.S. jurisdictions and some were in effect until the mid or late 20th century. The landmark case Muller v. Oregon set a precedent to use sex differences as a basis for separate legislation.

The name is not a formal one, but is a widely used colloquial term, as was the term protective legislation.

Over a thousand laws affected work hours, wages, occupational choice, mandatory seating, homework, and rights to do business and make contracts. Specifically, various laws required a minimum wage for women and children (criticized because women allegedly did not need the money, the minimum wage was opposed for men and ruled unlawful in 1923) and forbade or regulated lifting heavy loads, working at night or for long hours, or tending bar and required some safety and breaks from work for rest, lunch, and bathroom use. The ban on long hours often denied the possibility of earning overtime pay. Some of the laws were irrelevant to work but were intended to protect women's ability to become mothers and not be subject to sexual issues often categorized as moral issues.

Protection of women was a rationale for the enactment of the laws. Women were considered more vulnerable than men in factories and sweatshops, and one supporter of the laws was the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, a labor organization, which supported the laws for nonmembers of unions. Some supporters in unions and women's organizations, concerned that courts in the 1950s would oppose pro-labor legislation generally, wanted to preserve whatever such laws were already in place. By 1972, however, the year the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution passed the Congress and was proposed to the states for ratification, unions supported the ERA and considered female-only protective laws as against women's interests.

...
Wikipedia