The Civil Rights Movement And The Women's Rights Movement

The women’s suffrage movement and the civil rights movement were two of the largest and rather successful movements in American history. The women’s suffrage movement spanning across the 19th century into the early 20th century fought for a women’s right to vote. The civil rights movement in the early to mid-20th century fought broadly for both the constitutional rights and the overall equal treatment of African-Americans in society. Respectively both movements had major causal factors propelling the movement towards strong, successful mobilization. The three particular causal factors that they share shared in common were the protest group features, the protest groups’ actions and international factors.

hardships that their white counter-parts during and the after the war. As research conducted by

2. There were multiple factors which linked the women’s rights movements and the abolitionist movements. Many women joined abolitionist movement as a way to enter public life and have the opportunity to talk about controversial topics. They faced criticism for addressing these controversial issues which prompted them to attempt gain freedom for women as well as those who were enslaved. They tried to use the abolitionist movement as a way to also gain equal rights for a women as there seemed to be a common idea shared between the two.

The Women’s Rights Movement began in 1848 with the first assembly of women and men gathering to discuss the civil, social, and other conditions of women. The Seneca Falls Convention was the start of the women’s movement. The two women who organized this event were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both who were abolitionists and believed women deserved the rights men were given. This convention began on July 19, 1848 and lasted through July 20, 1848. Although the convention lasted two days, the outcome of this convention sparked the women’s rights movement in various ways. The Seneca Falls Convention was very significant in establishing the women’s rights movement in the sense of creating the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, influencing women bravery in the Civil War due to the expression of equality between men and women, and it led many to believe this convention was the biggest and most important event that has occurred.

The activism era was an era where different groups of people worked to change how things were seen and done in America. These people took different social issues and brought them to the front of the table to be discussed and noticed by the American people. Although many of them caused great controversy, all of the movements made a great impact on how our country is the way that is is today. The Civil Rights Movement, Women’s movement, and counterculture were all different movements during the activism era, however, they were all working towards a common goal: equality.

There was a time when social classes were most easily identified through material goods and possessions. Whether wealth was gained through inheritance or hard work, it was the luxury items that made the most visible and tangible statement regarding a person’s social status. Men could rely on a large house or expensive car to proclaim the success they had earned. It was much more common to see women adorned in jewels, designer clothes, and furs as symbols of her upper class status. The extravagance of a woman’s appearance was a reflection of the success of her husband, so it was natural to indulge her desire for expensive material possessions.

During the 20th century, male and females were not being treated equally a lot of women started getting mad because they weren’t getting jobs or the right to vote as men, so it led to the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was involved, because women weren’t treated equally or given the same rights as males. The Civil RIghts Movement was when there was a lot of racism and black and white people weren’t given the same rights, it was unfair to the black because they couldn’t do so many things like vote and also there was sex discrimination. In 1923, Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party, considered that ERA should be the next step in the 19th Amendment in granting equal justice under the law to both sexes, male and female, in the U.S. Alice Paul said “ We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.” A text from the amendment said “Equal of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

A woman is sluggishly walking down the street with a large backpack. In the backpack she carries her children, her husband, her bills, her student loans, her job, the burdens of the world; she is literally carrying the weight of the world. All of a sudden a man in a business suit comes up to her and starts to yell at her telling her she is ugly, will never be good enough, she is stupid, she will never get anywhere in her life. Although the woman hears him she steadily continues walking because she has to be a mother to her children, she has to a be shoulder for her husband to lean on and cannot stop because she is forced to live up to an image of multi-tasking and not showing signs of giving up. Women have been looked down upon, stereotyped, and even not treated as equals but they still continue to hold up the world and put on a winning and convincing smile for the camera. Some women have giving into the oppressions of the world leaving the women that does have hope struggling to carry the world. Women are continuously dehumanized because they are not treated as equals in the work place, the media, and school however the women’s rights movement has given women the right of freedom of speech and right to vote

Decades after the National Women’s Party pushed for the passage of their proposed Equal Rights Amendment, feminists of the 1960s and 70s rallied once again for this change in the Constitution. The amendment, simply stating that, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex,” quickly gained popularity among activists in the 1970s. This support was not surprising, as this decade was a time of great change and protest. Feminist felt that just as African Americans were gaining civil rights, women, too, should be considered as equals to their counterparts. Women Right’s leaders such as Alice Paul and Gloria Steinem pushed for the passage of such major legislation. With support from Women’s Right’s groups such as the National Organization of Women, the amendment quickly made its’ way to Congress.

