In the mid-1800s, early Chinese immigrant workers were derided as emasculated men due to cultural practices of Qing Dynasty. The Chinese workers sported long braids (the "queue hairstyle" which was compulsory in China) and sometimes wore long silk gowns. Because Chinese men were seen as an economic threat to the white workforce, laws were passed that barred the Chinese from many "male" labor-intensive industries, and the only jobs available to the Chinese at the time were jobs that whites deemed "women's work" (i.e., laundry, cooking, and childcare).