Women's Rights Essay examples

Submitted By nicollewilbur
Words: 1254
Pages: 6

For centuries women have been discriminated against. They have been held back from an education; equal jobs, equal pay, and maintained a lower social status than men. Today women have legally acquired equal rights as men, but are women truly treated equally? Even after laws passed, there are many flaws to the wording of those laws. Several Conventions, such as the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, showed many signs of mistreated women.1 Women from 50 miles all around came to New York to protest the mistreatment of women in social, economic, political, and religious life.2 They came together to read articles and make speeches about laws that were on books to deny women equal rights with men. The Seneca Falls convention created the “Declaration of Sentiments” which produced the fight for women’s suffrage and the idea of women’s right to vote.3 They attempted to pass a federal suffrage amendment called the 19th Amendment or the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.4 In order for this amendment to be passed it needed to be approved by thirty-six legislatures. The suffragist from each state had to “grapple” with different political agendas, coalitions, and personalities.5 Once the Amendment was passed, it read as: 1. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by and state on account of sex.” 2. “Congress Shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”6 Women were given equalities with great flaws. Women did not win the right to vote until 1920, the roots of women’s suffrage date back to the 1840s.7 The proposed amendment was defeated every year from 1878 to 1919.8 Women fought for and earned their rights by the end of 1919.9 Although these laws took several years to be passed, women gained their right to vote. But as time went on, women realized the small and some large inequalities that still remained. On a social level, women were put into a group among themselves and created drama within each other.10 On an economic level Women may have the right to have the same job as a man, but they are still not paid equally.11 On a political level Women also gained the right to vote and work, but there are still restrictions and sexist reasons for why women don’t receive the jobs over men.12 Since the inception of the 19th Amendment women have struggled to achieve true equality to men. Women started their fight for rights in the early 19th century. Even with the few conventions held, they still had to keep up the fight and continue the push for equality. The official beginning of the women’s rights movement is marked by the Seneca Falls convention and its resolutions, calling for women's rights to legal adult status, access to all professions, and women's suffrage.13 Women were trying their hardest to involve themselves in the government but they were forbid from doing so.14 Yet nothing stopped the young women who wanted to be treated equally, from butting into the government to get their way. Another amendment which was proposed in the same time as the 19th amendment was the Equal rights amendment. This amendment read “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.”15 And in 1972 the rewording of the ERA was passed and it then read as: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”16 which is taken from the first part of the 19th Amendment. Unfortunately this did not become an amendment. During the ERA movement the conditions of women’s work, public-policy needed to be related to the women’s world.17 An example of that being the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act made new forms of protection against labor force discrimination and the context of women’s wage earning. This act read “to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America to