Sexism And Discrimination Against Women

First and foremost, the fight for women’s rights is something that has occurred throughout time not only in the United States, but in every part of the world. When it comes to the United States, one cannot deny that it was an important historical event. “The struggle for women’s suffrage in the United States had occupied better part of a century” (Source 1). Truly a struggle, for it was not acknowledged by men in the past, primarily white man who had full rights in the nation. Susan B. Anthony was an important leading figure of the Suffrage Movement and contributed to the Suffrage Movement.

In the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s, women were not given the rights they have today and were being mistreated, but because of a few brave women who gave up their lives to fight for what they knew was right, this all changed. Many of these women were educated and brave, but were still denied their rights. Women have suffered through this long battle to get what they knew they deserved and took time out of their lives to fight for what they believed in, which was to have a voice. Women wanted to get the same respect that men were given. The women’s suffrage movement was not only in the United States, but it was all over the world. It took the women’s suffrage movement many years to work and come through, but women were finally able to vote and have the same rights as men. Through their work in the suffrage movement, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and many more changed the role of women in society.

Throughout the nation’s history, American’s have sought to put an end to discriminatory practices and bring equality toward minority groups. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech were directed at putting an end to mistreatment of African Americans. Likewise, Jane Adams and Susan B. Anthony used their authority as women’s rights activists to push for greater equality amongst the genders. While some may argue that women are lagging behind in the race to equal rights, others claim the opposing approach. In today’s society, women are achieving true equality due to a shift in the old stereotypes toward women, increasing opportunities for women to become educated, higher expectations for women in the workplace, and a stronger influence of women in government positions.

In 1921, women were granted suffrage, but suffragists were still hungry for more. Knowing that the right to vote would not eliminate sex discrimination in America, Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment to step closer to equality. After half a century of struggle, women in America are still fighting for rights that men were given to when they were born. Even though women are just as intelligent, capable and hardworking as men, if not more, they are not considered an equal under the U.S. Constitution. Can you believe that today, in the 21st century, we still degrade women and treat them as inferiors to men? Can you believe that just because you are a woman, you are less than equal to the male population? Look around you, all those boys and girls are not equal to each other under our “just” country’s laws. As it is long overdue, the Equal Rights Amendment should be ratified because there is no other amendment that talks about sex discrimination, it would eliminate any inequality in regards to sex, and it would make the judicial stance on sex discrimination cases much clearer.

With the advancement of suffrage to equal pay, over the last century, women’s rights have progressed immensely. Through historic marches and demonstrations across the United States, women protested for their equal place in politics and social progress. Despite the fear-mongering components used in achieving these rights, women’s rights are still thoroughly debated within society today. Over the last century, incredible and unreachable goals have been fulfilled for women, such as the right to vote and a sense of equal state in the “Free World,” and can only improve in the years to come.

Sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. Although sexism is often discussed in regards to females, it affects both males and females. Statistically though, it affects more women on average than men. Sexism can occur in many different situations and has two distinctly different forms. Hostile sexism is a more overt form of sexism that encompasses the negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender. Examples include actions such as promoting a male employee over a female employee simply based on gender and stereotypes about women such as the idea that women belong in the kitchen. Benevolent sexism is sometimes more difficult to identify in an everyday setting as it is covert and appears subjectively positive. Benevolent sexism is harmful as it perpetuates the ideas that women are weaker than men and are not capable of doing

Women’s rights activists in the late 19th century objected an amendment proposing a “man’s government” in America. The amendment faced strong opposition because suffragists believed there was already excessive executive power given to men. So, these women demanded equal representation and access to the same civil liberties as men had by exposing the gender inequality they met through a series of persuasive tactics demonstrated in the article: “Manhood Suffrage.”

