Premium Essay

Women in U.S. History

In:

Submitted By lucy6565
Words 2183
Pages 9
Women and Equal Rights
Sharon Edick
Kaplan University

Women and Equal Rights On August 26, 2011 women celebrated the 91st anniversary of a victory that took more than 70 years of political struggle to achieve, the right to vote. After this victory was achieved, socialist feminist Crystal Eastman stated “that although suffrage was an important first step what women really wanted was freedom” and she actually laid out a plan that is still relevant today. She outlined a four point program of what women need to achieve in order to have the same freedoms and equality as men. 1. Economic independence for women, including the freedom to choose an occupation and receive pay equal to a man. 2. Gender equality at home, men in the home sharing the responsibilities of family life. 3. Reproductive freedom, the ability to choose when, if and how many children they would have. 4. Financial support for homemaking and child raising (Ellen Carol DuBois; Lynn Dumenil, 2012).
Since 1920 women have won many rights and opportunities in areas like education, professional sports and in some states same sex marriages. However, if we look at the “priorities” that Eastman identified how far have we actually come when the U.S. Constitution does not even guarantee women the same rights as men?
With ground already broken in the workplace due to women’s participation in various professions, trades and unions, women believed that equality in the workplace would be the easiest part to achieve. One of the foremost obstacles was inequality in pay, a problem that has shown to be amazingly enduring. The Equal Pay Act is the landmark law that was passed 50 years ago which require employers to pay men and women equally for substantially equal work. Yet here we are 50 years later, with equal pay still being unfinished business. When the Equal Pay Act was signed into law in 1963,

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Omen

...Throughout history women in most societies were considered inferior to men. It was preferred that a woman remained in the home rearing children and managing the household. This was also true in the U.S. during the 1600-1700s. Women in the U.S. were not allowed to vote, own property or even own a business on her own. It was pretty much understood during the early develop of farms in the U.S. that women were physically incapable of doing manual labor like men. The natural result of biological differences between the sexes supported the point of view that believed women were unable to compete with men at jobs that required strength and intelligence. It was believed that women are naturally more emotional and therefore less decisive than men. Many believed that they were also less intelligent and with an inferior quality of creativity by nature. Many sociologists and anthropologists maintain that various cultures throughout the world teach girls to behave according to negative stereotypes of femininity, thus keeping alive the idea that women are naturally inferior. Overtime through war, a changing job market due to the introduction of new ways to produce, the decrease in manual labor jobs, divorce and the development of women’s groups, the U.S. was to notice the impact of women in their society and make changes to better accommodate her. There were toward the end of the 1700s women were becoming more vocal about equally between the sexes. An increased in literature written by women also...

Words: 939 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business

...Christopher Germino ETH/125 Diversity Organizations Paper The status of women in United States history, The serious studies of women written by amateur women scholars were ignored by the male-dominated history profession until the 1960s, when the first breakthroughs came. The field of women's history exploded dramatically after 1970, along with the growth of the new social history and the acceptance of women into graduate programs in history departments. An important development is to integrate women into the history of race and slavery. A pioneer effort was Deborah Gray White's 'Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (1985), which helped to open up analysis of race, slavery, abolitionism and feminism, as well as resistance, power, and activism, and themes of violence, sexualities, and the body. A major trend in recent years has been to emphasize a global perspective. The status of women in United States today, women in the U.S. have made big advances in every field. Yet discrimination still exists. Doing "A Man's Job" As women have gradually become leaders in the professions — in medicine, law, and business, for example — they also have taken jobs once regarded as too physically strenuous. Women have become sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, and coal miners. Some examples of concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity in society and media are, a man or a woman in our society is not just defined by...

Words: 835 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Importance Of The 19th Amendment

...rights with men, women of all races had difficulties in getting respect for their rights. As women have always been looked down upon as less powerful and smart to men, when women began to try to make a difference and gaining equality, they had to start by taking small steps. This included having small discussion groups that later lead into larger groups that ultimately became conventions. As time passed by, people finally settled in with the idea of equal rights, later becoming the 19th Amendment. Although there have been many important events in U.S. history since 1900, the 19th Amendment must be kept in the new U.S. history textbook because politically, it gave women the ability to have...

