"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." That was
Margaret Mead's conclusion after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures
around the world. Her insight has been borne out time and again throughout
the development of this country of ours. Being allowed to live life in an
atmosphere of religious freedom, having a voice in the government you support
with your taxes, living free of lifelong enslavement by another person. These
beliefs about how life should and must be lived were once considered outlandish
by many. But these beliefs were fervently held by visionaries whose steadfast
work brought about changed minds and attitudes. Now these beliefs are commonly
shared across U.S. society.
Another initially outlandish idea that has come to pass: United States
citizenship for women. 1998 marked the 150th Anniversary of a movement by
women to achieve full civil rights in this country. Over the past seven
generations, dramatic social and legal changes have been accomplished that
are now so accepted that they go unnoticed by people whose lives they have
utterly changed. Many people who have lived through the recent decades of
this process have come to accept blithely what has transpired. And younger
people, for the most part, can hardly believe life was ever otherwise. They
take the changes completely in stride, as how life has always been.
The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven
generations in family life, in religion, in government, in employment, in
education - these changes did not just happen spontaneously. Women themselves
made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the passive
recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations
of women have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic
ways: through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and
nonviolent resistance. They have worked very deliberately to create a better
world, and they have succeeded hugely.
Throughout 1998, the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement is
being celebrated across the nation with programs and events taking every
form imaginable. Like many amazing stories, the history of the Women's Rights
Movement began with a small group of people questioning why human lives were
being unfairly constricted. Return to Index
A Tea Launches a Revolution
The Women's Rights Movement marks July 13, 1848 as its beginning. On that
sweltering summer day in upstate New York, a young housewife and mother,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was invited to tea with four women friends. When
the course of their conversation turned to the situation of women, Stanton
poured out her discontent with the limitations placed on her own situation
under America's new democracy. Hadn't the American Revolution had been fought
just 70 years earlier to win the patriots freedom from tyranny? But women
had not gained freedom even though they'd taken equally tremendous risks
through those dangerous years. Surely the new republic would benefit from
having its women play more active roles throughout society. Stanton's friends
agreed with her, passionately. This was definitely not the first small group
of women to have such a conversation, but it was the first to plan and carry
out a specific, large-scale program.
Today we are living the legacy of this afternoon conversation among women
friends. Throughout 1998, events celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the
Women's Rights Movement are looking at the massive changes these women set
in motion when they daringly agreed to convene the world's first Women's
Rights Convention.
Within two days of their afternoon tea together, this small group had picked
a date for their convention, found a suitable location, and placed a small
announcement in the Seneca County Courier. They called "A convention to discuss
the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." The gathering
would take place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20,
1848.
In the history of western civilization, no similar public meeting had ever
been called. Return to Index
A "Declaration of Sentiments" is Drafted
These were patriotic women, sharing the ideal of improving the new republic.
They saw their mission as helping the republic keep its promise of better,
more egalitarian lives for its citizens. As the women set about preparing
for the event, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used the Declaration of Independence
as the framework for writing what she titled a "Declaration of Sentiments."
In what proved to be a brilliant move, Stanton connected the nascent campaign
for women's rights directly to that powerful American symbol of liberty.
The same familiar words framed their arguments: "We hold these truths to
be self-evident; 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."
In this Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton carefully enumerated areas of
life where women were treated unjustly. Eighteen was precisely the number
of grievances America's revolutionary forefathers had listed in their Declaration
of Independence from England.
Stanton's version read, "The history of mankind is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this,
let facts be submitted to a candid world." Then it went into specifics:
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Married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law
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Women were not allowed to vote
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Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their formation
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Married women had no property rights
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Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent
that they could imprison or beat them with impunity
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Divorce and child custody laws favored men, giving no rights to women
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Women had to pay property taxes although they had no representation in the
levying of these taxes
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Most occupations were closed to women and when women did work they were paid
only a fraction of what men earned
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Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law
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Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would
accept women students
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With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to participate in the
affairs of the church
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Women were robbed of their self-confidence and
self-respect, and were made totally dependent on men
Strong words... Large grievances... And remember: This was just seventy years
after the Revolutionary War. Doesn't it seem surprising to you that this
unfair treatment of women was the norm in this new, very idealistic democracy?
But this Declaration of Sentiments spelled out what was the status quo for
European-American women in 1848 America, while it was even worse for enslaved
Black women.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's draft continued: "Now, in view of this entire
disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and
religious degradation, -- in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and
because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived
of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission
to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these
United States."
