In 1908 the Supreme Court unanimously upheld an Oregon law that set a ten-hour limit on the workdays of women in factories and laundries. Using lawyers' briefs, arguments over single-sex protective laws, and other major court decisions, Nancy Woloch examines a moment in which constitutional history, women's history, and progressive politics converged.

Nancy Woloch is the author of Women and the American Experience (2nd ed., 1994); the editor of Early American Women: A Documentary History, 1600-1900 (1992); a coathor of The American Century: a History of the United States since the 1890s (4th ed., 1992); and a coauthor of The Enduring Vision: a History of the American People (3rd ed., 1996). She teaches history and American studies at Barnard College, Columbia University.