Words: 852 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Women and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People

...Throughout U.S. history, women have faced many equality barriers. Today, women have made amazing progress, yet still face some discrimination. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people have also had a rough road to equality, and as like women, are not done. Women and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people faces many of the same issues today and in the past. If you look at gender roles, there may be some explanation of why our society is the way it is. What has been the status of women in the United States throughout history? Throughout U.S. history women have been subject to unfair and unequal treatment in all aspects of life. Women were seen as servants to men, to have children at the man’s request, cook, clean, not to work, not to have independence. Women were not allowed to own property or vote (Women’s Rights, n.d.). Women were not seen as much more than a way to enhance their husband’s status. Things began to change, however, when strong, empowered women started to make their voices heard. What is the status of women in the U.S. today? Women have come so far, even in just the last 50 years. Today it seems as though women are equal to men, but that is not the case. There is still discrimination, especially institutional discrimination against women. Institutional discrimination is denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that result from normal operations of a society (Schaefer, 2012, pg. 65). Though women are almost...

Words: 355 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Susan B Anthony Women's Rights Movement

...“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less”, stated Susan B. Anthony, a women’s rights activist and founder of the New York State’s Women’s Rights Committee. This claim encompasses a tumultuous time where women struggled for a voice in a country that counted them as second rate citizens. That would change, when two women devoted their lives to the fight for women’s suffrage which would begin a journey to equality that women are still embarking on today. Starting in 1848 women have been struggling for equal rights, the struggle has been a continuous issue, even up to modern day. Women were successful in creating equal rights in most aspects but, women still lack equality today. The fight for equal rights...

Words: 1079 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

The Evolving Woman

...The Evolving Women The role women play in our society is and has been an ever-changing one, from mother to doctor to soldier and everything in between. With increasing standards and demands on them to be the one who keep’s the family grounded and together in a chaotic society that thinks none to highly of them or their rights as citizens. I chose to focus on women’s changing roles during the time period from 1865 through 1920 and then through 1920 to this present day. The reason I chose to focus on the women of our history is because this was a very unstable time in history, due to the changing status of minorities in the culture at this time due to the end of the Civil War and the impending revolution for women’s rights with the passage of the 19th amendment. Dating as far back as the early 1800's women’s roles were consistently being challenged and questioned, it was not so much the women’s rights marches of the 60's but it was the beginning of that revolution. During the early part of the 19th century women’s character was separated with four basic attributes: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Even the foreign visitors to America during this period found fault in American male’s attitude towards women, they thought males treated women as inferiors and subjected women to double standards. "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law; that is, the very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage." This is according...

Words: 2425 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Discrimination Agasint Men

...Gender Bias in U.S Court System Intro #1 Throughout U.S history women had been known as properties belonging to a man. Women are seen as objects while the men are seen as an individual self. It took many years before the U.S Government amends and adopted new laws in order for women to be label as equals’ of men. One of the biggest movements in U.S history was the Feminist Movement in the 1960’s where groups of women fought to gain equality for women in the life, workplace, home and also to bring awareness to violence against women. Shame on all those women of the 2000’s who now use these laws to their advantage in family, civil and criminal court to bring men to their knees, and to erase fathers from the lives of their children. False allegations by women of child abuse, domestic violence, and stalking are almost never questioned by judges for fear of being politically incorrect. Intro #2                 In the late 1980’s there was a controversial murder case where two people, brother and sister both of whom committed the same crime. They were tried and found guilty of murder of a woman who was the girlfriend of the sister’s ex-husband. What's most shocking is the sentence that was handed to them. As Marc Angelucci puts it, a Time columnist writer, “She gets 10 years in prison. He gets the death sentence.” This is just one of many absurd cases of discrimination against men in the U.S Court system. Family court a) List a few case studies and its relevance to the research...