That summer, change was in the air and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was full of
hope that the future could and would be brighter for women. Return to Index
The First Women's Rights Convention
The convention was convened as planned, and over the two-days of discussion,
the Declaration of Sentiments and 12 resolutions received unanimous endorsement,
one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution that did not pass
unanimously was the call for women's enfranchisement. That women should be
allowed to vote in elections was almost inconceivable to many. Lucretia Mott,
Stanton's longtime friend, had been shocked when Stanton had first suggested
such an idea. And at the convention, heated debate over the woman's vote
filled the air.
Today, it's hard for us to imagine this, isn't it? Even the heartfelt pleas
of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a refined and educated woman of the time, did
not move the assembly. Not until Frederick Douglass, the noted Black abolitionist
and rich orator, started to speak, did the uproar subside. Woman, like the
slave, he argued, had the right to liberty. "Suffrage," he asserted, "is
the power to choose rulers and make laws, and the right by which all others
are secured." In the end, the resolution won enough votes to carry, but by
a bare majority.
The Declaration of Sentiments ended on a note of complete realism: "In entering
upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception,
misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within
our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts,
petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the
pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed
by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country."
Return to Index
The Backlash Begins
Stanton was certainly on the mark when she anticipated "misconception,
misrepresentation, and ridicule." Newspaper editors were so scandalized by
the shameless audacity of the Declaration of Sentiments, and particularly
of the ninth resolution -- women demanding the vote!-- that they attacked
the women with all the vitriol they could muster. The women's rights movement
was only one day old and the backlash had already begun!
In ridicule, the entire text of the Declaration of Sentiments was often
published, with the names of the signers frequently included. Just as ridicule
today often has a squelching effect on new ideas, this attack in the press
caused many people from the Convention to rethink their positions. Many of
the women who had attended the convention were so embarrassed by the publicity
that they actually withdrew their signatures from the Declaration. But most
stood firm. And something the editors had not anticipated happened: Their
negative articles about the women's call for expanded rights were so livid
and widespread that they actually had a positive impact far beyond anything
the organizers could have hoped for. People in cities and isolated towns
alike were now alerted to the issues, and joined this heated discussion of
women's rights in great numbers! Return to Index
The Movement Expands
The Seneca Falls women had optimistically hoped for "a series of conventions
embracing every part of the country." And that's just what did happen. Women's
Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the start of the Civil
War. Some drew such large crowds that people actually had to be turned away
for lack of sufficient meeting space!
The women's rights movement of the late 19th century went on to address the
wide range of issues spelled out at the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and women like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth
traveled the country lecturing and organizing for the next forty years.
Eventually, winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue, since
the vote would provide the means to achieve the other reforms. All told,
the campaign for woman suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took
72 years for the women and their male supporters to be successful.
As you might imagine, any 72-year campaign includes thousands of political
strategists, capable organizers, administrators, activists and lobbyists.
The story of diligent women's rights activism is a litany of achievements
against tremendous odds, of ingenious strategies and outrageous tactics used
to outwit opponents and make the most of limited resources. It's a dramatic
tale, filled with remarkable women facing down incredible obstacles to win
that most basic American civil right - the vote.
Among these women are several activists whose names and and accomplishments
should become as familiar to Americans as those of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham
Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of course. And Susan B. Anthony. Matilda Joslyn Gage.
Lucy Stone. They were pioneer theoreticians of the 19th-century women's rights
movement.
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Esther Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial position, who led the first
successful state campaign for woman suffrage, in Wyoming in 1869. Abigail
Scott Duniway, the leader of the successful fight in Oregon and Washington
in the early 1900s.
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Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, organizers of thousands of
African-American women who worked for suffrage for all women.
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Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Stone
Blackwell, Lucy Stone's daughter, who carried on their mothers' legacy through
the next generation.
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Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, leaders of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association in the early years of the 20th century, who brought
the campaign to its final success.
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Alice Paul, founder and leader of the National Woman's Party, considered
the radical wing of the movement.
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now a Supreme Court Justice, learned the story of the
Women's Rights Movement. Today she says, "I think about how much we owe
to the women who went before us - legions of women, some known but many more
unknown. I applaud the bravery and resilience of those who helped all of
us - you and me - to be here today."
Return to Index
After the Vote was Won
After the vote was finally won in 1920, the organized Women's Rights Movement
continued on in several directions. While the majority of women who had marched,
petitioned and lobbied for woman suffrage looked no further, a minority -
like Alice Paul - understood that the quest for women's rights would be an
ongoing struggle that was only advanced, not satisfied, by the vote.
