This dissertation studies the discourse of legal scholars and reformers, exploring the ways in which their assumptions about gender shaped their arguments in relation to shorter hours and minimum wage laws. Examining seemingly abstract terms such as "freedom contract" and "citizenship," this work shows how laissez-faire legal scholars employed a discourse embedded with gender assumptions, linking manhood, work, and citizenship to ideals of individualism and competition, to argue against legislation for men. Yet logical inconsistencies arose when they tried to use these concepts, especially citizenship, to deny women protective legislation. In contrast, paternalist legal scholars concentrated on the needs of the public welfare, asserting that legislation would enable men to become better fathers, husbands, and citizens. Reformers and progressive legal scholars united to gain labor legislation for women in particular. Employing a discourse of maternalism, they argued that shorter hours and good wages preserved women for motherhood and protected their morality, thus benefiting the nation. Although this strategy worked well for hours laws, it foundered in arguments for wage legislation, especially as labor studies reported that some women supported entire families on their meager wages. The idea of the female breadwinner did not fit well with the primary identification of wage earning women as daughters and mothers. Reformers' language of motherhood also fell apart as a rationale for securing legislation when women gained the vote. Some feminists began to challenge sex-specific legislation on the grounds that it kept women from attaining full equality with men, fomenting a division among feminists and reformers that remains with us today: the "equality-versus-difference-debate." Although most activists could not reconcile this debate and ended up either supporting equality or difference, social researcher and reformer Mary Van Kleeck, an avid supporter of labor legislation, moved beyond the biologism of difference and instead focused on the commonalities that workers shared, especially in their opposition to employers. Rather than divide male and female workers, and design special legislation for each, Van Kleeck moved toward a non-gendered view of women in the workforce and focused on the idea that all workers had a right to labor legislation in exchange for their productive relation to the state.

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<p> <i>The Most Fantastic Lie</i> explores the troubled realm of lesbian history through contemporary art practice, visual culture, and activist collectives, arguing the necessity of new strategies toward the construction of marginalized histories in the absence of traditional evidence-based documentation. I identify three overlapping strategies toward the reconstruction of lesbian and queer histories: the documentation and collection of existing material evidence by grassroots archivists and contemporary artists who base their practice in affective relationships to archival objects; the manipulation of found objects, in the tradition of Claude Levi-Strauss&rsquo;s concept of bricolage, to serve as visual placeholders for absent histories; and the fabrication of material evidence by artists working in a mode referred to by Carrie Lambert-Beatty as parafiction: deceptions that have productive power in the creation of new senses of plausibility. These strategies, in addition to providing visual pleasure to those seeking lesbian and queer histories, each mount critiques of institutionalized notions of legitimate history. In shucking the burden of proof and elevating denigrated forms of evidence such as gossip, oral history, and fantasy, artists and collectives are able to construct lesbian histories while simultaneously demonstrating the unstable foundations of historical truths.</p>

<p> This study explores whether and how government services originally designed to meet the needs for homeless veteran men are being modified to address the unique needs and circumstances facing the current population of homeless veteran women. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p>This thesis investigates the creation of California&rsquo;s Free County Library System during the Progressive Era. Previous histories of the topic have conveyed a partial picture of those involved in organizing county libraries, focusing on leaders at the state level, such as James L. Gillis and Harriet Eddy. Using Santa Cruz County as a case study, this thesis examines the overall process of organizing a county library system at the local level. Primary source materials consulted include correspondence and publications from the California State Library, newspaper accounts from the time period, California Library Association meeting minutes, <i>News Notes of California Libraries </i>, and local records from Santa Cruz County. This study discusses the Progressive Era&rsquo;s influence on California county library organizing in general and Santa Cruz County libraries in particular. It also considers how the Progressive Movement affected the rising power of women&rsquo;s groups and their invaluable work organizing public libraries. In addition, the thesis explores the early development of reading rooms and libraries in Santa Cruz County and the creation of the area&rsquo;s first county library system. The thesis pays particular attention to the early history of the Watsonville Public Library and its adamant stance against joining the Santa Cruz County library system. Based on comparative histories of the two library systems, the thesis concludes with an analysis of the positive and negative characteristics of a countywide library system versus an independent city library. </p>