Muller V. Oregon Summary

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Conflict over the working woman’s hours lead to the Muller vs. Oregon case, which was one of the most fundamental cases, and decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. The issue at hand was to decide whether or not women should be limited to working a 10-hour work period each day because of the affects it may have on a woman’s mental and physical health. After much debate from both sides, the court eventually ruled in favor of the 10-hour work regulation. Why was the number of hours women should work such a topic of debate? To answer this question, we must look at the context in which Muller vs. Oregon takes place. During the 19th century, in which Muller vs. Oregon takes place, the United States was undergoing major industrial developments. Factories were popping up everywhere, these factories were no longer strictly producing fabric, but they …show more content…

Women could still go out and work multiple jobs, thus working more than 10 hours, which makes the ruling essentially non-existent. Additionally, the ruling aided in fueling the fire of inequality between men and women in the workplace; because of this ruling women were still seen as inferior to men and in need of protection even more so than ever before. What I questioned the most while reading and researching this case, was why they were so focused on grown women. These women are adults, they can think and care for themselves, and no when they’ve reached their limit so why is the state so focused on completely capable adult women? This is what bothered me about the whole case. Instead of worrying about adults, it would have been more efficient to try and create laws regarding child labor since they can’t necessarily take care of themselves because they truly are dependent on others. Though I’m aware that it was beneficial in many ways, I just believe it would have been better to focus all attention on child

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