Women in History 1970-Today

According to an article posted on msmagazine.com called Things American Women Could Not Do Before the 1970s it states a lot of interesting things women were not allowed to do before the 1970's. After the 1970's America's social attitudes changed about women. It was a turning point in American history and each year I feel we are working toward woman rights and equality in social situations.

 

 

1. Keep her job if she was pregnant.

Until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, women could be fired from their workplace for being pregnant.

2. Report cases of sexual harassment in the workplace.

The first time that a court recognized sexual harassment in the workplace was in 1977 and it wasn’t until 1980 that sexual harassment was officially defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

3. Be acknowledged in the Boston Marathon.

Women could not don their running shoes until 1972!

4. Get a credit card.

Until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974, women were not able to apply for credit. In 1975, the first women’s bank was opened.

5. Refuse to have sex with her husband.

The mid 70s saw most states recognize marital rape and in 1993 it became criminalized in all 50 states. Nevertheless, marital rape is still often treated differently to other forms of rape in some states even today.

6. Compete as a boxer in the Olympics.

It wasn’t until the 2012 London Olympics that women could compete in boxing in the Olympics. This was marked with the amazing victory by Britain’s Nicola Adams.

7. Get a divorce with some degree of ease.

Before the No Fault Divorce law in 1969, spouses had to show the faults of the other party, such as adultery, and could easily be overturned by recrimination.

8. Celebrate International Women’s Day.

In 1980 President Carter declared one week in March to be National Women’s History Week, including International Women’s Day on March 8^th.

9. Have a legal abortion in most states.

The Roe v. Wade case in 1973 protected a woman’s right to abortion until viability

 

 

 

 

In the article What Are Women's Rights by Jone Johnson Lewis there is a list of women's right that stand today. here they are:

Summary: what is included in "women's rights"?

Generally, then, claims about women's rights can be classified into several general categories, with some specific rights applying to several categories:

Economic rights, including:

• right to own and dispose of property
• right to inherit property in her own name and control it; right to designate who will inherit her property
• right to her own wages and income
• equality of survivor's rights upon death of a spouse (e.g. how much property one inherits, whether one has a right to continuation of a spouse's pension benefits)
• access to jobs, trades, professions
• equality of treatment within jobs, trades and professions, including promotions
• equal pay for equal work, equal pay for work of equal value (comparable worth)
• access to credit in her own name
• equal participation in labor unions
• right to job protection when taking maternity leave

Civil rights, including:

• legal and contract rights
• equality of citizenship (treated as a full adult, equal to males, rather than as a minor, a slave, or a legal non-entity)
• general equality of rights under the law
• ability to sue in court, to represent one's self
• be a witness in court
• serve on juries
• serve as an attorney
• marriage, divorce and parenthood rights
• married women's legal existence separate from her husband
• marriage rights, including consent to marriage and equal rights and responsibilities within marriage
• keeping her own name after marriage
• equality of rights in determining where to live
• divorce rights, including equal ability to initiate divorce and rights to child custody and property division on the same basis as men
• right to equal guardianship of children during marriage
• right to child custody after divorce or widowhood
• basic civil freedoms
• free speech
• freedom of religion
• freedom to change nationality

Social and cultural rights, including

• control over her own person
• education - both basic and higher education
• equal access to both basic and higher education
• equal access to educational programs, including sports
• professions open to women, including law, medicine, teaching, theology
• roles in religious institutions, including voice, participation, serving as clergy
• treatment within the military: roles, promotion, treatment
• moral codes: absence of the "double standard"
• choices regarding roles and responsibilities within the home
• choices regarding roles and responsibilities regarding children
• sexual choices, including sex outside of marriage
• choice regarding family size and reproduction, and methods of controlling: contraceptives, abortion
• safety from sexual mistreatment, including rape, traffic in women, and exploitation of prostitutes
• choice of dress

Political rights, including

• participation in the political sphere, including having a voice and influence
• voting
• running for and serving in political offices
• inheriting titles and ruler ship in her own name

 

