Women's Civil Rights
Key information
- Created by: student
- Created on: 02-06-11 16:15
Seneca Falls Convention 1848
After 2 days of discussion a decleration of sentiments was signed.
This outlines the agenda for women's right movement.
There were 12 resolutions calling for equal treatment under the law and voting rights for women.
Homestead Act 1862
Gave women the opportunity and right to their own land in the West.
Lucy Stone- 1855
First woman to keep her own name after marriage- independence of women.
Set a trend in women= 'Lucy Stoners.'
14th Amendment 1866
First time it had defined citizens and voters as male in the constitution--> inequality of women.
NWSA- 1869
Set up by Elizabeth Stanton and Susan. B. Anthony.
Campaigned for a federal constitutional amendment allowing women to vote.
AWSA 1869
Set up by Lucy Stone/
Originally looked at rights for blacks.
Had a moderate approach to gaining votes for women through amendments to individual state constitutions:
- Wyoming passed first women's suffrage law 1870
15th Amendment 1870
Only said voting could not be stopped on account of race.
No mention of gender.
Galvanised women- 150 women try to illegally vote.
Comstock Laws 1873
Passed by congress.
Made the sale of contraceptives illegal- takes away womens right to their own body.
Increase in black market- poor families can not afford it.
Women's Crusade 1873
First effective protest to show support for temperance.
Promoted the evils of drunkeness and how it threatens family values.
WCTU 1873
Pressure group under Francis Willard.
Campaigned for prohibition.
Women took to streets of Ohio and closed down saloons and liqueur stores.
Susan. B. Anthony
Founder of AREA (1866) and NWSA.
Published journal 'Revolution' to promote cause.
1872- challenged constituion by voting illegally in presidential elections.
Campaigned against abortion.
NAWSA 1890
NWSA and AWSA merge.
Went to states to obtain voting rights.
1905- only 17,000 members, and still only 100,000 by 1915.
By 1918 twenty states gave women voting rights in state elections.
Carrie Chapman Catt
1900 leader of NAWSA.
Organises a moderate campaign of lobbying politicians, distributing leaflets and holding marches.
Disagreed with Alice Paul's more radical methods.
Alice Paul and NWP
Angered by moderate methods of NAWSA she creates a new, radical branch.
Pickets at the whitehouse daily, orders mass marches and took on british suffragete methods of hunger strikes in prison.
1923- campaign for Equal Rights Amendment- completely equal to men.
1913 Women March on Washington.
Organised by Alice Paul.
On the day on Wilsons inaugaration.
Thousands of women took to the streets, with many watchers- Wilson was deserted.
They were attacked and beaten by onlookers.
Although they had police approval, the police did nothing to help the women being attacked. 200 marchers injured.
The lack of police help caused outrage and it gained women thousands of supporters, many of whom were men.
Margeret Sanger 1912-14
1912- publishes articles to give advice to women on contraceptives to defy comstock laws.
1914- calls for legislation of contraceptives in new publication.
Post office bans this from sale.
1916 opens first birth control clinic- only to be shut down 10 days later.
Re-opened in 1921.
18th Amendment 1917
Prohibition Amendment.
Female temperance pressure groups pushed this bill.
Shows strength of women pressure groups.
19th Amendment
Originally drafted by Susan. B. Anthony and introduced in 1878.
Declares that people can not be denied the right to vote on account of gender.
Shepard- Towner Act 1921
Made funds available for maternity and infant health education.
Terminated in 1929
New Deal 1933
Aimed mainly at male breadwinner, and any small benifits came from legislation not aimed at them:
1935 social security act- alliviate family stress by introducing welfare benifits.
1938 Fair Labor Standards Act- layed down minimum wage. Women still earning significantly lower wages than men, even when doing the same job.
Mainly helped white women.
Elanor Roosevelt
Role Model for women.
5 children, supports female rights (member of league of women voters).
Democratic party member, but showed own principles.
Francis Perkins 1933
First woman in cabinet- secretary of labour.
Successful at social reforms but not opportunities for women in politics.
WW2- Rosie the Riveter Campaign
Government campaign persuades women to take jobs during the war.
7 million take war time jobs.
2 million industrial- Rosie the Riveter.
However, as men returned women lost their jobs.
Dr Spock 1946
Publishes child-care book.
Emphasises role as mothers at home.
Becomes 'baby bible'.
Fay v New York 1947
Women equally qualified as men to serve on juries.
Shows supreme court's willingness to see women as more equal.
D.O.B 1955
First lesbian organisation in US.
Originally social group.
Turned into a political group to win acceptance of lesbians in the US.
Presidential Commision on the Status of Women 1961
Set up by Kennedy- Elanor Roosevelt as chairwoman.
Report in 1963 shows a lot of discrimination against women in the workplace.
Make suggestions for improvement- paid maternity leave, affordable childcare, fair hiring practices.
Betty Friden: 'The Feminine Mystique' 1963
Book showing dissatisfaction felt by women (middle class) with narrow role society has placed upon them.
Galvanises women.
Challenges existing social attitudes.
Civil Rights Act 1964
Bars discrimination on basis of race or sex in employment.
Establishes EEOC to investigate complaints.
Receives 50,000 complaints in 5 years.
Fails to satisfy feminists.
NOW 1966
Founded by Betty Frieden.
Largest women's group in US.
Wants to end sexual discrimination through legislative lobbying, litigation and demonstrations.
1968- becomes more radical- bra burning.
Looses support over supporting abortion.
ERA 1972
Originally drafted by Alice Paul.
called for equal rights under the law and could not be denied on account of sex.
Spent next to ten years trying to be ratified by states but failed in 1982.
Feminism 1970's
The Feminists- radical branch of NOW- radical feminists that call for the abolition of marriage- 1973.
The Radicalesbians- claim that the only way women can be truely free is through lesbianism. Join with radical NOW branch in support of abortion.
Phyllis Schafly
Galvanised anti-feminists in the wake of Roe v Wade- those that supported Roe were not real women.
Attacks feminists as a 'bunch of anti-family radicals and lesbians' and praises the traditional role of women.
Argued that feminism did not give civil rights, and it was motherhood and wives that liberated women.
'Power of Positive Women' is published.
She argued that ERA threatened the home and family and lobbyed against ERA in states.
She was successful and after 1977 no other states ratified the ERA.
1976 Hyde Amendment
In reaction to Roe v Wade.
banned the use of federal funding for abortions.
Although contraceptive pill is no readily available for all girls over 18.
Pregnancy Discrimination act 1978
Bans discrimination in employment against pregnant women.
Can't be fired or denied job/promotion.
Can't be forced to take pregnancy leave.
1991
President Bush senior vetoed a federal bill to give women paid maternity leave- still some hostility to mothers.
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