Abstract
In 1911, California's Progressive legislature passed an act that limited a woman's working day in certain occupations to eight hours. The courts upheld the California Woman's Eighthour Bill on the grounds that a woman's role as the mother of succeeding generations was an objective of central importance to the state, which therefore justified a restriction of her employment. To protect the "strength and vigor of the race," court opinions and supporters of labor laws for women articulated a justification that was influenced by and used the language of the eugenics movement. The emphasis eugenicists placed on the meaning of motherhood and regulating reproduction, the importance of racial progress, and a belief that an unhealthy environment could have negative hereditary consequences were central ideas in the debate over restrictive labor legislation for women.