Reflecting on women's rights in my life, I have never felt like I wasn't an equal. I have yet to be in a situation where I feel I did not have rights or the same rights as a man. I anticipate that later on in my life I will deal with a situation where I am not equal to a man perhaps in a job or out in the community.  I feel as though society has come a long way from the early 1980's but still has room for improvement. I have a lot of traditional outlooks on life and the role in society for women. I grew up in a very traditional household with a stay at home mother and a hard working father. My mother stayed at home while my dad provide for the family. In my opinion that is how it should be, but for laws and regulations restricting women from working if they want to is crazy. I feel as though women who want to work and have an equal role in society as men they should be entitled to the same rights as men. No law should keep them from doing what they want. Regardless of my outlook and opinion I don’t think there should be laws in place to prohibit women from doing what they want. Looking at the history of women through the time of this history course, I have become much more open minded with things. It made me look at different double standards I hold in my mind. I feel that I have grown into a critical thinker. It has allowed me to look past my personal opinions whether it be socially, culturally, or religiously and look at it with other points of views regarding abortion, women's rights, and the social and cultural status of women.

Women & World War II

Women in the Military

In 1940 Japan attacks pear harbor and the United states enters the second World War. In 1942 two groups were established for women. They include The Women's Army Corps (WAC) and Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). Also congress allows women to serve in the United States Navy. In 1943, an all girls professional baseball team was established.

 

 

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history/videos/ask-history-rosie-the-riveter

"During World War II, some 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both at home and abroad. They included the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, who on March 10, 2010, were awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal. Meanwhile, widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home."


http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/a/women_work.htm
In Jone Johnson Lewis's article about Women in Offices, Factories, and Other Jobs during WW2, she states,"During World War II the percentage of American women who worked outside the home at paying work increased from 25% to 36%. More married women, more mothers, and more minority women found jobs than had before the war. Because of the absence of many men who either joined the military or took jobs in war production industries, some women moved outside their traditional roles and took positions in jobs usually reserved for men. Propaganda posters with images like "Rosie the Riveter" promoted the idea that it was patriotic -- and not unfeminine -- for women to work in non-traditional jobs. "If you've used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill press," urged an American War Manpower Campaign. As one example in the American shipbuilding industry, where women had been excluded from almost all jobs except a few office jobs before the war, women's presence went to over 9% of the workforce during the war. Thousands of women moved to Washington, DC, to take government office and support jobs. There were many jobs for women at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, as the US explored nuclear weapons. Minority women benefited from the June, 1941, Executive Order 8802, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after A. Philip Randolph threatened a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination. The shortage of male workers led to opportunities for women in other non-traditional fields. The All American Girls Baseball League was created during this period, and reflected the shortage of male baseball players in the major league."

Women's Changing Role in Society (1914-1939)

                Fresh from the Gilded Age, women took a new role in American society. One thing that helped bring this was Prohibition. Prohibition brought in the speakeasies that sold alcohol to anyone who wanted it. Speakeasies were a place where men and women frequented and got along very well. Women also got the right to vote in 1920. This empowered them more. With the new change in society with no one caring about anything but themselves, women gained much ground.

Women in the Workplace

Traditional family structure was completely changed by the First World War.

Many married women were forced into the workplace by the death of their husbands.

Other women were drafted into industries that had been depleted by military conscription.

Over the course of the war:

• 200,000 women took up jobs in governmental departments.


• 500,000 took up clerical positions in private offices.


• 250,000 worked on in agricultural positions.


• 700,000 women took up posts in the munitions industry, which was dangerous work.


• Many more women did hard heavy work, including ship building and furnace stoking. These types of jobs had excluded women prior to the war.

In July 1914, before the war broke out there were 3.2 million women in employment. This had risen to 5 million by January 1918.

1910-1919- 23.4% of women in work force, women began doing jobs previously done by men because of the war (police officers, mechanics, and truck drivers.)

1920-1929- 25% of women working, 30% of these women in clerical or sales. Women paid low wages.

1930-1939- Great depression, women discouraged from taking jobs. 22% in work force.

                Between 1920 and 1930, women in the labor force rose from 23.6 percent to 27 percent. World War I had opened up new doors for women, with many rising to white-collar office and support-staff positions. Women worked in manufacturing and textiles, domestic services and agriculture.

Education

The 1920s saw the first generation of female college graduates and women earning careers in nursing, education and social work.

 

Fashion

During the 1920s, women's fashion was revolutionized with changing music trends. Women adopted more casual modes of dress, including shorter dresses and skirts that were often frowned upon in public. Flappers epitomized the 1920s through their fashion, short-bob haircuts, dance moves, cosmetics and public smoking. By 1923, dance marathons featuring the Shimmy and the Charleston were all the rage.

Politics

Obviously, not all 1920s women were flappers. By the end of the twenties, 38 states featured nearly 150 elected female officials in Congress and state legislatures.

