laws

So in so far the law it seems has worked in favor of women, and children as they were often grouped with women regardless of their gender, over men. However all was not lost because a consequence of such laws also extended their protection to the many men who worked in the same industry as the women and children. However these laws and protective measures were largely passed between the years of 1840 and 1850.
In 1861 the country went into a civil war that propagated effect well into the years after the armed conflict. A consequence of the civil war was the 1868's, 14th amendment to the constitution. Which was worded to protect the newly freed slaves from vengeful southerners. Despite its noble intention, the amendment was largely used to counter any proposed reform to the workforce. Antagonists of reform held to the view that
labor is a form of property held by the person who is going to perform it. And since "…any state [can not] deprive any person of… property without due process of law…" Meaning that any state whishing to enforce the maximum hours laws on behalf of the workers cannot do so unless it can provide reasonable reasons that by interfering it is acting for the benefit of the commonwealth.
"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united sates nor shall any state deprive any person of life liberty or property without due process of law nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
However such a law established a somewhat troubling precedent. For in effect it said there was a difference in the level of productivity between men and women. That is, saying that women were less productive then men for the sole reason of their sex. Such laws however were not based on the wording of the articles of the constitution from where they were deduced from, but largely from the personal opinions of judges presiding, although men and women did virtually the same job in the less rigorous industries. The reformers pushing for protective laws were not, at least at first, troubled by the precedent they were establishing. Citing the gender difference in case after case to obtain the protective measures they were after. Maybe they were not aware of what future consequences their action may bring. Or maybe they themselves, like the judges and legislators they were trying to influence, believed in the differences of the two sexes. Whatever their reason at first was that laws they were able to pass for women eventually extended to men who worked in the same industry.