Louisa Dana Haring | Letter, “Equality before the Law,” 1908
Some women disagreed with Justice Brewer’s opinion. As long as women were viewed by law as dependent on and different from men, they would fail to achieve sexual equality. In the following letter to the Woman’s Tribune, a newspaper whose motto was “Equality Before the Law,” Louisa Dana Haring of Chicago criticizes the Muller decision.
Dear Madam: The last number of your paper which you kindly sent me is just received, and I want to express appreciation of your editorial about the restriction of the working hours of women. It is the first sensible thing I have seen on the subject. If men want to curtail the hours of work for women, let them see to it that the rates per hour are raised, so as to afford compensation for loss of time. Who ever heard of limiting a working woman in a home (where she often does the rudest, heaviest sort of work) to eight hours of toil a day? If the government is interested in the welfare of women, one would think it would stop discriminating against them in civil service examinations and pay them as well as men when they do work for Uncle Sam!
Source: Louisa Dana Haring, “Unjust to Working Woman,” Woman’s Tribune, May 9, 1908.
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