Women’s Rights Movement

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overseas fighting. Traditionally women earned less for doing the same job as men, but as they started making up more and more of the workforce unions started to demand equal pay. In 1945 the Women’s Equal Pay Act was introduced but after the war employers started to replace their female workers with men and the amount of women working outside the home dropped drastically. Again in the 1950’s several bills advocating equal pay were introduced but didn’t move forward. By 1960, there were approximately 25 million women working outside the home. While women again accounted for 37% of the total workforce, they only earned an average of 59 cents on the dollar compared to men (nps.gov). In 1961, at the urging of Esther Peterson, President Kennedy established the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women to develop recommendations for achieving equality. In 1963 Peterson submitted a draft of the Equal Pay Act to congress. Many business communities opposed the act arguing that “women were more expensive to employ than men” and that “federal legislation was unnecessary, impossible to enforce, and would create more problems than it would solve”. To calm businesses fears the equal pay act was made an amendment to the pre-existing FLSA, fair labor standards act. Although it was only one small step, the equal pay act was a step in the right direction towards women’s prosperity and progress.

Another battle that the women’s rights movement is undertaking is the reproductive rights for women. For many years, pioneers like Margaret Sanger fought for contraceptives that women would control (ushistory.org). With the introduction of the birth control pill to the market in 1960, women could for the first time in history control pregnancy by their own choice. Also with many organized religions standing firm on the belief that contraception and abortion were sinful many states in the early 1960’s prohibited their use. Throughout the 1960s, there was no national standard throughout the U.S on abortion regulations, therefore many states had simply outlawed the practice. Feminist groups fought this though. The illegality of abortion led many women to seek black market abortions by unlicensed physicians or they’d attempt to perform the procedure on themselves, which sadly resulted in death for many women. In 1964 Gerri Santoro of Connecticut died trying to obtain an illegal abortion and her photo became the symbol of the pro-choice movement. The landmark judicial ruling of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade ruled that a Texas statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion. The court found that a mother had a right to abortion until viability, a point to be determined by the abortion doctor. Winning the right to an abortion was a big win for women’s health and reproductive rights.

The achievements of the women’s rights movement shine proudly in American society today. Their achievements allow women to take part in political votes, work and make money so that they can support themselves and live their lives in the way that they please and by allowing them a choice on pregnancy. These things have given women a more prominent place in society and makes it possible for them to make major and decisions for their own benefit. By allowing women to live their own lives and make choices for themselves it opens the door for young women to do amazing things. It gives women a chance to change things politically and socially. Emma Watson once said "We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is that we have a uniting movement." and that couldn’t be closer to the truth. Women have come so far as a unit and women will continue to progress and make change for themselves and the world. Not eve just women but men alike have come together in this great feminist movement making obtaining change all the much easier because a one force the fights for women’s rights has never been stronger