The Right Choice Isn’t Always Easy Birch Bayh, former Indiana Senator, grew up believing that women did not have a problem with rights. He said his mother and grandmother always had as much of a say in matters as their husbands did. He never realized there was a problem with equality for women, until he joined the Senate’s Constitutional Amendment Subcommittee (Bayh 2013). When faced with an issue, a person always has two choices: run away, or face it head on. How an individual deals with times of troubles reveals their true character. Birch Bayh was the most courageous political character of his time because he risked his political career to sponsor the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.). Beginning in 1943, bills were produced that tried to win equal rights for women. Already included in the Constitution was a sort of equality for women. Therefore, a constitutional amendment was not needed, but clarification to get rid of the vagueness towards women’s constitutional rights was. By 1969, nothing had been done to accomplish this, so new efforts were started to define equality for women through a constitutional amendment (Birch Bayh Biography). A bill for an Equal Rights Amendment was introduced by Senator Eugene McCarthy in 1969, stating that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Bayh’s Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee conducted hearings on the bill in early 1970 (ERA). The chances of the proposal passing through the Senate seemed slim due to the conservative Senators. In fact, they offered amendments designed to bring the E.R.A. down. One of the Senators’ propositions was the “kitchen amendment.” It said, “This article shall not impair, howeve... ... middle of paper ... ...ent that the Equal Rights Amendment would sponsor abortion. They showed images of aborted fetuses to bring a bad public image upon Bayh (Smith 4). However, all of his involvement in the E.R.A. did not seem like a political act of courage to Bayh. “I do not like to think that when you are doing your job as a senator, it means you are being courageous. After all, it is your job. You have to do what’s right” (Bayh 2013). That is the most important part of doing something courageous: the fact that it is right. Standing up for personal beliefs is rarely ever easy, but those who risk their political careers to achieve justice should be recognized. Bayh never knew there was an issue with equality for women, but right when he discovered it, he took action. John Wooden’s quote says it best, “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts” (Abrams).
In 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was drafted by Alice Paul and subsequently introduced to Congress. Paul and the National Organization for Women began campaigning for its passage in 1967. In 1972, Congress passed the ERA and the states began to evaluate it for ratification, with a seven-year deadline. It garnered the support of 22 states in the first year, but the level of support slowly dwindled as time went on. The opposition against the ERA was headed by Phyllis Schlafly, the leader of Stop ERA. Opponents were effective in persuading states to abando...
“That all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”(History.com Staff. (2009) Women’s Rights began in 1848, with the start of a Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, which was held by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. On May 15, 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed. This helped women gain the right to vote along with African Americans.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
This document is a Brochure on Equal Right released by Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This Brochure was created to bring awareness and bring equal rights amendment to the constitution for women. At this time it is the second wave of feminists. Their goals were to give women equal right, but others wanted women to stay in their stereotypes of being mothers, and housewives. The first half document points to all of the issues where women aren’t being given equal right. The second half of this document is what the equal right Amendment will bring for women.Points out that women are not considered legal even though corporation are. Women earn considerably lower than men about 41%. Women are
The Equal Rights Amendment began its earliest discussions in 1920. These discussions took place immediately after two-thirds of the states approved women's suffrage. The nineteenth century was intertwined with several feminist movements such as abortion, temperance, birth control and equality. Many lobbyists and political education groups formed in these times. One such organization is the Eagle Forum, who claims to lead the pro-family movement. On the opposite side of the coin is The National Organization for Women, or NOW, which takes action to better the position of women in society. Feminism is the most powerful force for change in our time. The Equal Rights Amendment has been a powerfully debated subject for decades. Having passed the Senate with a vote of 84-8, it failed to get the requisite thirty-eight states to ratify it. Many discussions and arguments arise over the continued push for the Equal Rights Amendment. The need for change must be a consensus and achieved both nationally and at the state level. The attempt to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment continues, but with few supports left, it appears to have lost its momentum.
