& # 8217 ; s Movement Essay, Research Paper

Legislation Refering the Women & # 8217 ; s Movement in the United States

In the 1900s, province and federal Torahs that discriminated against adult females posed some of the most important obstructions in deriving adult females s rights. The earliest runs to better adult females s legal position in the United States focused on deriving belongings rights for adult females. Women besides led legislative attempts in the 19th and twentieth centuries to guarantee their vote and employment rights.

Property Rights

Get downing in the 1830s, provinces passed Torahs that bit by bit gave married adult females greater control over belongings. New York province passed the Married Women s Property Act in 1848, leting adult females to get and retain assets independently of their hubbies. This was the first jurisprudence that clearly established the thought that a married adult female had an independent legal individuality. The New York jurisprudence inspired about all other provinces to finally go through similar statute law.

The Right to Vote

American adult females did non derive the right to vote until 1920, after amendments were made to the Constitution. The transition of the 14th Amendment in 1866 and the 15th Amendment in 1870 helped to concentrate the adult females s rights motion on right to vote. The 14th Amendment provided that all citizens were guaranteed equal protection under the jurisprudence and that no citizen could be denied due procedure of jurisprudence. The 15th Amendment stated that citizens could non be denied the right to vote on the footing of race, colour, or old position as a slave. Militants like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony argued that the 15th Amendment be expanded to vouch right to vote to adult females. With the formation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890, the adult females s rights motion zeroed in about entirely on achieving the right to vote. In 1920 the 19th Amendment granted adult females this right. ( In theory, the 19th Amendment should & # 8217 ; ve extended vote rights to all adult females. )

Protective Labor Legislation

Increasing Numberss of adult females began to come in the industrial labour force in the nineteenth century. As a consequence, some societal reformists grew concerned about the impact of long hours and hapless working conditions on adult females. The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, and the Women s Trade Union League, founded in 1903, began attempts to restrict adult females s work hours and the types of work they could make. By 1908 the provinces had passed 19 Torahs restricting work hours or wholly stoping the option of dark work for adult females. Even greater Numberss of adult females entered the work force during World War I ( 1914-1918 ) , motivating the constitution of the Women s Bureau of the Department of Labor in 1920, which began the transition of statute law to protect working adult females.

Protective statute law has been challenged repeatedly in the tribunals. In Ritchie v. People ( 1895 ) , the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that restricting adult females s work twenty-four hours to eight hours infringed upon a adult female s right to contract for her labour, and hence violated her 14th Amendment right to be protection under the jurisprudence. In Lochner v. New York ( 1905 ) the Supreme Court deemed all protective labour statute law to be unconstitutional. The Lochner determination was revised three old ages subsequently in Muller v. Oregon ( 1908 ) . In that instance, American legal expert Louis D. Brandeis argued that the adult female s function as a female parent required that she be given particular protection in the workplace. American tribunals repeatedly struck down legislative acts set uping minimal rewards for adult females. In Adkins v. Children s Hospital ( 1923 ) , the Supreme Court decided that a minimal pay for adult females violated the right to freedom of contract. But the transition of the National Fair Labor Standards Act ( 1938 ) established a national lower limit pay for both work forces and adult females. In 1969 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC ) declared protective statute law degree Fahrenheit

or adult females invalid.

Equal Rights Amendment

After the transition of the 19th Amendment allowing adult females the right to vote, members of the adult females s motion focused on deriving other rights for adult females. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns directed their attempts toward forbiding all other unfairnesss between work forces and adult females. Paul and Burns had founded the National Women s Party in 1916 which worked for adult females s right to vote. However, they believed that winning the right to vote marked merely the beginning of the adult females s battle for equality. In the early 1920s the National Women s Party aimed to go through an Equal Rights Amendment ( ERA ) to the Fundamental law that would do illegal all signifiers of favoritism based on sex.

Under the influence of the National Women s Party, the U.S. Congress introduced the ERA in 1923, but the issue failed to derive important support. Some people who had antecedently supported adult females s right to vote opposed the ERA. They included moderate societal reformists and decision makers in the Women s Bureau of the Department of Labor. These people opposed the ERA because they believed that rigorous enforcement of equal rights would intend the riddance of protective statute law for adult females. They thought that the ERA would be bad for the propertyless adult female.

In the 1960s the alleged & # 8220 ; 2nd wave & # 8221 ; of the adult females s rights motion stirred up the ERA argument. President John F. Kennedy set up the first national Commission on the Status of Women in 1962. In 1963 the committee issued a study detailing employment favoritism, unequal wage, legal inequality, and deficient support services for working adult females. Still, the bulk of the committee members opposed the ERA, because they said that equal rights were already guaranteed in the Constitution.

The Era policy became the 27th Amendment in 1972, but it had to be ratified by at least 38 provinces to go a jurisprudence. In 1982 the ERA was defeated when merely 35 provinces had passed the step, three short of the 38 required for confirmation.

Equal Pay Act

The 1963 study by the Commission on the Status of Women led straight to the transition of the Equal Pay Act the same twelvemonth. The Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay different rewards to work forces and adult females who performed the same work. However, the new jurisprudence had small consequence on contracting the pay spread between the sexes. Most female workers remained in occupations traditionally held by adult females, offering low rewards and small chance for promotion. In 1963 the mean female worker made 58 cents for every dollar the mean male made. In 1995 adult females s net incomes had increased, but they were merely 71 cents for every dollar that work forces earned.

Civil Rights Act ( Title VII )

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act barred employment favoritism based on sex, race, colour, or cultural beginning. The act originally prohibited merely racial and cultural favoritism, but Virginia congressman Howard W. Smith added the word sex in an amendment to the act, trusting to guarantee its licking. Alternatively, congresswoman Martha Griffiths and Senator Margaret Chase Smith led the run for blessing of the act. Title VII besides set up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC ) to implement the act. However, adult females rapidly realized that they needed more political influence if their grudges were to be heard by the EEOC.

Betty Friedan started the National Organization for Women ( NOW ) in 1966 in an attempt to increase adult females s political power in the United States. In its early old ages, NOW focused on the rights of adult females as persons. This scheme appealed to professional adult females and failed to derive a big followers. Membership in NOW expanded dramatically after the organisation sponsored the Women s Strike for Equality, a monolithic presentation on August 26, 1970 ( the fiftieth day of remembrance of adult females s right to vote ) .