There has been a significant transition in the rights of the women in the United States of America, since the seventeenth century to date. Women have been able to gain stability and a say in the societies they live. The situation has been brought by the various reforms and efforts of many people. Who ranged from feminist groups, human rights activists, as well as the Congress and fellow citizens in the US Women. Who took the move to be part of the process of making the American laws; they have suffered due to the same laws, as well as experiencing much difficulty in convincing the society that they are able, just like the male citizens. In the year 1619, a proposal, which was meant to give women an equal allocation of the colonial land, was rejected by the Virginia House of Burgesses. The request by Margaret Brent, who was a female lawyer in Maryland Colony, serving Virginia and Maryland, to have a vote and voice in the Maryland Assembly, was denied in the year 1638 by Thomas Green, who was the new Governor.
In the Seneca Falls, Women's Rights Convention set forth a great journey for the American women rights. On the July 19, 1848, one woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, presented herself in the Wesleyan Chapel, which was located in Seneca Falls, New York, and whose primary purpose was to discuss the journey and the issue of the political rights of women, which was mostly embodied in the right to vote. The other main points of discussion included the social welfare of women, the public participation of women, and spiritual condition placed on women, as well as the general foundation of the women rights. The convention had a great impact, which saw it being signed by thirty-two men and sixty-eight women, a whose message was one, that all human beings were created equal, regardless of their gender differences, and that, all people are entitled to certain fundamental rights, equally. Some of the rights agreed upon include the right t pursue happiness, the right to liberty, as well as, the right to life. Many things changed during that great meeting, which included the way men regarded their wives and other women, both in their marriages and outside the marriages. Women were granted the right to vote, which became a political right, the right to fair treatment, to own property, the right to education, were among the changes of that meeting.
The other major event was the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave the American women the political right to vote. The bill was implemented on August 18, 1920, with the efforts of two major American women, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1793-1880) and (1815-1902) respectively, who had fought tirelessly for over seventy years, since the Seneca Falls Womens Right Convention in the year 1848. Together with other women such as Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), the women had raised awareness for the creation of a political equity for the women; especially the right to vote and their efforts brought forth the 19th Amendment. The amendment granted women the right to vote. Another major transformation which took place in the US was the involvement of women in the World War II. The American women actively and directly participated in the Second World War, which was contrary to the First World War. Women in the US took effective actions to work in many war companies, working in what was previously regarded as a mens field. The women were active in the manufacture of warplanes, warships, weapons, vehicles and even the gear used in the war.
Other women also worked in production farms, took work as drivers in various companies for Lorries, who provided logistics and supplies for the soldiers in the fields, as well as the taking part in the professional fields as workers. A significant transformation took place in the American history regarding women, in the wake of the WWII, with 6.5 million women joining the American workforce. A total of 37 percent of the women who were grown women in the US acceded to the labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the American population of women in the workforce had increased to 50%. Women moved from being domestic workers to civilian workers, taking part in various jobs which circulated within the states. Women in the US had proved their worth during such a time, and they gained major stand, which could not be reversed even after the war ended.
The Roe v. Wade case of 1973 was a major event in the US history. The case presented the need of the women to abort, without many restrictions from the law which would have been set on the agreed guidelines. In the case, the Supreme Court of the United States was faced with one major challenge which was the need to have elimination or a revision of the rule. The standard of protecting the life of the mother was revised by one judge; Justice Blackmun's stated that the need to have an abortion was an agreement vested between the woman who was pregnant and her doctor, within the first three months of her pregnancy.
The other case, which was closely related to the Roe v. Wade, was the Doe v. Bolton case, which was vested in the State of Georgia, where many ladies wanted to have an abortion. The rule dictated that, for any woman to have an abortion, all hospitals carrying out abortion exercises had to have the Joint Committee on Accreditation of Hospitals credit it to do so, that any abortion was to be authorized and receive approval by the hospital abortion committee. Lastly, it was required that the health of the woman who wanted to carry out an abortion have her health checked by two physicians, although the last right to conduct the abortion led to the Supreme Court.
At the end of it all, the case was decided that, women had the right to privacy, and that they had the supreme right to carry out an abortion without the approval of the Supreme Court. The 20th-century glass-ceiling was another transformation in the US, which saw the break in the ordinary state of work organizations. The structure was used to address cases where men received the top managerial positions, leaving women to work in places which showed they were less useful in the organizations. Gender was a major issue of concern which was used to discuss the need to empower women so as to ensure that there is the equity in the presentation of the jobs and other. The end goal was to see a break in the institutional norms, which would lead to the creation of a state in which, women and men were equally important in all the leadership positions in the US. Women in governance have been the major issue in the US history, where, women have shown the interest to take the top jobs in the states In most cases, the women have been as productive as men in their leadership and in the positions they hold. Women like Geraldine Ferraro were the first lady to run for the presidency in the US under the Democratic Party ticket. The other primary candidate to run for a bigger office was Hillary Clinton, in the year 2016, but lost to Donald Trump. All these transformations have transpired to a better US, where women are recognized for everyone and their efforts respected by all.
Bibliographies
Abortion: Roe v. Wade, 410 U .S. 113 (1973), Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973), Volume 64, Issues 4 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 393 (1973)
Bombuwela, P. M., and De Alwis A. Chamaru, Effects of Glass Ceiling on Women Career Development in Private Sector Organizations Case of Sri Lanka, 2013, Journal of Competitiveness, Vol. 5, Issue 2, pp. 3-19, June 2013,
History, 19Th Amendment, c. 2010, A & E Television Networks, LLC, Online Access http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendmentJalalzai, F., Madam President: Gender, Power, and the Comparative Presidency, 2010, Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31:132165, DOI: 10.1080/15544771003697643
Judith, Wellman, The Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention: A Study of Social Networks, 1991. Journal of Women's History, Volume 3, Number 1, pp. 9-37 (Article), the Johns Hopkins University Press
Khan Academy, American women and World War II, c. 1990; Online Access https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-7/apush-us-wwii/a/american-women-and-world-war-iiNational park Service, the report of the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention is from August 1848. 1848, Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19th and 20th, 1848, Rochester: John Dick at the North Star Office. Online Access https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/report-of-the-womans-rights-convention.htmPaustian-Underdahl, S.C., Woehr, D.J., and Walker, L.S., Gender and Perceptions of Leadership Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis of Contextual Moderators, 2014, Journal of Applied Psychology; American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 99, No. 6, 1129 1145
Professor Cunnea, A Timeline of Womens Legal History in the United States, 1998, Womens law & Public Policy Fellowship program
If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the SuperbGrade website, please click below to request its removal:
- The Research of Negotiantion Process
- Effects of Online Social Networking on Social Relationships
- Prospects of Success for a Uniquely Run Family Business
- My New Friend Potato
- Global Entrepreneurship Index Methodology Analysis of Switzerland
- Paper Example on Resolution about Crisis in Syria
- Paper Example on Trumps Plan on Border Security