women's rights - unit 6

women’s suffrage movement

  • women could not vote in the 1800s due to societal standards placed on women at the time

    • started to gain a political voice during the fight against slavery 

      *suffrage: the movement to get women the right to vote

      • women: purity, piety, domesticity, submissiveness (MRS = MR’s)

  • movement first began in 1848, seneca falls convention led by elizabeth cady stanton and susan b. antony

    • wanted an amendment giving all people the right to vote

      *only women allowed on the first day to talk about their separate issues from african americans

      • however, a black woman stands up saying that she has a different set of issues and struggles as well 

        (the movement has often been criticized for being centered around white non-hispanic women - today, it is a lot more inclusive and diverse)

        ***suffrage is basically women begging/asking white men (their oppressors) for the right to vote so they can have power

carrie chapman catt

  • tactic to gain the right to vote for women is to do it slowly (proper and socially acceptable)

    • she wanted to pursue suffrage both at a national and state level and try to get partial voting rights in resistive states (does it state by state which is known as a conservative approach) 

  • founded the women’s peace party and she announced that she was in support of the war, which allowed her to bring more attention towards women’s suffrage

national american woman suffrage association (NAWSA)

  • purpose of the group was to spread awareness of the cause of women’s suffrage and pass an amendment allowing women the right to vote

    • carrie chapman catt was once the president and worked with NAWSA to get the right to vote in states

alice paul

  • wanted the right to vote immediately - constitutional amendment (also fought for the right to vote in england)

    • she forms the national women’s party (NWP) to lobby for the 19th amendment and the ERA

      *forms of protests included demonstrations, marches, and hunger strikes when imprisoned

      • much younger and has a more radical approach

        (she never does anything illegal - “not above the law”)

president woodrow wilson

  • never really supported women’s suffrage

    • wilson was quiet on the topic as there were a lot of consequences if he spoke out, but as the movement and the war grew, the pressure on wilson increased due to the demands of political representation by women after showing their support for the war, which forced him to speak out when addressing the senate to pass the 19th amendment (wanted to maintain reputation in the world during the war)

      *when women were imprisoned due to “obstructing traffic,” he knew the struggles and torture they faced and did not bother to do anything about it 

women’s march on washington

  • took place in 1913 the day before wilson’s presidential inauguration

    • alice paul chose this date for the march because it would help increase attention and mass coverage of those who came into town

      *many did not support the women’s suffrage movement because when they were on the steps of the treasury building, they faced a mob that tried to block the women marching by throwing insults and physically insulting them, which hospitalized over 100 women - but managed to spread awareness about it after the fact

gloria steinem

  • led the women’s liberation movement which wanted the ERA

    • did this with NOW (the national organization for women) in which she founded to support equal pay and job opportunities out of the home

    *became an activist after writing an article and covering an abortion hearing and hearing stories and testimonies from other women and their experiences of getting an abortion, like steinem did after she graduated from college

    • began understanding that what she went through was almost a universal experience women went through at the time

      • believes that the women’s movement caused for people’s mindset to change

        (it was common to interpret gender roles due to how men's and women's bodies were built biologically and their nature, but the movement opened up people’s perspectives and understand that it was just due to inequality that was inflicted upon women)

betty friedan

  • the first president of NOW and an author of The Feminine Mystique 

    • discusses the unhappiness of women as housewives and demonstrated how societal norms forced women to feel guilty about becoming career women or doing anything other than being a housewife and a mother

national women’s party (NWP)

  • founded by alice paul to lobby for the 19th amendment 

    • later fought for the ratification of the ERA

national organization for women (NOW)

  • *founded by gloria steinem to support equal pay and job opportunities out of the home and betty friedan was its first president

    • fought for the passing of the ERA, abortion and reproductive rights, racism and violence against women, and economic equality

      *impacted american women greatly with efforts for title IX, roe v. wade, the ERA, and the equal pay act

19th amendment

  • gave women the right to vote

  • ratified in 1920

equal rights amendment (ERA)

  • would declare that men and women are equal in the constitution - rights are being upheld regardless of gender

    • there is no ERA for women in the constitution today 

      • this is due to the fact that congress placed a deadline (when a deadline in the constitution was not said) and not enough states ratified it in time - though we have enough states today 

        • the house of representatives voted for the deadline to be dropped, but the senate has yet to discuss it despite its bipartisan support (determines if we would have to go through the entire ratification process again)

    • NOW helped by:

      • advocating for the ERA

      • by endorsing the legalization of abortion and the idea of a “bill of rights for women” 

      • intense campaigning to help get the ERA pass in the house of representatives and senate. 

      • led the ratification campaigns which allowed for 35 out of 38 states to ratify it by the deadline set by congress

  • there is an equal pay act (helps to prevent wage discrimination due to gender, allows for compensatory damages to be fair, and makes it easier to file class-action lawsuits) BUT women still make 21% less than men by doing the same job with the same credentials today (only occurs with a contract though)

hunger strikes

  • first started by alice paul while imprisoned (rest of women follow her lead when they find out)

    • this was her form of protesting, however they force fed her to not have to face the consequences of her dying under their watch 

      • this backfires on them since messages get out and leaked to the press exposing what they had to endure

roe v. wade (then and now)

*it allowed women the right to an abortion and restricted all state laws against it

  • many states outlawed abortion

    • in texas: abortions were only legal to save the life of the mother - roe wished to get an abortion (but it was not allowed)

      *women often had to resort to dangerous methods to get an abortion

    • 7-2 ruling (abortion is legal in all 50 states)

      • during the first trimester, abortion is legal without any interference from the state

      overturned: dobbs v. jackson (june 14, 2022)

      • 5-4 decision

        • abortion is not a constitutional right under the 14th amendment 

          *no longer makes it a right for women

          • abortions are now controlled by the states so women no longer have the same access to an abortion 

    • NOW helped by:

      • helped patients and women getting abortions get into clinics with the dangerous protests and mobs against abortion

      • tried to bring awareness to the fact that extremist judges may overturn roe v. wade and provided a filibuster plan to save it from being overturned (which did not work, unfortunately)

title IX

  • schools must have equal funding for men and women’s sports as well as have equal opportunities to play sports

    *prevents discrimination based on gender in schools and universities, or any education-based program that is federally funded (including sports and more educational opportunities)

    • NOW helped by: 

      • protesting and advocating for equality in education

      • by getting the education amendments of 1972 and the educational equity act passed 

      • helped to get the civil rights restoration act which helped to restore title IX to education laws against gender discrimination by fighting against those trying to limit title IX

reasons for women’s suffrage

  • political issues concern mothers and families

  • women need the right to vote to be equal

    • democracy… duh

  • some states in the west already have the right to vote… wyoming was the first

reasons why people are against women’s suffrage

  • women were not smart enough

  • men would take women’s jobs (contradictory to the first reasoning..)

  • a woman's place is in the home and not in politics

  • men would become like women

women’s issues today

  1. ERA

  2. equal pay 

    1. new legislation

  3. reproductive rights

    1. abortion, birth control, fertility

  4. equal job opportunities

    1. less women as CEOs and in the STEM field

  5. body image

    1. standards placed by society and trends - stereotypes

  6. rape culture

    1. hypermasculinity, sexual assault and violence, victim shaming (don’t forget this also affects men as well)