Twenty standards for women's work from the Women's Bureau, 1941

Minimum Standards for Employment of Women in Industry is a 1941 U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau chart of twenty numbered standards, from an 8-hour day and no night work to "a wage based on occupation, not on sex nor race," each with a small drawing, priced at 10 cents (NAID 515014).

The chart

Twenty small panels surround the Department of Labor seal, each a line drawing with a numbered rule. The archive groups them under hours, rest, lighting, wages and safety. The imprint offers it for sale by the Superintendent of Documents at ten cents.

MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

1. A DAY OF NOT MORE THAN 8 HOURS

2. A 48-HOUR WEEK WITH 1 DAY OF REST

3. NO NIGHT WORK. NORMAL SLEEP

[...]

9. A WAGE BASED ON OCCUPATION, NOT ON SEX NOR RACE

[...]

13. JOBS NOT PROHIBITED TO WOMEN UNLESS MORE DANGEROUS THAN TO MEN

[...]

THE WOMEN'S BUREAU WAS CREATED BY CONGRESS TO FORMULATE STANDARDS AND POLICIES WHICH SHALL PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WAGE-EARNING WOMEN [...]

Standards, not statutes

The sheet calls these standards. Its own closing line says Congress created the Bureau to "formulate standards and policies" and to investigate and report. Nothing on the chart says any of the twenty is law, and this page does not claim that any was. The archive tags transfer, for the seal and the Bureau banner that lend official weight to an information sheet, and calls the technique faint.

Two directions at once

Most of the list covers lighting, ventilation, sanitary drinking water, guarded machines and first aid. Some items pull against others.

Item 9 asks for pay set by the job, "not on sex nor race." Item 13 says jobs should not be closed to women unless they are more dangerous for women than for men. Those are claims about equal treatment and open doors.

Items 1 to 3 go the other way. A ceiling of eight hours, a 48-hour week and "no night work" are protections, but written as rules for women only they also mark out work a woman could not take, whatever she wanted. The honest reading is that the chart holds both ideas. The libertarian reading asks the woman: a standard that keeps her off the night shift protects her only if she did not want the night shift.

The same Bureau's More and More Women Work on Aircraft argued for equal rates in 1942. Executive Order 8802 declared a policy of no discrimination in defense work because of "race, creed, color, or national origin"; item 9 here also names sex. The Children's Bureau's child-labor poster is a companion from the same department.