Women’s Rights

October 5, 2013

Betty Friedan wrote that “the only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.” The message here is that women need more than just a husband, children, and a home to feel fulfilled; women need independence and creative outlets, unrestrained by the pressures of society. Throughout much of history, women have struggled with the limited roles society imposed on them. The belief that women were intellectually inferior, physically weaker, and overemotional has reinforced stereotypes throughout history. The struggle for women’s rights did not begin in the 1960s. What has come to be called “Women’s Lib” was, in fact, the second wave of a civil rights movement that began in the early 19th century. This first wave revolved around gaining suffrage (the right to vote). Earlier women’s movements to improve the lives of prostitutes, increase wages and employment opportunities for working women, ban alcohol, and abolish slavery inspired and led directly to the organized campaign for women’s suffrage.
There are a lot of things that have happened throughout our history for women rights and it started around the mid 1800’s and there are still different things going on even till this day. In 1848 the first women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After 2 days of discussion and debate, 68 women and 32 men sign a Declaration of Sentiments, which outlines grievances and sets the agenda for the women's rights movement. A set of twelve resolutions is adopted calling for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. The women had the toughest time coming up through the years where there weren’t anything giving to them they had to fight and work hard for everything.
Around the end of the year in 1869 there were a group of ladies that form two different groups for women’s to earn their voting rights. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. The primary goal of the organization is to achieve voting rights for women by means of a Congressional amendment to the Constitution. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and others form the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group focuses exclusively on gaining voting rights for women through amendments to individual state constitutions. The territory of Wyoming passes the first women's suffrage law. The following year, women begin serving on juries in the territory.
In 1893 Colorado was the first state to adopt an amendment granting women the right to vote. Utah and Idaho follow suit in 1896, Washington State in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Alaska and Illinois in 1913, Montana and Nevada in 1914, New York in 1917; Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma in 1918. On August 26, 1920, The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is signed into law by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
One of the things that the women wanted to change was the pay in the workforce. So in 1961 President John Kennedy establishes the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman. The report issued by the Commission in 1963 documents substantial discrimination against women in the workplace and makes specific recommendations for improvement, including fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable child care. On June 10, 1963, Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than what a man would receive for the same job. According to the http://www.factmonster.com/spot/equalpayact1.html since 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, the closing of the wage gap between men and women has been at a rate of about half a penny a year.
Executive Order 11375 expands President Lyndon Johnson's affirmative action policy of 1965 to cover