Gender Equality In America

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The preamble of the Declaration of Independence, undoubtedly one of the most well known passages in the United States, is perhaps the most succinct expression of the most sacred of American tenants: equality for all. Yet, the meaning of equality in America has changed markedly since the penning of these hallowed words in 1776. Although the word “Men” is now understood to be gender-neutral— similar to the way the homines is used in Latin to mean “humankind”— women, for more than half of the history of the United States, did not enjoy equality; women had an unequal footing with men in their “pursuit of happiness.” With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1896, however, women became entitled to “equal protection under the laws.” Countless court cases have slowly honed the meaning of the Equal Protection Clause in regards to sex equality. Two such cases which deal with sex equality in American education are Force by Force v. Pierce City R-VI School Dist. (1983) and United States v. Virginia …show more content…
In Force, the uniqueness of Nicole’s exclusion led the court to hold that prohibiting sex based exclusions would have no considerable impact on the football or volleyball teams (1027). In Virginia, however, the pervasiveness of gender-based exclusions led the Court to conclude that prohibiting such exclusions would have a significant impact on VMI, but that the impact would be a positive one, contrary to the state’s