 

 

What did World War 1 do for Women?

The war meant women had to take on a number of traditionally male roles. Their ability to do this led to a change in attitudes.

World War 1 caused:

• Emmeline Pankhurst (leader of the Women’s Social and Political Union) called for a temporary ceasefire in their campaign so the country could focus fully on the war effort.

 

 

• Syliva Pankhurst and her Women’s Suffrage Federation were more radical and wanted the struggle to continue in spite of the situation.

When the war ended in November 1918 8.4 million women were granted the right to vote.

The Eligibility of Women Act was also passed in November 1918. This meant that some women could now be elected as members of Parliament.

World War 1 was undoubtedly the final catalyst for women to be given the vote. However, women would have to wait until 1928 to be granted the vote on equal terms with British men. This was brought by the Representation of the People Act, which stated all women over the age of 21 could vote.

 

Women in The Military

                When the United States entered the European War on April 6, 1917, it marked the first time in the history of the country that regular Army and Navy military nurses served overseas—although without rank—and the first time, women who were not nurses were allowed to enlist in the Navy and Marine Corps. A handful of women also served in the Coast Guard. The US Army, however, refused to enlist women officially, relying on them as contract employees and civilian volunteers.

Negative public opinion and hesitant military leaders limited women's roles, but the country needed their skills to pursue the war effort and to move male soldiers out of office jobs and onto the battlefield.

 

 

Women and Abortion 1865 - 1914

Abortion has been a controversial topic from the beginning of time. In the 1800's it was legal for women to terminate their pregnancy until the first fetal movement was detected. This ban was adopted by the original British common law. Abortions got a bad reputation for being unprofessional because of the people performing the procedures. It was common for irregular doctors and midwives to perform the abortion procedure, rather than general physicians.

 

 

Abortion numbers increases between the years of 1850 - 1860. The ratio between Abortions and live birth is 1:5. This spike in numbers of abortions quickly pushed anti- abortion laws in congress. People didn't like the idea of abortion and had very strong views opposing it. In the 1840's it was more likely for the middle - upper class women to have the abortion procedure. It was because they wanted to limit their family size to stay in their socioeconomic status. In this time families started to live in more rural areas which caused the families to live a more urban lifestyle. They  no longer needed to have large families to help farm and grow their crops. They no longer relied on the work of their children in the fields or family business. This was a huge change in culture at this time. Small families became the social norm of urban life. Some people against  abortion would say that it was the women's selfishness that lead them to abort their babies.  They limit their family size for fear of their socioeconomic status.

 

Stated in the article called Mid-1800s and After: States Begin Outlawing Abortion, "In the late 1800s, the newly formed American Medical Association (AMA) argues that abortion is both immoral and dangerous."

 

The Boston surgeon, Horatio Robinson Storer, M.D. (1830-1922) was known for leading the  "Physicians' Crusade Against Abortion" in 1857. He carried out extensive research and concluded in the 1859 American Medical Association Report that “thousands and hundreds of thousands of lives are… directly at stake, and are annually sacrificed” as a result of abortion. 

 

In 1910 the AMA set strict rules banning midwives and homeopaths from performing abortions. During this time, every state had strict laws against aborting the baby otherwise to save a mother's life. These abortions were only done by Doctors.  After the strict  banning of abortions, "back- alley" abortion numbers skyrocketed. More women died from these illegitimate procedures in this time than any other time in history. Women did not have enough money to have the doctor carry out the procedure so many women were forced to have "back- alley" abortions which resulted in complications. 

 

Even in this day and age, Abortion still raises some heated arguments. There are two sides; Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. And most will argue very passionately their views.  

 

Statistics among abortions and classes of women are far more different today. In the 1840's it was most likely for a women of higher class in the socioeconomic status to go through with abortions. Now in today's society, lower class women are more likely to get abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, "Forty-two percent of women obtaining abortions have incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level ($10,830 for a single woman with no children). Twenty-seven percent of women obtaining abortions have incomes between 100–199% of the federal poverty level."

 

Statistics today show that in white women there are 138 abortions in every 1,000 births. In black women there is a ratio 501:1,000. This goes hand-in-hand with stereotypes of low income and race. Most people have stereotypes of the black women in poverty getting abortions. 73% of women said that they couldn't afford a baby at the time 48%  said that they did not want to be a single mother or were having relationship problems

 

 

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