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Women's Rights: Now And Then

Decent Essays

Women’s Rights: Now and Then For over one hundred years women have been fighting for equality. It wasn’t until the 19th century that women would start to be seen as equal to men. From the start of America women were seen as men property, and not as citizens of the United States. Women were expected to bare children, tend to household duties; furthermore, if they had an inheritance or any money it went to their husbands. Women did not have the right to vote or run for any type of government office. Even as women started to gain more freedom and rights, they still would be faced with inequality into the 19th century and even today. Though the views and rights of women equality has changed through the year’s research still shows that women are …show more content…

Stanton was one of the first American women’s right activists. The goal of her declaration was for women to have the same rights as men had received in 1776 with Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence. In Stanton declaration she opens saying “We hold the truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are institutes, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” (372). Stanton would go on to spend her life supporting the women’s right movement. For a while the movement seemed to move ahead, but became less important once the Civil War began. After the Civil War ended the 14th Amendment subsequently gave protection to all citizens, but states “male”. The 15th Amendment gave black males the right to vote. Most women advocates at the time like Stanton did not …show more content…

Women did not receive things such as a paid maternity leave, or affordable child care. By the 1960s the rate of women working was at its highest ever. The divorce rate was rising, and children depended on a single parent’s income, typically the mother. In 1961 President John F Kennedy establishes the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, he appoints Eleanor Roosevelt as the chairwomen. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act is passed by Congress making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than what a man would receive for the same job. Before this act passed women earned fewer than sixty cents for every dollar earned by men. Soon after, in 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed which bars discrimination for employment based on race or sex. The 1960s proved how far women had come in gaining equality and justice for their

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