Personal Narrative: My First Women's March

Timeline of Four Major Events of the Woman's Movement and Commentary Explaining How Each of These Four Events are Interrelated

Woman were highly involved during the Progressive Movement in the early twentieth century. It all began with a speech gave to the public by Rose Schneiderman after a fire killed 146 workers that were mostly women in a New York City business. During this incident fire exits were blocked it, which indicated that it was not an accidental fire. In her speech, she addressed the fact that woman continuously had to tolerate this type of behavior because whenever they tried to protest the law shut them down immediately. Sadly, this was not the only incident that occurred during this period. Another woman known as Anna Howard Shaw, brought to the public eyes attention how men thought women should not be allowed to vote because they were too emotional,

They affirmed that women must have the freedom to access safe and effective birth control, the freedom of financial equality, and the freedom to vote. Although these women were advocating for financial equality and birth control over a hundred years ago, women today still do not have equal pay; in 2015, women earned seventy-eight cents for each dollar that a man earned for equal work. Moreover, during the 2016 Women’s March, Americans marched to express that they do not support cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, an organization that, like Margret Sanger’s, provides affordable, safe, and effective birth control to women. Many of the efforts that Progressive feminists fought decades ago are still being fought today; the topic is arguably as relevant as it was during the

Never in my life, could I have imagined growing up as a girl in County Monaghan, Ireland, that I would have travelled to Adelaide Australia, to later on become part of history and a part of the reason that women got to finally have the right to vote and stand in Parliament.

What is power? In the tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare there are many different takes on how power can be portrayed. In the beginning of the play the three witches give Macbeth three prophecies. To fulfill the three prophecies Macbeth kills the current king, King Duncan. At the end, Macbeth is tragedy slayed by Macduff because of his tragic flaw, ambition. Although some may say that Macbeth is the most powerful character in the play , Lady Macbeth is the most powerful character because she is power hungry, ambitious, and cunning.

Ellis Island was referred to as “a police station, but a palace.” This was the reference used to describe the island during the great immigration period. This reference all depended on how people were treated throughout their journey. It could be referred to as a “police station” because there was a discrimination between rich, middle and poor class; immigrants were put through an inspection process in which they were checked without their knowledge of what was going on and if anything was wrong, then they would be branded with chalk and put through further inspection. For most people, this was a difficult encounter. The island could be referred to as “a palace” because the immigrants were given good hospitality throughout their stay and Ellis

Even though someone is unhappy with their situation could they make the best out of it? Well, Nikki Giovanni, an African-American poet, wrote the poem Choices which is speaks about how success comes from doing things people are not satisfied with. In addition, if someone does not become the person they want to be they can still be grateful for the things that they possess because regardless there is still more to want. The choices that people make may not be a choice someone is expected to have, but it’s all about making the best of it. Nikki Giovanni may have not come from the best life, but she made a living out of it by becoming a civil rights activist and a poet.

The Women’s Liberation Movement greatly impacted Australia and the United States throughout the 60’s and 70’s carrying on to the 90’s. Without the Women’s Liberation Movement women wouldn’t have received changes in laws primarily regarding employment impacting on them moving forward in terms of equal opportunities. However there is still a there is still process to be made concerning employment and social roles for women to have equal rights as men. The Women’s Liberation Movement started in the 60’s during the second wave of feminism. Even though the 70’s were a time of change, both Australia and the United States saw women remaining in low status roles and staying primarily in the domestic sphere. The 90’s however saw a dramatic change in the amount of women employed and working more so in the domestic sphere.

Throughout history, battles and wars have been fought to gain some type of rights or freedoms. In 1775, the American Revolutionary War was fought for independence; In 1865, the American Civil War was fought to end slavery. Although no wars were fought, many battles were waged for women 's rights. The struggle for women 's rights begin in the mid-late 1800s at a time when women were not allowed to vote or own property. Women, as with African-Americans, during this period were not recognized as having any legal and political rights as men and whites, respectively. This attitude towards women, at the time, was ascribed to the “gender rules in the 1700s” where men thought of “women as fragile creatures always in need of male protection and always denied access to the public sphere." (Lecture 2, 6:19). If women wanted to gain their individualism, rights, and freedoms they were entitle to; they would have to unite and create opportunities to do so. The inequalities women faced was the foundation of the Women 's Suffrage Movement and many other organizations in support of women.

The Women’s March on January 21, 2017 also stirred the emotions of American citizens, for different reason. The vast response to the March throughout the country left some wondering why such action was needed, when women’s rights have come such a long way from when the US was founded. Those unware of the March’s mission are likely unaware that it was centered around many principles including: ending violence, LQBTQIA rights, worker’s rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, environmental justice, and reproductive rights (Women’s March, 2017). The focus on reproductive right’s centered on reproductive freedom and an access to quality reproductive healthcare services, birth control, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, medically accurate sexuality education, and access to safe, legal, affordable abortion (Women’s March,2017). Access to abortion is an issue that varies state to state, similar to the issue of gun regulation.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement of the 1920’s worked to grant women the right to vote nationally, thereby allowing women more political equality. Due to many industrial and social changes during the early 19th century, many women were involved in social advocacy efforts, which eventually led them to advocate for their own right to vote and take part in government agencies. Women have been an integral part of society, working to help those in need, which then fueled a desire to advocate for their own social and political equality. While many women worked tirelessly for the vote, many obstacles, factions, and ultimately time would pass in order for women to see the vote on the national level. The 19th Amendment, providing women the right to vote, enable women further their pursuit for full inclusion in the working of American society.

The Women's Rights Movement was a significant crusade for women that began in the late nineteenth century and flourished throughout Europe and the United States for the rest of the twentieth century. Advocates for women's rights initiated this movement as they yearned for equality and equal participation and representation in society. Throughout all of history, the jobs of women ranged from housewives to factory workers, yet oppression by society, particularly men, accompanied them in their everyday lives. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did women begin to voice their frustrations about the inequalities among men and women, and these new proclamations would be the basis for a society with opportunities starting to open for

The women’s rights movement was a huge turning point for women because they had succeeded in the altering of their status as a group and changing their lives of countless men and women. Gender, Ideology, and Historical Change: Explaining the Women’s Movement was a great chapter because it explained and analyzed the change and causes of the women’s movement. Elaine Tyler May’s essay, Cold War Ideology and the Rise of Feminism and Women’s Liberation and Sixties Radicalism by Alice Echols both gave important but different opinions and ideas about the women’s movement. Also, the primary sources reflect a number of economic, cultural, political, and demographic influences on the women’s movement. This chapter

The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to

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. In the 1960s, however, women challenged their roles as "the happy little homemakers." Their story is the story of the Women's Liberation