The Civil Rights movement is one of the most important acts to change the way not only African Americans were able to live their lives but all races and colors. It would slowly break down the social, economic, political, and racial barriers that were created by the The Age of Discovery and Transatlantic Slave trade. I believe without the Civil Rights acts our country would result to be no better than what it was when the Emancipation Proclamation just took effect. In the 1950s and long before, Southern folk, who were white had created a system that would interpret them as a superior race over blacks. The system would defend whites rights and privileges from being taken away from them while establishing terrible inhumane suffering for African Americans. In the South blacks were controlled in all aspects economic, political, and personal, this was called a “tripartite system of domination” - (Aldon D. Morris) (6) Though it isn’t as prevalent racism and discrimination towards other races that aren’t white is still found in America and can be in schools, the workplace, even when you are in the general public but you no longer see discriminating signs saying “Whites” or “Blacks” or Colored” along the front of bathroom, restaurants, and shopping malls doors. Nor do you see people being declined the right to buy a home based on their color or access to school and an equal education being declined because one didn’t meet racial requirements. The acts of violence towards

Equality rarely applies to Americans of color. To identify with two subgroups and be oppressed by society normalization only hurts the meaning of equalism. Throughout the years, minority groups have witness unfairness from slavery, civil rights movement and new area of the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual (LGBT) movement. Yet, there are still heinous crimes and brutality force upon this community who wished nothing more but to be equals within society. We are living in day time where racial justice has become such an epidemic that the government has yet to take a stand for LGBT of color who are underserved. It’s an issue of equality. It’s an issue of equal treatment under the law,” Jonathan Capehart. African American still continue to face civil rights issue, just much so as LGBT population continue to struggle with justice issues today. What do you do when you are seeking justices for both as an African American individual apart of the LGBTQ community? This has become a rising social issue in today's society for many people.

Numerous groups throughout history have wrestled for equal rights and engaged in combat against oppressors. Both the American women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were examples of an oppressed group grappling with those above them for equality. Each group had to press for legislation that would protect them against inequality. Although the time periods of the women’s suffragette struggle and the African American Civil Rights endeavor were separate in history, the goals and methods of each were immensely similar.

The right to vote, a power to participate in selecting leaders by ballot, derived from North America’s English origins (Kernell et al. 2014, p. 485). Throughout American History, voting rights began as privilege for those with a certain extent of wealth, a privilege that many had sought and longed for. Due process of many national movements, credited to the women’s suffrage movement and civil rights movement, the right to vote had evolved from the limited amount of eligible voters into a human right, that of every American citizen. Low turnout rates in national election is major problem caused by voter lack of motivation/interest and can be solved through systematic enhancements that lower the opportunity cost of voting.

Although countries throughout the world have accomplished full equality for men and women, the women’s rights movement in Pakistan has just begun. People are starting to protest against discriminations that women face in their daily lives that disable them from having a voice in society. Some of these discriminations involve men being able to divorce their wives without her consent, women’s voices having half the weight of a man’s in court, and female heirs inheriting less money or property than a male heir (“Sharia”, 9). Groups like the Pakistani Women’s Rights Organization are striving for the removal of laws or practices that justify cruelty towards women. They are also raising awareness of issues displaying discrimination against women in order to gain supporters in Pakistan and throughout the world. Women’s activist groups and individuals have increased in number throughout the years due to their powerful, public outcries. They all share one common goal: achieve full equality for women in Pakistan ("Human Rights Issues", 1).

From the protests of the he civil rights movement the United Sates government made concessions that appointed Black officials, as mayors, and Congressmen etc.(cite) However, that concession did not include any sustainable improvements for the daily lives of Black people, as concessions in segregation law began to breakdown and poverty increased. Black unemployment in 1954 saw 32% of Blacks living in poverty. 1% of the poor blacks giving in metropolitan areas, coupled with the break down in concessions. Industry leaving the inner city and white flight by 1968 left two-thirds of all Blacks in the North, living in resource stripped Urban Ghettos. The Black Power Movement and the emergence of the Black Panthers Party realized this economic oppression and felt the U.S. Government (due to its oppressive racialized laws and policies that stripped black peoples of their jobs and life-sustaining resources) needed to help poor and oppressed black people with more than desegregation. The BPP felt the Government needed to focus on the economic and lack of resources struggles of poor black, whites and other people of color faced in their everyday lives.