"For over seventy-five years, the Women's Bureau, a division of the U. S. Department of Labor, has played a major part in the struggle for equal rights. In this institutional history, Kathleen A.

Laughlin offers the fullest account to date of the Women's Bureau during the post-World War II era, showing how its long tradition of linking government with grassroots constituents supported and sustained the political milieu for women's rights activism in the 1940s and 1950s, and set the foundation for resurgent feminism in the 1960s.".

"Laughlin details how the Bureau's strategic use of national conferences, regional field representatives, research, publicity, and alliances with the private and public sectors encouraged political activism and continuity among women in labor unions and disparate religious, civic, service, and professional women's organizations after World War II.

She also discusses the department's role as a catalyst for the establishment of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, the passage of the Equal Pay Act, and the extension of a women's rights agenda at the state level.".

"The author considers why and how the Women's Bureau was able to succeed in furthering an equal rights program in the 1960s while bound to its statutory mission as an advocate for protective labor laws aimed at regulating the workplace for women. In addition, Laughlin examines the rationale behind the Bureau's initial strong opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and its dramatic reversal in support of the ERA's ratification."--BOOK JACKET.