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Discrimination against women in the United States
National organization for women's primary interest
Discrimination of women
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Recommended: Discrimination against women in the United States
Writing Assignment: Voice of Freedom Chapter 26
The National Organization for Women also known as “NOW” was created by a group of feminist who were dedicated to change the sex discrimination being made towards women. During modern history, women struggle to gain equal rights and opportunities. Unlike men who were giving all the privileges and benefits of society. NOW goal was to make sure women had all the opportunity and benefits no less or more but equally as men. Women would get paid low salary wage compared to men and denied opportunity to advance in their workplace. They had limited job openings and where unwelcomed to professional programs in education. Even though women were married to their husband they had no legal right to their husband's earnings or property and even divorced was
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difficult to obtain. If women were sentenced to jail time they were giving more time in jail than men where for the same type of crime made. Interest rates were higher for women and loans were harder to obtain being a female. Throughout the 1970s many African American women were being discriminated and harassed throughout the society having no rights in the workplace, education, public places, and also in the justice system due to their gender being a female.
This is when “The National Organization for Women” was created during the 1960s. According to Eric Fonter in his documentary book Voices of Freedom, he mentions to how “NOW” it helps “promote women's equality, led the campaign for approval” (Voice of Freedom, p. 307). In the brochure, it talks about the gender inequality providing a list of both genders men and women in social and economic status. It mentions the Philadelphia ERA amendment how it was significant because it represented a major step towards women rights. However, over time eventually, it came to show that they're there still a great deal of resistance to change which later created conflict causing other states do not agree on the rights to women making the process slower. The amendment did help get women some political power but other rights like employment and healthcare were still not obtain to them. Freedom to the brochure to them meant to outlaw discrimination of
sexism. Richard E. Blakemore was a member of the Nevada state senate according to Fronter documentary book he was acknowledged as the father of the “Sagebrush Rebellion” which “is a catchy but somewhat misleading term used to describe the western states’ demands for a greater role in determining the future of the west” (Voice of Freedom, p. 314). Blakemore seems threatened by the environmental policy by having new regulations led to fewer government interruptions. There were also federals being controlled of larger lands that later rebelled threatening labor productions and some restriction rights. Over regulations were being made almost everywhere threatening the economy. Phyllis Schlafly who was mentioned in the documentary book Voice of Freedom is “a veteran of anti-communist politics of the 1950s, who led the campaign against the Equal Right Amendment” (Voice of Freedom, p 324). She is known for being against the Equal Rights Amendment for many reasons she believed that a women place is to be at home as a housewife with her husband and kids not going to the workplace reporting to a boss. Schlafly argued that the ERA is actually a harm for women for the reason that it would require women to be chosen into military combat at any time they wanted them to. It also puts them at risk for Social Security benefits such as dependent wife benefits and weakens the existing legal protection under divorce and marriage laws. She argues about having unisex bathrooms and funding for abortion.
(Nugent, p. 116) The amendment granted woman’s suffrage, and was the fruit of many years of labor of several women’s rights groups, such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and prominent women’s rights activists, such as Susan B. Anthony. The amendment expanded the bounds of popular democracy, bringing attention to women who felt increasingly ignored as participants in the political system (Piott, p. 166). Being the inalienable right of any citizen, the right to vote inevitably expanded the political freedom of American women, and also opened other doors of opportunity to them; they could advocate for more job opportunities, better economic security, and advantageous marital and family
“Even in the modern day world, women struggle against discriminatory stigmas based on their sex. However, the beginnings of the feminist movement in the early 20th century set in motion the lasting and continuing expansion of women's rights” (Open Websites). One such organization that pushed for women’s rights was the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) established in 1890. The NAWSA was the largest suffrage organization and worked toward securing the right to vote. The NAWSA however was split into two, the NAWSA and the National Women’s Party (NWP), when suffragists were disagreeing on how to achieve their goal.
In the 1840’s, most of American women were beginning to become agitated by the morals and values that were expected of womanhood. “Historians have named this the ’Cult of True Womanhood’: that is, the idea that the only ‘true’ woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family” (History.com). Voting was only the right of men, but women were on the brink to let their voices be heard. Women pioneers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott wrote eleven resolutions in The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments; this historical document demanded abolishment of any laws that authorized unequal treatment of women and to allow for passage of a suffrage amendment.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Many lobbyists and political education groups formed during these times. One such organization is the Eagle Forum, which claims to lead the pro-family movement. On the opposite side of the coin is the National Organization for Women, or NOW, which takes action to better the position of women in society. Feminism is the most powerful force for change in our time. The Equal Rights Amendment has been a powerfully debated subject for decades.
