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10. Fair Work Hours Didn’t Exist

A woman with long brown hair sitting at an outdoor café table under a red umbrella. She's smiling while looking at her smartphone, with a laptop computer open in front of her and a glass of water on the table.
Credit: Pexels

Working women once had few job protections. Employers freely demanded long hours without safety considerations. Oregon introduced a law limiting women’s workdays to 10 hours. This law faced a Supreme Court challenge in 1908. The court supported the law, but because of concerns for women’s reproductive health, not equality. Still, it set crucial precedents for labor protections.