Government Documents

(Women in San Francisco)

Women's history in government documents goes far beyond the Nineteenth Amendment. This page has a sampling of U.S. government documents available electronically.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a tremendous amount of demographic data, including, for instance, "Women in the Labor Force" pages.

The Women's Bureau

"The Women's Bureau was established in the U.S. Department of Labor by Public Law No. 259 of June 5, 1920."

The Bureau continues to provide data and reports on women's employment. For example:

State Labor Laws for Women (1937)

The Negro Woman Worker (1938)

Differences in the Earnings of Women and Men (1938)

Highlights, 1920-1960 (1960)

Women's Earnings and the Wage Gap (2017)

Women and money:

Women and credit histories  (Federal Trade Commission, 1978)
 

Other reports:

The Equal Rights Amendment: The Most Popular Never-Ratified Amendment (National Archives) -- The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first introduced in 1923. It came closest to passage in the 1970s.

Equal Rights for Men and Women: Hearing before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Seventy-Third Congress, First Session on S.J.Res. 1, May 27, 1933. Washington, D.C., U.S. G.P.O

Equal rights amendment. Hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Seventieth Congress, second session, on S. J. Res. 64, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and women. February 1, 1929

Equal rights for men and women : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Seventy-fifth Congress, third session, on S. J. Res. 65, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and women. February 7,8,9, and 10, 1938. 

Congressional Research Service series