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  3. Defenders of special protective labor legislation for women often maintain that eliminating such laws would destroy the fruits o

Defenders of special protective labor legislation for women often maintain that eliminating such laws would destroy the fruits o

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问题     Defenders of special protective labor legislation for women often maintain that eliminating such laws would destroy the fruits of a century-long struggle for the protection of women workers. Even a brief examination of the historic practice of courts and employers would show that the fruit of such laws has been bitter; they are, in practice, more of a curse than a blessing.
    Sex-defined protective laws have often been based on stereotypical assumptions concerning women’ s needs and abilities, and employers have frequently used them as legal excuses for discriminating against women. After the Second World War, for example, businesses and government sought to persuade women to vacate jobs in factories, thus making room in the labor force for returning veterans. The revival or passage of state laws limiting the daily or weekly work hours of women conveniently accomplished this. Employers had only to declare that overtime hours were a necessary condition of employment or promotion in their factory, and women could be quite legally fired, refused jobs, or kept at low wage levels, all in the name of "protecting" their health. By validating such laws when they are challenged by lawsuits, the courts have colluded over the years in establishing different, less advantageous employment terms for women than for men, thus reducing women’ s competitiveness on the job market. At the same time, even the most well-intentioned lawmakers, courts, and employers have often been blind to the real needs of women. The lawmakers and the courts continue to permit employers to offer employee health insurance plans that cover all known human medical disabilities except those relating to pregnancy and childbirth.
    Finally, labor laws protecting only special groups are often ineffective at protecting the workers who are actually in the workplace. Some chemicals, for example, pose reproductive risks for women of childbearing years; manufacturers using the chemicals comply with laws protecting women against these hazards by refusing to hire them. Thus the sex-defined legislation protects the hypothetical female worker, but has no effect whatever on the safety of any actual employee. The health risks to male employees in such industries cannot be negligible, since chemicals toxic enough to cause birth defects in fetuses or sterility in women are presumably harmful to the human metabolism. Protective laws aimed at changing production materials or techniques in order to reduce such hazards would benefit all employees without discriminating against any.
    In sum, protective labor laws for women are discriminatory and do not meet their intended purpose. Legislators should recognize that women are in the work force to stay, and that their needs—good health care, a decent wage, and a safe workplace—are the needs of all workers. Laws that ignore these facts violate women’ s rights for equal protection in employment.
According to the author, which of the following resulted from the passage or revival of state laws limiting the work hours of women workers?
选项 A、Women workers were compelled to leave their jobs in factories.
B、Many employers had difficulty in providing jobs for returning veterans.
C、Many employers found it hard to attract women workers.
D、The health of most women factory workers improved.
答案A
解析 从第二段前两句话可以看出，妇女被以能力和需要的理由劝离工厂，故A项正确。没有足够的工作给老兵不是由限制妇女工作时间的法律造成的，所以B项不正确。C项文中没有提及。根据文章第三段可知妇女的健康不是改善了，而是下降了，故D项也不正确。
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