In this paper I explain and reject Dworkin's arguments for his view of constitutional interpretation. But with Dworkin, I reject the "originalism" of Justice Scalia and Robert Bork. I champion, instead, the moderate view that Justice Hugo Black presents in his dissent in Griswold v. Connecticut. (2)
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was sign into the Constitution, granting women the rights to vote.
The fight for women’s rights began long before the Civil War, but the most prominent issue began after the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments joined the Constitution. The rights to all “citizens” of the United States identified all true “citizens” as men and therefore incited a revolution in civil rights for women (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The National Women’s Suffrage Convention of 1868
Immediately after its passage by the Senate the Suffrage Amendment was signed. Guest was limited to representatives of that National American Woman Suffrage Association. Women have the same rights as men, because of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment was formed in 1878, but didn’t pass until 1920. For 70 years, women fought for this law to pass. Women were treated as second class citizens. Women wanted the same rights as men, regarding their gender. August 26th is the anniversary date of the Nineteenth Amendment. It is called Women’s Equality Day.. The Amendment was brought to congress over women suffrage. These women fought for their rights for 70 years. Finally getting the amendment ratified on August 18, 1920.
While the 1960s were a time of advancement for minorities, it was also a time of advancement for women. In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, which outlawed discrimination in the workplace based on a person’s sex (Foner 944). To ensure that women would have the same opportunities as men in jobs, education, and political participation, the National Organization for women was formed in 1966 (Foner 944). The sixties also marked the beginning of a public campaign to repeal state laws that banned abortion or left the decision to terminate a pregnancy to physicians instead of the woman (Foner 945).
Women’s equality has made huge advancements in the United States in the past decade. One of the most influential persons to the movement has been a woman named Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ruth faced gender discrimination many times throughout her career and worked hard to ensure that discrimination based on a person’s gender would be eliminated for future generations. Ginsburg not only worked to fight for women’s equality but fought for the rights of men, as well, in order to show that equality was a human right’s issue and not just a problem that women faced. Though she faced hardships and discrimination, Ruth never stopped working and, thanks to her equality, is a much closer reality than it was fifty years ago.
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
One of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s primary goals of the Women’s Rights Project’s litigation was to prove that stereotypical treatment of gender under the law was unconstitutional. It was Ginsburg’s goal to make the Court realize that “the law’s differential treatment of men and women, rationalized as reflecting “natural” differences between the sexes, historically had tended to contribute to women’s subordination” (Ginsburg 11). Ginsburg carefully selected cases which she felt would produce the greatest results. To do this, she “pursue(d) a series of cases that illuminate(d) the most common instances of gender distinctions in the law (Ginsburg 14). In three cases, Reed v. Reed, Frontiero v. Richardson, and Craig v. Boren, Ginsburg was successful in arguing that legal distinctions on the basis of sex qualified as suspect classifications. Therefore the state must show a compelling interest in its legislation, and “must demonstrate that the means are necessarily related to the ends sought to be achieved by the statue and are the least restrictive” (Mezey 16). Today, it is debatable whether women are equal to men in the eyes of the law. However, without the Women’s Rights Project’s litigation of the nineteen seventies, women would be remain subjected to stereotypical legal treatment and thus would still be regulated to an inferior status of citizenship.
She argued that the ERA would bring changes to women in America that nobody wanted. Despite her protests, feminist leaders addressed the legislature and argued in support of the ERA, and it was approved by the House in 1970 then in 1972 by the Senate also. The amendment was ratified by thirty of the thirty-eight states by 1973 (Ushistory.org [57c]). Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller is considered the first major feminist work in the United States and is often compared to Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
We make choices every hour, every minute, and every second of our lives; whether big or small our choices are slowly putting us in the direction we choose or end up. Many of us do not realize what contributes to the choices we make and why it affects others the same way if affects us and because of this many authors and writers have written stories and articles about coming to terms with making a choice and how to better ourselves when it comes to decision-making for the future.