From the courts to the state legislatures: social justice feminism, labor legislation, and the 1920s.

The article examines the status of social justice feminism and labor legislation in the U.S. during the 1920s. To some an extension of the Progressive Era, to others a New Era, the 1920s are generally perceived as a stagnant period for American labor. While this may be true in terms of wages, conditions, and national political influence, the 1920s shows a transitional period at least in terms of what may be loosely labeled the women's labor movement. Focusing on a particular organization, the Women's Joint Legislative Conference (WJLC), the article examines the endeavor to produce reform in the face of hostile Supreme Court precedent. Created in September 1918, the WJLC initially propounded an aggressive agenda of labor legislation, only to face internal tensions and the strong opposition of a counter-network of Republican state legislators, businessmen, and members of the National Woman's Party. The WJLC and other, similar organizations such as the Women's Joint Congressional Committee, also continued the efforts of social justice feminism movement which begun in the late nineteenth century. Women faced the peculiar legal situation of receiving the right to enact social justice legislation at the expense of being treated as second-class citizens.