Women’s Rights

The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was signed into law on August 26th, 1920. This monumental victory for women’s rights was heralded as a symbol of the changing status quo. Since the 1920’s, women have continued to fight for equality and there have been numerous laws passed to guard against discrimination based on gender. Women now have the legal right to equality in the workplace. Women have also gained reproductive freedom and now have the right to use birth control and have an abortion, though there are some limitations to this right. The latest discrimination issue to be resolved is that women are now granted complete equality in the U.S. military and can serve in combat positions. However, there are some issues regarding women’s rights that still need to be addressed. Although women are legally entitled to equality in the workplace, there are still some career fields that show a vast discrepancy between males and females; one concrete example is political careers. There has also been a recent lawmaking trend that has aimed to revoke some of women’s previous reproductive freedoms.

The main catalyst that drove the women’s rights movement after the 1920’s was women’s role during World War II. The American workforce was depleted as men were shipped off to war and women stepped in to fill vital roles in American industrial and armament production. This shift changed the traditional image of an American woman as a housewife and care-giver. Women were now seen as strong and capable workers who could perform labor tasks as well as a man. When the men returned home to their jobs, women were not satisfied to go back to their old lives as mere housewives. This sentiment is best described by the heroine of George Cukor’s 1949 classic, Adam’s Rib. The heroin, Amanda Bonner, played by Katherine Hepburn, begs a jury to avoid gender discrimination by claiming, “For years, women have been ridiculed, pampered, chucked under the chin. I ask you, on behalf of us all, be fair to the fair sex” (Adam’s Rib). This sentiment is what drove the progression of women’s equality throughout the mid-20th century. In 1960, the FDA approved the sale of birth control pills which was a vast step forward in women’s control over reproduction. In 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act legally barred gender discrimination in the workplace. The 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade gave women the right to have an abortion. This push for equality continues today, and women have gained the right to serve in military combat positions as of January 2013. However, it is important to note that there is still work to be done.

Though women have the legal right to full equality in the workplace, there are still some career fields that are blatantly biased towards women. The realm of politics is an obvious example. Only twenty out of one-hundred U.S. Senators are women, and women occupy a scant seventy-eight out of four-hundred and thirty-five House seats (Camia). There has never been a female president, and there have only been four women to serve as Supreme Court Justices. Women are guaranteed equality in the workplace, but it is clear that they have not yet achieved this equality in the realm of politics. This discrepancy can only be fixed through an effort by the entire American population to ignore gender and vote for people’s ideas and actions rather than their sex. The overall trend shows that number of women in the political field will continue to grow as it has for many decades. One such example is Emma Goldman. There is still a long way to go, but eventually Americans will elect a female president which will stand as one of the greatest triumphs in the history of women’s rights. A greater number of female politicians will also help stymie many recent laws that have attempted to revoke some of women’s reproductive freedoms. Laws have recently made “morning-after” pills unattainable for women under sixteen years old and have also restricted women’s rights regarding abortions. As the number of female politicians grows, these laws will be amended, and women’s reproductive freedoms will be returned to them.

Work Cited

Adam's Rib. Dir. George Cukor. Perf. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday. 1949. Warner Home Video, 2000. Film.

Camia, Catalina. "Record Number of Women in Congress out to Change Tone." USA Today [McClean] 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.