Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink ( 1927-2002 )

Unsatisfied with the result of 1966 Conference delegates prohibiting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from legally enforcing its mandate to end sex discrimination, the author of The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan gathered the first African-American female Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, the first Black woman that ran for president of United States, and several others for conference in a hotel then officially formed NOW. The feminist leaders promoted the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the 1970s. The amendment was approve by the Congress in 1972 then immediately ratified by 28 states. However there was another campaign promoting to stop the ERA led by Phyllis Schlafly, therefore result in only 35 states ratified the amendment with 3 states short to make it into the law. Due to the challenge of getting the ERA ratified, the NOW is officially formed under the disturbance theory and bargaining for the disadvantaged women of the time. Till today the organization is still actively lobbying legislatures and media for feminist issues.

Terrell also campaigned to establish schools for domestic science, and the NACW worked tirelessly to develop homes for girls, the aged, and the sick. In 1895, she became the first woman of color in American to be appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education. She resigned in 1901, was reappointed in 1906, and held the post until 1911. In 1909, she and journalist Ida B.

     Throughout United States history oppression of people has always been prominent, whether through African American’s and segregation or Asian American’s during the Vietnam War. What is often ignored is our history of the oppression of women. No matter what time in history, there is always a case to be found of the discrimination over gender. Many people know of how African American’s came into freedom and the long perilous road it took, but few know the struggles, changes and hardships that women have perceived to get where they are today. As the civil war halted and industrialization and urbanization came into play, the role of women changed dramatically and their status

Women’s rights and equalities have always been an issue. Women first began their fight for equality in 1776, when the Congress was working on the Declaration of Independence. During the late 1840s, women set up the first women’s rights convention, which was the starting point of the women’s rights movement. In 1861, men were getting called off to war, leaving their wives and kids at home to wait patiently and care for the house and children. Women did not take too well to that idea, and they began to take action. Women have always fought for their right to stand alongside men. The three major events for the fight to gain rights and equality for women were the “Remembering the Ladies” declaration, the Civil War, and the Women’s Rights Movement.

Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity (2015). Title IX covers 10 key areas including: education, athletics, careers, employment, learning environments, technology, sexual harassment, testing, Math and Science, and education for pregnant and parenting students (2016). The law was passed in 1972 (2016). One of the most striking figures of the Title IX movement was Billie Jean King. King was a renowned tennis player and huge advocate for gender equality (2013). Despite having to endure both private and public battles, she never gave up on fighting for what she believed in (2013). Although King is often seen as someone who fought for women’s right she continually points out that she was fighting for “equal opportunity for both boys and girls” (2013). Title IX mainly focuses on helping women and young girls gain gender equality in common places but it can affect men

For quite a long time, women have wanted to receive the same treatment as men. When African American men were able to vote, women wanted to be able to vote as well. When World War II was in progress, women would work in the factories while their husbands, brothers and fathers were fighting in the war. Women were tired of being treated differently and not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to conceive an amendment that would force people to treat them as equally as men and anyone else. This amendment was called the Equal Rights Amendment. On March 22, 1972, the equal rights amendment, E.R.A., was passed by the United States Senate and was sent to the states for ratification. Thirty states ratified the amendment but then a

Representative Bella Abzug of New York and feminists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, it won the requisite two-thirds vote from the U.S. House of Representatives in October 1971. In March 1972, it was approved by the U.S. Senate and sent to the state.

     Title IX was passed by the U.S. Congress on June 23, 1972, and signed by

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

TITLE VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 law was what many civil rights activists had been lobbying for over many years. Title VI was made to end segregation and discrimination on the basis of color, gender, and nationality for employment. However, education was not included in TITLE VI, which caused Dr. Bernice R. Sandler, a senior scholar at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, DC, to still have to fight for her job at the University of Maryland. Dr.

It took 21 years for this idea to finally become a permanent law since it was first introduced to congress in 1942 by Congresswoman Winifred S. Stanley. Because of the ever growing number of and supporters of the feminist movement, congress passed

The lack of action and the incompetence of HEW was the primary obstacle in the way of thorough enforcement of Title IX . Inspired by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title IX took years for women to see the law enacted due to the disgraceful lack of enforcement by HEW. Experts show that the Education and Welfare did “three tenths of a complaint per person” failing to protect women to the best of its abilities for more than five years (NOW 71). The HEW did not make a priority to evaluate the claims of race or gender discrimination and after the passing of 1972 women who were excited about the passing of the law were met with one obstacle, the grace period. Feminist Susan Ware notes that The Department of Health, Education and Welfare appointed a “grace period of four to three years” for secondary institutions, meaning that some women did not see the law take hold until graduation (NOW 74). The grace period allowed schools to do as they please under the guise of evaluating results of complaints of discrimination which gave the law a sluggish start. During this period women flooded HEW with thousands of complaints by women facing gender discrimination on college campuses across the nation.

Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink (1972) a congresswoman from Hawaii. A third-generation Japanese American and an anti-Vietnam War candidate. She ran on the Democratic ticket and received 2% of the votes. She ended up supporting the Democratic nominee George McGovern. Her political achievement included (1) Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits gender discrimination by federally funded institutions. (2) Wrote the Early Childhood Education Act and Women’s Education Equality Act. (3) President George W. Bush renamed the Higher Education Act the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002. (4) She was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom for her lifetime of contributions to America by President Obama in

Lee then moved to California in 1960 because her parents were in the military. Lee started doing major actives the first was when she integrated her high school cheer team. Congresswoman Lee received her Masters of Social Work from the University of California Berkeley where she specialized in psychiatric social work. Lee also worked for Congressman Dellums for eleven years. Lee made a breakthrough when she made it to capital hill since she was a women of color. Lee was a California legislator who passed 67 bills and problem fixers that happened to be signed into law by Republican Governor Pete Wilson. The legislation’s addressed issues including public safety education healthcare as well as environmental

Title VII of the act banned employment discrimination based on "race, color, sex, and nationality," it also created a permanent equal employment opportunity commission to enforce its provisions. The act also for the first time included obligations not to discriminate to private employees, labor unions, and governmental agencies.(Urofsky 17). In executive order 11246, issued on September 24, 1965, Johnson require that federal contractors take affirmative action to recruit, hire, and promote more minorities. Two years later in executive order 11375 Johnson added women to the group covered by previous anti- discrimination order" (Urofsky17). Each new order was a modification of the previous one. Increasing minorities' and women's chances to compete in the job market. When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, he asked Art Fletcher, the Assistant Secretary of Labor and a black man himself, to find a way to enforce the hiring provisions of Title VII in a way that it would withstand court challenge. Fletcher did, and in 1971 Nixon unveiled the Philadelphia Plan. The Philadelphia Plan made federal contractors meet specific numerical goals in hiring minorities. Each contractor was to have nine percent of its work force be made up of minorities and women. Even with all these Executive Orders, Civil Rights Act, and Amendments passed, only a small percent of minorities held position in the job force. In recent years, in order to combat job discrimination in the employment market,