Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach Of Feminism

One of the first Supreme Court Cases that have happened to obtained Women’s Rights was in 1971. In 1971, there was a Supreme Court Cases called Phillips V. Martin Marietta Corporation. In of this court case Phillips tried to apply for a job of being of a preschool teacher and was denied. Phillips wasn’t the only one who applied and didn’t receive the job, since 80% of the applicants were denied because the were all women. So, once has just Phillips found out that she was denied from a job, just by her gender she took it the authorities to show them what Martin Marietta Corp. was doing.

The 1960s was a time of great social uprising. Rights for many minority groups were recognized and previously disadvantaged groups were beginning to better elevate themselves in American society. The women’s rights movement was strong in the 1960s and 1970s. As highlighted in “No More Miss America,” groups such as the New York Radical Women’s Collective took steps towards dismantling the structures that oppressed women, such as the societal perpetuation of the “ideal woman,” through beauty pageants, magazines, and advertisements. Other minority groups, like the Chicanos, fought discrimination in the workforce.

Many people think the most predominant social injustice in the 1960’s revolved around racism, which was mostly true. But few realize that gender inequality was a much more harmful than racism in aspects such as employment, family life, and government service, where women were disregarded and underpaid. To notice the differences between discriminations in gender and race, one would have to fall into both categories as Shirley Chisholm had, the first African-American Congresswoman. Having experienced this disadvantage, Chisholm directed her career in a different direction. On August 10th, 1969 in Washington D.C., Shirley Chisholm made history by addressing gender inequality in her speech, “For The Equal Rights Amendment”.

By the time Jane Addams had taken her role as a prominent social reformer and women’s rights activist, some groups had already spent half a century trying to fight for equal woman’s rights. The battle for women’s rights would be a multigenerational one, with its beginnings set in 1848, at the first Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. As stated in Elizabeth Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments, “He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.” This is what the women’s suffrage movement would continue to argue, and slowly but surely, it would make increasing headway and headlines across the nation. Ultimately, equal women’s rights were achieved by the changing of public opinion and the combined efforts

I. BACKGROUND The history of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (hereinafter referred to as Title VII) is very intriguing. It is connected with a southern filibuster against federal civil rights legislation in the United States. This southern filibuster ended by the U.S. Congress for the first time in June 1964, while, on July 2, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law (Arnesen 2007, p. 251). Given this, Title VII, Equal Employment Opportunity, should be considered the most significant part of the whole Civil Rights Act of 1964, because Title VII stimulated visible rise in minority and women group employment.

During the 19th and 20th centuries Men reigned supreme. The lack of rights for women and poor people sparked protests and were the cause of the appearance of rights activists. Civil liberty issues in the American past have been resolved in the aspects of women’s rights and poor people’s rights but based on perceptions, little has been resolved. Women’s civil liberty issues have been resolved through Women’s rights activists and many years of pushing for constitutional equality.

Women’s Rights and The Constitution At the mark of the Seneca Falls Convention’s 75th anniversary, 1923, Alice Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that called for a constitutional amendment that specifies equal rights of citizenship for women. The ERA, however, took half of a century to be passed by Congress for ratification, and this passage to the state legislatures is reflective of the period’s strengthened political demands of the women’s movement. Inspired by the concurrent Civil Rights Movement, sparked and moved by Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and the National Organization for Women (NOW), and rendered by the real economic and political advancement of American women, the ERA was able to launch a serious nationwide discussion for itself in 1972.

Same Objectives, Different Strategies: The Transformation of the Feminist Legal Strategy The fight for women’s rights had never been easy for feminists and at the outset of the 1960s, women’s legal equality seemed momentarily out of reach. The chaotic social and political landscape of 1960’s America was as much a blessing to feminists, as it was a burden. The civil rights movement had picked up momentum from landmark judicial decisions and simultaneously fostered a discussion about the opportunity for women’s legal equality.

In this paper I will be going over issue 17, “Has the Women’s Movement of the 1970’s Failed to Liberate American Women?”. Sara M. Evans and F. Carolyn Graglia each voice their opinions about the issue. They talk about the history of the women’s movement throughout time and the effects it had in our country. F. Carolyn Graglia writes about how she agrees the movement has failed to liberate American women. Her views on feminism concluded that the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s was a reasonable but a faulty idea, in that it was based on a worthy opinion (that all men and women should be equal).

As mentioned before, many feel as though women still face discrimination in the workforce. However, it is no question that attitudes towards the feminist movement have become less critical overtime. In fact, 51% of men and 69% of women currently identify as feminists, according to the 2015 poll by YouGov. Many celebrities have pushed for women’s rights, which has contributed to its recent acceptance. Overall, there were several components to the rise of the women’s rights movement in the period 1940-1975.

Fortunately, due to the tireless work of decades of activist’s, laws have changed, amendments added to the constitution, and rights granted to those who were previously unjustly denied. One of these victories for women’s rights occurred when women were granted the right

The women’s rights movement being an extensive movement helped women to occupy better jobs and higher positions “Increased access to leadership positions is an important achievement because – in terms of gender – the field is more level now: some women will be allies, some are not, but no one is excluded only for being a woman”. Today, women can choose to occupy the jobs that were once titled only for men and they have an equal employment opportunity “Because of workplace rights, women enjoy freedom to work in almost any position they choose. They join the armed forces, work as cab drivers, own businesses and become executives in large corporations” Women can now become ministers, juries, senates, and even the president “1975 — In Taylor v. Louisiana, the court denies states the right to exclude women from juries….1981 — Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed as the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice… 1997 — Madeleine Albright is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State. She is the first woman in this position.”

Misinterpretation on feminism becomes an issue in America because the definition altered in various communities. In the essay, “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand”, the author Bell Hooks discusses the misconception of feminism in the United States. Bell Hooks states that the reason of the misconception of feminism occurs because of the patriarchy of America because mass media represents feminism as an anti-male group. However, feminism is the exact opposite of an anti male groups. Feminism defines itself for equality between men and women.

A Thousand Splendid Suns’ was written by an Afghan American writer, Khaled Hosseini. The novel narrates the strength and resilience of two women who endure physical and psychological cruelty in an anti-feminist society. It also demonstrates how The Taliban uses fear and violence to control the people of Afghanistan, particularly females. Throughout this story the novel exposes the way customs and laws endorse Rasheed’s violent misogyny and it tells the tale of two women who endure a marriage to a ruthless and brutal man, whose behaviour forces them to kill him. The protagonist Mariam is a poor villager who lives in a remote area in Afghanistan, in contrast to Laila who is a smart, educated daughter of a schoolteacher.

Tying into the African American Civil Rights Movement, many other previously disadvantaged demographics such as women began to push for social equality as well, leading to the rise of right liberalism within American society. For example, tired of being treated as “little more than pretty helpers who typed memos and fetched coffee,” women such as Kate Millett began to raise awareness about “sexual politics” (Henretta, 925). These efforts eventually culminated in the passing of Title IX in 1972, which changed the identity of American higher education; prior to Title IX, women’s opportunities in higher education were very limited, but now, “formerly all-male bastions such as Yale, Princeton, and the U.S. military academies admitted women undergraduates