In Elusive Equality: Women 's Rights, Public Policy, and the Law, Susan G. Mezey touches several topics that highlight the trials and tribulations women have face over the year just to get one step closer to being considered “legally equaled” to a man. The author talks about the origin behind the discrimination of women rights using examples from multiply court cases and relates them to situations that women faced today such as women in the workplace, sexual harassment, abortion rights, and eliminating gender bias in education. The authors main point was to inform and stress the importance of seeking constitutional equality, and she used those topics as an example to where women were discriminated against and treated unfairly. She exemplified how such laws were used with sex-based classifications and that men and women were treated different but ironically the laws disadvantaged men more than women. Discussing the topic of women’s rights, the author exemplified many strengths and weakness throughout the book. One of the strengths of this book is the structure in which the author wrote it. Discussing a topic such as women’s rights can be pretty tricky because it is such a broad topic. I like that the author starts off with the legality matters of the subjects and takes it back to the early 1900s to explain how longevity of women discrimination and how long women rights advocates and other feminist movement had to fight in order for there to be equal opportunities for women.
Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.
Since the 1920’s, women have been fighting for equal rights. Women’s groups spent decades working to pass laws that would ban gender discrimination. Finally, in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress even though
The main arguments of this book is about the work Susan B. Anthony did for the suffrage movement. I have chosen Susan B Anthony bibliography of A singular feminist to represent the feminist perspective. This book resonated with me because it showed how strong women are. The point of this book was to specifically, talk about her work as a woman's suffrage activist. The topics covered is about Susan B. Anthony sacrificing her entire life to advocate equal rights for women and to get slavery abolished. I think of her actions as being a phenomenal fearless woman. If she did not advocate fearlessly for women we wouldn't have the opportunities that exist today. For instance; being able to run for office or vote women wouldn't be able to participate in if it wasn't for her using her voice to make a change. I think that as human beings if we notice a law that
Women’s rights in the United States have come a long way in the last two centuries. Women have gone from being seen as minorities to being viewed as powerful and independent by many. Basic rights such as initiating divorce, working and earning a salary, going to college, owning property, and voting were denied to them. The list of these denied rights goes on, but women such as Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Elizabeth Blackwell worked to change this. They helped women gain the rights they know today.
Throughout the 20th century, one of the most controversial topics is the equality of men and women. From the workplace to the athletic fields, many activists have made it their life’s work in order to see women able to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. In some cases, there has been legal action made in order to facilitate these reforms and ensure that they will be enforced. In most cases, these laws have accomplished exactly what they have set out to do. The nineteenth amendment allowed for the suffrage of women, and Executive Order 11246 prevents any employer from discriminating anybody in the hiring process and in employment, to include equal opportunity as far as advancement and salary are concerned. Both of these have
In today’s society, people believe women have the same rights as men, especially after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, which outlawed “discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin” and was amended in 1975 to include the word “sex”.(“Teaching With Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”). The word “sex” was added at the last moment. America does not promise an equal outcome for everybody, but America was founded on the idea that everybody should have an equal opportunity to achieve their dreams. America is the home of freedom, the home of many opportunities, and the home of equality, but we are not where we should be? Many citizens of America are unaware of the unequal
Womanhood Women today continue to challenge stereotypical expectations created by society. Although there is still an imbalance in the equality between men and women, women’s rights are slightly improved compared to history. In the 19th century, women had limited access towards an education, property rights, and many more. Reformer Clarina Howard Nichols approaches this inequality through a speech in the Second National Woman’s Rights Convention, in 1851.
