ABSTRACT
Now among these facts known to all men and presented to the court, were the ill effects of industrial speeding, strain, and the like, upon working women, quawomen. Their physical organization, the greater morbidity of working women compared with men in the same occupations, and the dependence of future generations upon the health of women, all had been dwelt upon to justify the legal restriction of their hours. This was because the earlier decisions, overthrowing the validity of women's labor laws, had denied any special protection to women “on the mere fact of sex.” Women were citizens, hence their contractual powers could not be disturbed. Indeed the New York Court of Appeals went so far as to say in the face of civilized precedent, that “an adult woman is not to be regarded … in any other light than the man is regarded, when the question relates to the business pursuit, or calling.”