Words: 362 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Empowering 19th Amendment

...The Empowering 19th Amendment by Chris Shively The 19th Amendment was not only an amendment that allowed women the right to vote, but was also a major milestone in the history of the United States itself. Leaders such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized many of the parades, protests, and demonstrations across the nation to bring attention to the issue. The suffragists, advocates of the voting rights for women, made several sacrifices and the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment resulted in progress to America, one of which is educating new American citizens on the importance of this amendment. The suffragist movement has a long history and included many sacrifices. Beginning in New York, with the Seneca Falls convention in 1848, women rallied for the right to vote. Twenty-one years later, few state constitutions allowed women the right to vote. However, women wanted it written in the U.S. Constitution. So in 1869, Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. Two years later, in 1871, a petition signed by Anthony, Stanton, along with four other suffragists, was sent to Congress asking that voting rights be given to women. The petition also asked that women be given the right to speak in Congress. The petition noted that, “Men are represented on the floor of Congress and so may be said to be heard there. Women are allowed no vote and therefore no representation cannot truly be heard except as Congress shall open its doors to...

Words: 1500 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Breast Cancer

...Breast cancer incidence in women in the United States is 1 in 8 (about 13%). In 2009, an estimated 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 62,280 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. About 1,990 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2008. Less than 1% of all new breast cancer cases occur in men. Following a 20-year increase in breast cancer incidence rates in women, 1999-2006 saw these rates decrease by 2%. One theory is that this decrease was due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by women after the results of a large study, called the Women’s Health Initiative, were published in 2002. These results suggested a connection between HRT and increased breast cancer risk. About 40,170 women in the U.S. were expected to die in 2009 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1990. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness. For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer besides lung cancer. Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. women. More than 1 in 4 cancers are breast cancer. Compared to African American women, white women are slightly more likely...

Words: 660 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Women of Today Are Thankful for the Women of Our Past

...The Women of Today are Thankful for the Women of Our Past Student Name HIST 204 Naomi Rendina September 3, 2012 The Women of Today are Thankful for the Women of Our Past The American Women started out as the basic homemaker since coming to the New World. They were seen as nothing but a person that should stay home with the children, tend to the land and their husbands. As the world began to change, so did the view point and the rights of women. This change did not happen overnight and it was not an easy battle. The women of our past paved the road so that the women today can play a major role in the military, politics and on the home front of America. The first battle for women’s rights came in the mid to late 1800’s, prior to the Civil War at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. The movement came to a sudden halt, just as it started to begin, due to the Civil War. In 1869 the proposed 15th Amendment, which gave black men the right to vote, fueled the women’s right movement even more (Bowles 2011). Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton played a major role in the early part of this movement. In May 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was formed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; an organization made up primarily of women. Their object was to secure an amendment to the Constitution in favor of women's suffrage, and they opposed passage of the Fifteenth Amendment unless it was changed to guarantee to women the right to vote...

Words: 1970 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Women at War

...Women at War Women have faced multiple struggles to gain equality. When it comes to women trying to fight for our rights in the country, the struggle is even tougher. Throughout history, women being involved in the military seemed to be more of a burden than anything. Even though women can help with military readiness, social change throughout the military and get the career advancement they have been dreaming of for so long, they have had a hard time convincing others differently. Others would see women being a part of the military as a risk factor, as they are not as physically strong as men or that women are to compassionate compared to men. Even with the extra stress from maternal and post-traumatic stress disorder, to being sexually assaulted, women did all they could to be a part of the military. Women may not be as physically strong and capable as men but having them in the military can strengthen intelligence operations. Throughout history women have been doing all they can to be a part of the military, even to the extent of dressing as men and creating a fake identity. Support for women being a part of the military was nonexistent until recent years when women have been accepted for roles in the military. Women have been a part of the war effort since the Revolutionary War, but in the early days of our nation they had to disguise themselves to serve alongside men. Deborah Samson Gannett, from Plymouth, Massachusetts, was one of the first American women soldiers. In...