Without the civil rights movement, the women’s movement likely would never have taken off on its own. The civil rights movement and the activists involved gave women a model for success. The method the civil rights movement used demonstrated the power of solving social problems through collective action. By using lunch counter sit-ins, organizing into national networks like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and reaching into college campuses through the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the civil rights movement was able to bring together northerners and southerners, older and younger citizens and men and women to work for a single cause. Women took inspiration from this in the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other feminist groups – NOW even states in its Statement of Purpose that “there is no civil rights movement to speak for women, as there has been for Negroes and other victims of discrimination” and that NOW must take on that responsibility.
In 1850 society the new republic altered the role of women by making the differences of men and women in society more noticeable, by giving them a higher status, and allowing them to demand more rights and think for freely.
The amendment would let women into power, giving them social justice and many political rights. Before 1920, women did not have the right to vote. They were known as “second class citizens”. Women were to stay home to help organize the family’s necessities. Having any other higher power was said to be way out of their limitations.
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest feminist activists’ interest group in the United States that seeks to protect the individual rights of women. The influential success of NOW can be understood through the following factors. Its’ concrete background; nearly half century worth of history as foundation; well structured organization; membership incentives; the function and approach of NOW/PAC and NEP; up to date Statement of Purpose; high priority to key issues that benefits society as a whole; and lastly the services that NOW provides on the global scale. NOW currently has 500,000 active members and 550 chapters throughout the 50 states and District of Columbia.
To ensure that women would have the same opportunities as men in jobs, education, and political participation, the National Organization for women was formed in 1966 (Foner 944). The sixties also marked the beginning of a public campaign to repeal state laws that banned abortion or left the decision to terminate a pregnancy to physicians instead of the woman (Foner 945). Although the sixties were a decade in which the United States became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country, in some ways it became less of a thing. During the sixties, America intervened in other nations and efforts were made to stop the progress of the civil rights movement. Because of America’s foreign policy and Americans fighting against the civil rights movement, it is clear that the sixties in America were not purely a decade of openness, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.
The women’s movement had been characterized by women's wish to acquire equal legal status to men by obtaining civil and political rights recorded in the Constitution and legislation. In Romania, the first wave of the feminist movement had been held simultaneously with the women’s movement in West, and it had been a movement of the elite, educated women with access to international information. An important period of this movement was before the establishment of the Romanian Constitution in 1923. It was the most democratic Constitution and women started an intense activity of lobbying for their rights until 1947. Between 1947 and 1989 Romania was pushed under Soviet influence by the Red Curtain, and the feminist activity was eradicated. Although Communism proclaimed gender equality between men and women, this had been acted contradictorily in public sphere and private life. Freedom has been detracted by the Communist Party, and women’s private lives had been controlled by the Party by limiting their legal rights. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, it was taken a modest initiative on the situation of gender equality and women’s rights in Romanian society. Since 1989 until the present, Romanian women’s roles and rights in society is becoming a priority in Romania. In addition, the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men is also a priority in the democracy, and under Western influence and European legislation. This essay will attempt to outline the difficulties representing the causes of the women’s movement and some of the effects of social, economic and political rights.
Social movements refer to informal groups of people who focus on either political or social issues. The goal of the social movement is to change things in society, to refuse to go along with the norm, and to undo a social change. For example, the Women’s Rights Movement that began in the 1840s was geared towards getting women more equality in relation to political, social, and economic status in society (Foner). Along with this, women gained a louder voice to speak out about what they wanted to change and implemented the change. Prior to the Women’s Rights Movement, women were often timid, compliant, obedient, and mistreated. After the 1920s, a movement towards more equality was shifted in society views, however not all were convinced or changed by the new ideas of women. Although women began to get increased rights, the typical gender roles, which they were expected to follow did not loosely lesson. Women still found themselves doing the same gender roles, house roles, and family roles even after the 1920s. It was not until the 1960s when the Feminist movement began (Foner). The literary piece is “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady and the goal of the Feminist Movement was to create new meanings and realities for women in terms of education, empowerment, occupation, sexual identity, art, and societal roles. In short, the Feminist Movement was aimed to gain women freedom, equal opportunity and be in control over their own life.
Stalcup, Brenda, ed. The Women's Rights Movement: Opposing Viewmpoints. San Diego, California: Greenhaven press, Inc., 1996.
Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.