Women have come a long way ever since the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 and thereafter with the Equal Rights Amendment Act in 1972 to the U.S Constitution. After decades of struggling and protesting, the 19th Amendment was passed and ratified to grant women the right to vote. Fifty-two years later worth of revisions and persistency, the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified in which it declared that everyone had both Human and Civil rights in the States regardless of sex. Not only did these amendments have an immense impact on the lives of women and sequentially with the rest of the citizens of this nation, but on the people of today’s century. Women have done a tremendous job in proving society wrong about the roles women are

The United States was founded by the principle that “all men are created equal” but as we struggled for the fight of equality for African Americans, we forgot about the fight for equality for women. It is not until thirty years after the Gilded Age when the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote. A major advocate for women’s suffrage was Elizabeth Cady Stanton who believed that “that the isolation of every human soul… must give each individual the right to choose her own surroundings” (188). Even though women were able to come together during this period, they could not fully unite as African American women were left out of the movement, as illustrated in Live Pryor’s plea for help from Susan B. Anthony, another strong advocate for women’s rights. Ultimately

The fight for women’s rights began in the decades before the Civil War. In the 1820s and 1830s, all white men were given the right to vote no matter how wealthy they were or how much land they had in their possession. Customs and laws placed men as superior in the household and

America has roots deeply ingrained in sexism; a great illustration is that fact that it was not until 1920 that women were granted suffrage. To put that in perspective, in the United States, women have been voting for less than 100 years. With Mary Wollstonecraft’s book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects being published in 1792 and launching 19th century feminism and the fight for women’s rights going since then, many would think that equality would be here by now.Unfortunately, it is not. However, women did receive suffrage in the United States on August 26, 1920. The road to getting there, however, was a long and rough one.

Sexism, is a prejudice plain and simple. One of the earliest forms of violence directed toward women was the Witch Hunt Trials of the Middle Ages. Bishops debated whether a woman was really human at all. If her nose were too long, she had red hair, a humped back, or if she was exceptionally beautiful, she was thought to be a witch and was burned at the stake. There was an estimated nine million women burned during the Witch Trials. During the “Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960’s, feminist theorists explained that oppression of women was widespread in nearly all human society, and spoke of sexism instead of male chauvinism. Male chauvinists were usually individual men who expressed the belief that they were superior to women” (Napikoski). By the mid 20th century sexism was established and began to appear in advertising. Between the 1970’s and 1990’s women began to feel more equal to men until the 1980’s where they were portrayed as sex symbols on national television (The Origin and History of SEXISM). There are two main types of sexism, benevolent and hostile, and their definitions are opposite from one another. Hostile sexism is what most people perceive as sexism today as it seems sexism is occurring more and more often and is, notably, more vulgar. It is the notion that women are inferior or not as worthy; a belief that males are intrinsically superior. For many years women have been degraded and looked down upon with the idea that their place is in the kitchen with

Women’s rights have come a long way in America. The major changes for women over generations have been primarily in family life, employment, education, and government. Before the passing of the 19th amendment, women did not have the equal right to vote like men did. Even after women were granted the right to vote, they did not suddenly elevate to the same level as men. They still had fewer rights and different expectations in comparison to men at the time. and Women had no legal identity and were unable to own any land or property and they were expected to stay home and tend to cooking, cleaning, and the caretaking of the children. Women were not allowed to work

Ratified into law in 1920, the 19th amendment guaranteed that women now had the right to to vote in elections. This began a long journey for women to treated and recognized as equal to men. That journey is far from over. Sexism is the unfair treatment of a person or people based solely on their gender and is mostly seen against women. In the United States, it is generally believed that as a nation, equality is a fundamental right and is given freely to all who live here. People are treated fairly. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily true. Although many believe that all genders have equal rights, sexism is a major problem because of sexism against males and females, violence against LGB, and discrimination against transgenders.

Gender discrimination against women is out of control across the world and seeps into many aspects of women 's lives. This discrimination harms women in two ways. First, women directly experience stressful events. The experience of sexism is so common that some research suggests women can experience one to two instances of everyday sexism. But women aren 't only harmed by sexism through the physical stress caused by others. They are harmed to the extent that they internalize and adopt these sexist attitudes that can manifest as poor self-concept. This negative self-concept often obvious on a subconscious level, as women and men will demonstrate automatic negative biases against women (Ferguson, 2013).