This has actually been on my mind for quite awhile, so I am glad to finally write it. In honor of Women’s History Month, I share some thoughts I have had the last year about rights for women. Society has come a long way, but there is still a fight to win.
Some Context
Last year, I was watching an early episode of Mrs. America* on Hulu. One scene caught me a little off guard, and I began to wonder. The scene of Schlafly taking a credit card application into her husband’s office for him to sign so that she could obtain a credit card to use for traveling. Wait a minute, I thought. That was in the ’70s – what the heck?
I was a teenager in the late ’70s, and I never gave it a second thought about whether I, as a woman, would need a man to sign an application for me so that I could get a credit card or bank account. In all honesty, I thought I had to have my dad cosign a loan for a car because I did not have established credit. I knew about ERA and the National Organization for Women, and in my young adult mind believed I should have equal rights. I never gave quite enough consideration as to how that came about by the time I was living on my own in the mid-to-late 80s.
My Mom
It also prompted me to look closer at the way things were for my mother in the 1960s and 1970s, and maybe gain a better understanding as to why she decided to remain with my dad and made some of the decisions she did. “Why not just leave?” I used to think as a pre-teen.
Other than the fact that she loved him and probably didn’t understand that he was suffering from PTSD after fighting during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, she must have felt like she had no choice. It literally took an act of Congress to make it illegal to deny credit cards based on sex or marital status, and that didn’t happen until 1974. Could she have left and supported the kids she had at home? Congress might have passed the law, but the societal stipulation and scrutiny were still prominent. Consider the stance on divorce then and what she could lose in the process. My mother was a tough woman, I see that now. She did what she had to in order to take care of her family, even before she and my dad married. I also believe she had to put her own dreams aside in order to do so.
Women’s Right to Vote
We all know women had to fight for the right to vote, finally being granted that right in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. (Although not all women were granted that right – see this article. https://www.history.com/news/19th-amendment-voter-suppression). Not to mention the women who died fighting to get us our right to vote. May we never forget.
Brief History Timeline – Women’s Rights
I’m not really wanting to give a history lesson here. I just want to give a reminder that what women have in the way of opportunities did not come easily. And full equality still isn’t here. Yet, there are so many who do not understand why women still continue to fight for full equality.
History shows what happened (taken from “Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States” cited below). These are just a few. Refer to the sources linked below for the full history:
1963: President John F. Kennedy signs into law the Equal Pay Act, prohibiting sex-based wage discrimination between men and women performing the same job in the same workplace.
1965: There was an end of birth control bans when states could no longer outlaw contraception in marriage.
1974: Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress.
1978: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.
1981: Kirchberg v. Feenstra, 450 U.S. 455, 459-60, overturns state laws designating a husband “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.
2009: Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act allows victims, usually women, of pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck.
Women Nominated or Holding Office
While there are many more nominations of women to major offices than listed here, these stand out to me at the moment:
1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as the first woman on the Supreme Court.
1984: Rep. Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman vice president nominee by a major party.
2016: The first female to be nominated for president by a major party.
2020: The first female Vice-president of the United States.
Why?
It has been a long, slow process working to obtain full equality that the suffragists dreamed of women having. Full equality is still not here. Current political agendas are working to take us backwards. Why? Why must we continue to fight for our right to make our own decisions? Political affiliation aside, I’m just pointing out women are still fighting for the right to be heard, to be included in the conversations, to be given the voice at the table where decisions are being made about our lives. There has been much progress, but there is still a long way to go.
Thank You
To my mom, I say thank you for trying to live the life you were dealt and for making the best of it.
To the strong women in my life all these years, thank you for being an example. My sister, my aunt (Mom’s sister), my cousin, my friends, my colleagues.
To all the other women in history who have worked to get us where we are today, I say thank you for fighting for us. And, to those who are still fighting for women’s rights, thank you. May we never take you for granted.
*”Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, aka “the sweetheart of the silent majority.” Through the eyes of the women of the era – both Schlafly and second wave feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus – the series explores how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s helped give rise to the Moral Majority and forever shifted the political landscape” (https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/mrs-america).
Sources
Detailed timeline. National Women’s History Alliance. (2018, October 23). Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-timeline/
History.com Editors. (2019, February 26). Women’s history milestones: A timeline. History.com. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/womens-history-us-timeline
*Photo by Natalie Hua on Unsplash