How A 1940’s Factory Worker Changed Chicago’s Gender Laws

To mark Women’s History Month, we learn about Jackie Bross, a 1940s Chicago factory worker who had the audacity to wear men’s pants to work in a time when it was considered cross-dressing and illegal. Her court case in 1943 eventually led to an ordinance that allowed women to wear pants as long as it wasn’t concealing their gender. Reset gets the story from professor of history at University of Illinois at Chicago Jennifer Brier. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.