Between the years of 1972 and 1982, women and other supporters were fighting one of many fights for the Equal Rights Amendment. “Women and supporters lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, as well as, committed acts of civil disobedience.” One of the very first problems for advocacy was the significant difference of equality for men and women. In this time of history, the Constitution only granted rights to the individuals who had all the power of decision-making and influence: white males. Social traditions and ideas of common law were defined for women from an English influence. With English tradition as the biggest influence, many women were denied many legal rights. Some of these rights included: denied
The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was at first created to protect against racial discrimination, but the Supreme Court later expanded the clause to also providing equal treatment amongst different races. The clause says, “No state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S. Constitution. Art./Amend. XIV, Sec. 1.) A person could not be discriminated upon solely because of his or her race and if the law treated a group of people differently, then a valid reason for the discrepancy of different treatment must exist. Racial minorities, but mainly women, have historically been subjected and made vulnerable to harsh restrictions on activities such as voting, attending college, and working as lawyers. These restrictions, based on stereotypes overlooked the actual capability and potential of each individual woman. For many cases dealing with discrimination of women, the Court looked to another important element of equal protection, which stated that unfair treatment couldn’t be based on immutable distinctions, such as race and gender, because those fixed distinctions are uncontrollable and unrelated to ability. In the case of Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), the Supreme Court was just one vote short of adopting gender as a suspect classification. In United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), women rights supporters were very pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling and remain
This week’s reading discussed issues particularly affecting women. Chapter 7 talked about women not have equal rights and because of that it results in women being subject to violence, discrimination, unequal opportunity to education and health insurance. In 1980 the United States signed the law entitled, (CEDAW) elimination of all discrimination against women but they never ratified the law. At first this was a shocker to me because when I first read the law I thought it was just for equal rights for women but this law also includes things that are contrary to the United States laws.
Generations of women fought courageously for equality for decades. The ratification of the Nineteenth amendment was vindication for so many women across the country. After having spent so many years oppressed and unable to make way for themselves, women everywhere were growing tired of being unable to own property, keep their wages and the independence that an academic education gave them. The decades that ensued brought with them various female activists, men that supported them and a division of its own within the movement. The women’s suffrage movement lasted 71 years and cam with great discourse to the lives of many women who fought for the cause.
July 13, 1848 marked the beginning of a movement that would shape the beliefs and rights of today’s society. It was on this day that the fight for social and political equality among America’s women began to develop. This renowned movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, had many goals in which mighty-powerful women would achieve with a mind-set to push them through any barrier or obstacle obstructing their path to equality. Lasting until 1920, the Women’s Rights Movement had a target towards changing how women were treated and looked upon within their “stereotypical” societies. Women advocated their rights through organizations and campaigns, as well as educating others of the unfair justice. With the help of the Women 's Rights Movement and the brave, fearless women who supported this reformation, the fight for women 's liberation was on the move towards success. This historic
Gender inequality has engulfed the United States and placed copious varying roles onto the male and female sexes. According to Leila Aboulela, Minaret, “All through life there were distinctions - toilets for men, toilets for women; clothes for men, clothes for women - then, at the end, the graves are identical.” Discrimination places women into different roles and takes away numerous privileges. However in America today after more than a century of struggles by dedicated activists who fought to alter these ideals and gain further rights, the perception of women in society and their contributions to society have been greatly transformed.
In the past 3 decades, women made great advancements in the workforce. First, they have become an integral part of the labour market; they have access to higher education and consequently to traditionally male dominated professions such as medicine, law and business. While statistics show that women are equal to men in terms of their numbers in the law profession, it is not clear however, whether they have achieved equality in all other areas of their employment. In this paper, I will examine women’s experiences in the law profession; whether women are earning equal salary compared to the male lawyers, do they still face barriers that are gender related and whether they have broken the glass ceiling in a profession that is supposed to be
Today in our generation, much has changed over the years dealing with women’s rights. Women have more rights today than they did back in the early years. Conflict over social values affected the wider political environment and the readiness of institutions to facilitate the movement for equality (Chafe, W, 1978). Some people still believe today that women shouldn’t have a voice. “Empowering women isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do” (Barack Obama). In this paper it examines the equality in voting, sexual harassment, and women equality in not only the workplace, but in their everyday lives.