Term Paper on "Gender Race and Constitutional Change in the Progressive and New Deal Eras"

Term Paper 12 pages (3465 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

GENDER, RACE, and CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE in the PROGRESSIVE ERA & NEW DEAL ERA: THE FEMINIST LABOR MOVEMENT & INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURAL BARRIERS

The objective of this work is the research the convergence of factors that surrounded the simultaneous labor and women's movements in the early 20th century intersected how this intersected and affected legal, political and economic structural orders over time.

The work of Manza (2000) entitled: "Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal" published in the journal of the Annual Review of Sociology relates that: "The U.S. New Deal raises issues of class, race, gender, region, social movements, and institutional constraint in the context of a societal-wide economic and political crisis, and has not surprisingly generated a considerable body of work by political sociologists over the past twenty years. In particular, the New Deal has served as a major empirical context for developing, testing, or applying broader theoretical models of political change in the United States." Manza relates that there are four theories, which compete in terms of empirical research of New Deal political change, which include: (1) Those emphasizing the importance of social movements from below in generating momentum for political reform, (2) those highlighting the centrality of business influence on successful New Deal reform initiatives, (3) feminist models, and (4) historical institutional models. This work specifically examines the historical institutional model in combination with the feminist model as related to the centrality of business influence and including the social movements within the feminist model during this specific era of time in American politics. Therefore, Manza is correct in one aspect but to properly understand history the social movement that existed within the feminist movement, which next, existed within the business arena or specifically labor in terms of women in the workforce all must be inclusive as these three movement in combination worked to change the shape and face of the institutional model as the structural barriers to real equality for women who worked and who pushed toward social change propelled these movements forward for change.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Both Howard Gillman and Barry Cushman systematically analyze key cases involving protective labor legislation for women exampled in the cases of Muller v. Oregon, Adkins v. Children's Hospital and West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish. However, the focus of Gillman and Cushman fails to fully recover what Rogers Smith refers to as "...multiple traditions in America' recognizing the conflictual and contradictory history of the roles of women and minorities in the nation. Gillman makes only one explicit reference to women's suffrage and the external influence of the Nineteenth Amendment in his quote by Justice Holmes' dissent in Muller stating: ." "..[i]t will take more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account." (171). A closer examination of the multiple actors and influences of the changing institutions, orders, and rules surrounding women's and racial minorities legal and political status may improve understanding the interpretive context and evolving constitutional frameworks during this era.

The work of Margaret Weir entitled: "States, Race, and the Decline of New Deal Liberalism" published in the Journal of Studies in American Political Development states that in the study of twentieth century American politics "there is not escaping the New Deal's pivotal place..." (Weir, 2007) Many debates have surrounded the "causes of the New Deal's distinctive features" and the debate continues surrounding the "consequences for subsequent American political development." (Weir, 2007) Weir argues that: "...the national focus of the New Deal narrative neglects crucial aspects of state politics and policy that limited liberalism and ultimately contributed to its political failure. Indeed, states occupy a peculiar place in the history of the twentieth century state-building and political reform.

States were an important target for the early twentieth century Progressive reformers but they largely drop out of accounts that track the development of activist government for the next half century, apart from occasional references to them as political blackwaters." (Weir, 2007) Weir states that alternatively to holding a view of states as being "...governed by an invariant structural logic" that she argues that: "...there are political arenas with their own distinctive capacities and political logics that must be understood in terms of earlier reform efforts. " (Weir, 2007) the reform efforts of the Progressive era failed in bolstering the executive power of state governments as the New Deal bolstered that of the federal government. In fact, power within the states was effectively decentralized by the New Deal and new actors were never mobilized in terms of alteration of the terms of state politics as was effectuated through the New Deal with labor. The truth is that progressive reforms "ultimately amplified elite voices and demobilized ordinary voters." (Weir, 2007)

Weir holds that the pattern differentials between the reform of state and federal government during the era of the New Deal are "...of enduring significance because the reform impulse that transformed the federal government in the 1930s had no enduring counterpart in the states.." And ultimately the emphasis on federal action during this era effectively weakened the forces in the states and "this is true of states across the union, not only those in the South." (Weir, 2007) Weir states that when one takes federalism seriously "subsequent twentieth century political developments" are "cast...in a new light." (Weir, 2007; p.4) From this view, the United States is seen as "...a layered polity in which federal initiatives were overlaid on state political systems that operated with different administrative capacities and political logics." (Weir, 2007; p.4) Weir posits that the role of the state, in the demise of the New Deal Liberalism, while poorly understood nevertheless, played a central role. (Weir, 2007; paraphrased)

Reform was a creeping type of reform that was not in any manner instantaneous and the "tempos of reform and divergent political logics of reform had significant implications for the politics and politics capacities of states. First, states across the union, not just in the South, remained incomplete democracies well into the 1970s. Progressive patterns of success and failure "left state politics biased toward the interests of traditional elite." (Weir, 2007; p.7) Traditional elites included small business, real estate, agriculture and insurance groups all who maintained a political voice in the legislatures of the states that was greater than the proportion of the population, which they represented. In the beginning of the New Deal era a shift began among liberal activists and experts attention and effort from the state to the national levels as the policies being focused upon during that period were at a federal level Local and state development planning was overtaken by national interests during the era of the New Deal. This is stated by Weir to be due to decentralization in authority over land use, which, resulted in the states lacking the power to influence the development of the metropolitan areas of the country as monstrous cities poured across the land and once having been: "...delegated, this power proved impossible to reclaim." (Weir, 2007; p.9) Powerful interests in the area of real estate development among developers realizing the benefits of the arrangements "...tenaciously defended them. Where Progressive reform was most successful, mechanisms - such as the initiative and referendum - reinforced elite power." (Weir, 2007; p. 9)

Results in the slow reform in state governments resulted in race and gender disparities most particularly in terms of the women in the labor force. While on the national-level reforms were accomplished within the individual states, women were still greatly struggling with equal pay for equal work. Furthermore, individual states in terms of women's suffrage and property rights lagged far behind the advances of reform at the national level of government. Multiple Traditions in America as noted in the introduction to this study was referenced in the work of Rogers M. Smith's (1993) work entitled: "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal and Hartz." What Smith spoke of and that to which Weir has referred in the work reviewed is the fact that synchronization simply did not exist among the various levels of government of national government and government at the state level and in fact, problems remain in this area of government's workings, at least to some extent today. Because of these 'multiple traditions' or in actuality this may be understood as "the way we do things around here" women, as a gender, and specifically relating to civil, constitutional and citizen rights experienced great differentials across the United States at this time in history.

The work of Cobble (2003) entitled: "The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America" examines the cultural characteristics and influences of the women who were involved in the women's labor movement during the era of the New Deal. This work, published by Princeton University Press relates the story of a: "...23-year-old Myra Wolfgang" who in 1937 "strode to the middle of one of Detroit's forty Woolworth's five-and-dime stores and signaled for the planned sit-down strike of salesclerks and counter… READ MORE

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