Description
Women at Work: A History
February 6, 2015
This time on BackStory, we look at women in the workforce, from 19th century domestic workers, to the Rosies of World War II, to the labs of Silicon Valley — where programming a computer was once very much a woman’s job. Find out how sexual harassment claims came into being, and why “protective” labor laws regarding women often amounted to discriminatory exclusion from certain jobs. This episode and related resources are funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ROSIE-COLORED GLASSES Betty Soskin tells reporter Eli Wirtschafter about her own experience in the World War II era workforce — and why popular remembrances of women working for the war effort don’t capture the whole story.
INSIDE & OUT The Guys point to a long history of women working both inside and outside the home, long before Rosies took riveting jobs in wartime factories.
UNDER THE LAW Producer Nina Earnest and legal scholar Lea VanderVelde unpack the tort of seduction — one of the few claims women could make to challenge sexual harassment before the term “sexual harassment” came into being.
PROTECT & EXCLUDE Legal historian Risa Goluboff walks host Brian Balogh through the history of laws meant to protect women at work — and why some women weren’t too fond of them.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T The Guys reflect on so-called protective laws for women and how changing ideas about women’s work relates to changes in American kinship.
PLEASE HOLD Labor rights lawyer and former switchboard operator Gabrielle “Gay” Semel recalls some discriminatory — and disturbing — hiring practices at New York Telephone in the 1970s.
BINARY COEDS With the help of historians Nathan Ensmenger and Margaret O’Mara, BackStory producer Andrew Parsons brings us the story of early computer programmers, who were almost all women, and how that trend flipped.
