Protecting Women’s “Natural Function”, 1964

The apparent purpose of the statute differentiating between males and females is not to discriminate against the female, but to protect the female in her natural function of bearing and rearing children and homemaking.

Protecting Women’s “Natural Function” 1964

In this petition, Cecil Reed’s attorney defended the Idaho law that privileged males as executors of estates. He claimed it was not discriminatory because it protected females’ natural role as child-bearers and homemakers.

National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States