[单项选择]

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
A. unnecessary because most workers are well protected by existing labor laws
B. harmful to the economic interests of women workers while offering them little or no actual protection
C. not worth preserving even though they do represent a hardwon legacy of the labor movement
D. controversial because male workers receive less protection than they require