The Fight For Equal Rights In The United States

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.

Ellen DeGeneres states, “I'm not an activist; I don't look for controversy. I'm not a political person, but I'm a person with compassion. I care passionately about equal rights. I care about human rights. I care about animal rights.”(“Ellen DeGeneres Quotes.”). Ellen is a popular television host that isn’t afraid to express her opinion to the public. She knows that people do not need to have a high education in equality to understand the every person deserves to be seen and treated equally. People can still take a stand and make a difference simply by supporting a cause. Imagine being discriminated against for something one cannot control, such as their sex. Many people had faced this, until someone decided to take charge. The Equal rights Amendment was supposed to protect oneself from this type of discrimination. A lot has had to happen just to get this amendment up and running to be introduced. The equal rights Amendment has a long history and can be linked to many famous writings, which makes it easily relatable to almost everyone.

Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman wrote the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA is an amendment to the United States Constitution created to guarantee equal rights amongst all citizens disregarding the sex. It specifically states “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”. The ERAs purpose was to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. In 1923, the amendment was introduced for the first time in Congress by the National Women’s Party and since then has brought up many conversations about men and women’s equality.

Although women have gained many more rights, they still are not equal to men. Women had to fight to get a fraction of the rights men were granted. In 2017, women still do not have control over their own lives and bodies.

The history of the Equal Rights Amendment can be closely related to women’s rights advocacy, that started toward the very beginning of the history of the United States dating back to the days of Abigail Adams. The United States constitution had been first interpreted as rights granted to certain white males, leaving other majority groups suppressed and working for equal rights.

Between the years of 1972 and 1982, women and other supporters were fighting one of many fights for the Equal Rights Amendment. “Women and supporters lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, as well as, committed acts of civil disobedience.” One of the very first problems for advocacy was the significant difference of equality for men and women. In this time of history, the Constitution only granted rights to the individuals who had all the power of decision-making and influence: white males. Social traditions and ideas of common law were defined for women from an English influence. With English tradition as the biggest influence, many women were denied many legal rights. Some of these rights included: denied

Equality is like a scale; when fairly balanced, each group gets the same opportunities that weigh them down. No one gets more, no one gets less. In the 19th century, many reform movements have occurred to make this country better, however, at first people struggled to let the word out due to judgements from opposing beings. Many subjects have happened throughout history involving women declaring equality to have the same privileges as men did. Although other reform movements were well supported throughout the nation by citizens, Rights for Women is the most impacted reformed movements that evolved throughout history and is still in our society today since women are still fighting for equal opportunities as men.

It took a very long time to get women’s rights close to what men’s are, but it is still not perfectly equal. In the present day, their rights are still not the same. In Abigail Adam’s letter, dated 1776, to her husband she asked him to “remember the ladies” and to not put so much power in the hands of the husbands. It wasn’t until 1920 when the 19th amendment was added to the U.S. constitution saying that that women would not be denied the right to vote. But, women are still considered even today not as athletic or as smart as men. Only recently have women been allowed to fight in the front lines. Women

Although women now have many more rights and freedoms than what they used to, it didn’t simply happen over night. Throughout the course of history men have always had a superior role to women in our society. White Men could own land, earn a wage, get an education, and state their political ideas much before women ever could. Women have earned their way closer to being equivalent to men by fighting for a higher position in law, receiving education, and advancing to wage labor in the work force.

Over the course of American history, from the time of the American Revolution to today, there have been countless fights for rights waged by different groups of individuals. From racial rights, to gender rights, to rights of opinion, life styles, or religion, every century has been marked by a variety of prejudices, injustices, and inequalities. People who have been deprived of their basic rights as citizens and treated unfairly have to stand up to opposing voices, cruel actions, and humiliation time and again, in order to gain equal rights. Though some fights are lost, at least at first, the fact that some are won show that our country will listen to people’s voices and are willing to change.

The struggle for equal rights has been an ongoing issue in the United States. For most of the twentieth century Americans worked toward equality. Through demonstrations, protests, riots, and parades citizens have made demands and voiced their concerns for equal rights. For the first time minority groups were banding together to achieve the American dream of liberty and justice for all. Whether it was equality for women, politics, minorities, or the economy the battle was usually well worth the outcome. I have chosen articles that discuss some of the struggles, voyages, and triumphs that have occurred. The people discussed in the following articles represent only a portion of those who suffered.

Over time women's rights have grown, however this has not happened without the difficulty of time and tradition. The original role of women was not equal to man, instead their role was to act as the housekeeper, the mother of children. Due to this stereotype, women were unable to gain many rights, and much of the protests against how unfair this was were unheard. To begin, what is known of women's rights during the 1800s is, women in society were subservient to men. Women were only allowed to have access to a minor education, which was not enough to build a life off of much less a job.

Women have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities throughout history. Their most significant professions were wifehood, taking care of the husband and making him happy, and motherhood, taking care of the children and of the

As a caucasian teenage citizen of the United States of America, I am part of a privileged race. I am able to observe discrimination and segregation to other races and members of my country, as most of it is not being done to me individually. However, knowing that LGBTQ people and people of color are being dehumanized, even though the year is now 2015 and same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states, infuriates me on a very high level. Equal rights in the United States is important to me because I strongly believe that everyone should be treated equally and with respect, no matter your sexual-orientation or race.

There are all kinds of different discrimination out there in the world. There is sexual discrimination as well as racial or being discriminated against because of your religion. The second biggest one is gender discrimination or biased that I have heard about in recent news. There is an ad out there that is trying to raise awareness of gender discrimination. One of the main people that are trying to raise awareness of the gender discrimination are called United Nations women. Which is women from the United Nations trying to raise awareness of this epidemic all over the world. How many of you have been discriminated against? I’ll bet that at least some of you have had someone racial or sexually profile you before. I know that is the case for some people in today’s day and age. It doesn’t feel good to be judged just because you weren’t born one way or another. That is why the United Nations started the program for women. The whole point of brining this up is to try to get people to understand that this is still happening from back in the forties and fifties when it was a cultural normalcy. Now however it is completely absurd to not treat people the same even if they aren’t the same gender as you.