Words: 2194 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Womans Suffrage Movement

...The suffrage movement occurred around the early 19th century and it was one of the primary social transformations in American history. Women battled for their rights and thought suffrage existed as the greatest effective to change an unfair system. Iron Jawed Angels was a flick that covered a period in U.S. history with the tussles from women that battled for their privileges to vote. In a nation controlled by prejudice, it was very challenging for women to battle against the men. Females were continuously labeled and were measured to be a weaker gender. The idea that was involved was that women were always seen to have certain responsibility. Men believed that caring for the children was to be their only role that was considered appropriate for females. The women was seen as a substandard when they contributed to legislations but, males were always seen to be the strong ones and their thinking’s that without man we would not be anywhere. Suffrage is known as, the right or opportunity of electing and is often combined among the rights of residency. Nevertheless, not all individuals in the United States are automatically allowed the privilege of citizenship, not all citizens are evenly capable with the right to vote. Throughout U.S. history, many individuals were refused suffrage established upon race, sex, age, and salary. The nonexistence of widespread suffrage traditionally stemmed in a landslide of debates, disputes and encouragement for political improvement. However, in...

Words: 1034 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Diversity Organizations Worksheet

... | |http://www.wic.org |Women have been thought to be the weaker sex throughout history. This website details the events that | | |have lead up to the present time. It shows how much women have had to overcome to get where they are | | |today. | |http://www.hrc.org |Human rights have evolved over the years. This website has great positive information on human rights | | |and support. | |https://www.aclu.org |Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender have projects that work towards those to become a free America| | |from discrimination. These projects are put into place to allow them to live openly. | Use your notes to aid in your responses to the questions below. You may need additional resources from the University Library to complete this activity. Write a 750 to 1,050- word paper answering the following questions: • What has been the status of women in the United States throughout history?...

Words: 1075 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Diversity Organizations Paper

...Organizations Paper Throughout most of history, women have endured so much. They almost always had fewer legal rights and career opportunities. The main professions tied to women were wifehood and motherhood. According to "Women's History in America" (1995), “Women were long considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development.” The common stereotype was “a woman’s place is in the home.” Women went through the struggles of not being able to get an education, voice their opinions, not having the right to vote, and being viewed as property. Gladly, the role women play in the United States has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Despite the thoughts of men being stronger than women, “physiological tests now suggest that women have a greater tolerance for pain, and statistics reveal that women live longer and are more resistant to many diseases” ("Women's History in America", 1995). In 1969, women made up only about one-third of the workforce. Like it should have always been, now more and more women have taken on new responsibilities outside of home by joining the paid workforce and they make up almost half of all workers in the United States ("The State of Women In America", 2014). However, although women have made big advances in every field, they still endure discrimination. If both male and female work full time jobs, census reports show that to this day women still make 77¢ to a male’s dollar. With...

Words: 1096 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Women in Civil War

...Women, Slaves, and Free Blacks in the Civil War What roles did the Northern women play in the war effort on the Union side during the Civil War? What roles did the Southern women play in the war effort on the Confederate side during the Civil War? How did the war affect each group? “There were just shy of 400 documented cases of women who served as soldiers during the Civil War, according to the records of the Sanitary Commission.” (Brown, 2012) Women during the 19th century, according to Historian Barbara Welters were “hostage of the home”. (Brown, 2012) Women were considered what we know now as home wives, without really the option of doing anything outside of the home. When the Civil War began, that meant that men left home behind to go join the ranks. Therefore, the duty lie heavily on the women. The war, in a sense, gave women independence. Instead of just taking care of the home and children, women had to fulfill the duties their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons once fulfilled due to the economic hardships. (“Over the course of the war, inflation in the South caused prices to rise by 9000%.”) (U.S. History Online Textbook, 2015) The women in the South held fundraisers to raise money for army supplies and also provided soldiers with necessary supplies of everyday life. In the South, many women had to become school teachers (for the first time) and eventually were granted permission to work in the hospitals due to the lack of nurses due to all the casualties...

Words: 995 - Pages: 4