In 1919, as the suffrage victory drew near, the National American Woman Suffrage
Association reconfigured itself into the League of Women Voters to ensure
that women would take their hard-won vote seriously and use it wisely.
In 1920, the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor was established to
gather information about the situation of women at work, and to advocate
for changes it found were needed. Many suffragists became actively involved
with lobbying for legislation to protect women workers from abuse and unsafe
conditions.
In 1923, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman's Party, took the next
obvious step. She drafted an Equal Rights Amendment for the United States
Constitution. Such a federal law, it was argued, would ensure that "Men and
women have equal rights throughout the United States." A constitutional amendment
would apply uniformly, regardless of where a person lived.
The second wing of the post-suffrage movement was one that had not been
explicitly anticipated in the Seneca Falls "Declaration of Sentiments." It
was the birth control movement, initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret
Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman's
right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction
and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women's
emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing
birth control methods. It also spread the conviction that meaningful freedom
for modern women meant they must be able to decide for themselves whether
they would become mothers, and when. For decades, Margaret Sanger and her
supporters faced down at every turn the zealously enforced laws denying women
this right. In 1936, a Supreme Court decision declassified birth control
information as obscene. Still, it was not until 1965 that married couples
in all states could obtain contraceptives legally. Return to Index
The Second Wave
So it's clear that, contrary to common misconception, the Women's Rights
Movement did not begin in the 1960s. What occurred in the 1960s was actually
a second wave of activism that washed into the public consciousness, fueled
by several seemingly independent events of that turbulent decade. Each of
these events brought a different segment of the population into the movement.
First: Esther Peterson was the director of the Women's Bureau of the Dept.
of Labor in 1961. She considered it to be the government's responsibility
to take an active role in addressing discrimination against women. With her
encouragement, President Kennedy convened a Commission on the Status of Women,
naming Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. The report issued by that commission
in 1963 documented discrimination against women in virtually every area of
American life. State and local governments quickly followed suit and established
their own commissions for women, to research conditions and recommend changes
that could be initiated.
Then: In 1963, Betty Friedan published a landmark book, The Feminine Mystique.
The Feminine Mystique evolved out of a survey she had conducted for her 20-year
college reunion. In it she documented the emotional and intellectual oppression
that middle-class educated women were experiencing because of limited life
options. The book became an immediate bestseller, and inspired thousands
of women to look for fulfillment beyond the role of homemaker.
Next: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting employment
discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national
origin. The category "sex" was included as a last-ditch effort to kill the
bill. But it passed, nevertheless. With its passage, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission was established to investigate discrimination complaints.
Within the commission's first five years, it received 50,000 sex discrimination
complaints. But it was quickly obvious that the commission was not very
interested in pursuing these complaints. Betty Friedan, the chairs of the
various state Commissions on the Status of Women, and other feminists agreed
to form a civil rights organization for women similar to the NAACP. In 1966,
the National Organization for Women was organized, soon to be followed by
an array of other mass-membership organizations addressing the needs of specific
groups of women, including Blacks, Latinas, Asians-Americans, lesbians, welfare
recipients, business owners, aspiring politicians, and tradeswomen and
professional women of every sort.
During this same time, thousands of young women on college campuses were
playing active roles within the anti-war and civil rights movement. At least,that
was their intention. Many were finding their efforts blocked by men who felt
leadership of these movements was their own province, and that women's roles
should be limited to fixing food and running mimeograph machines. It wasn't
long before these young women began forming their own "women's liberation"
organizations to address their role and status within these progressive movements
and within society at large. Return to Index
New Issues Come to the Fore
These various elements of the re-emerging Women's Rights Movement
worked together and separately on a wide range of issues. Small groups of
women in hundreds of communities worked on grassroots projects like establishing
women's newspapers, bookstores and cafes. They created battered women's shelters
and rape crisis hotlines to care for victims of sexual abuse and domestic
violence. They came together to form child care centers so women could work
outside their homes for pay. Women health care professionals opened women's
clinics to provide birth control and family planning counseling -- and to
offer abortion services -- for low-income women. These clinics provided a
safe place to discuss a wide range of health concerns and experiment with
alternative forms of treatment.
With the inclusion of Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972, equal access
to higher education and to professional schools became the law. The long-range
effect of that one straightforward legal passage beginning "Equal access
to education programs...," has been simply phenomenal. The number of women
doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and other professionals has doubled
and doubled again as quotas actually limiting women's enrollment in graduate
schools were outlawed. Athletics has probably been the most hotly contested
area of Title IX, and it's been one of the hottest areas of improvement,
too. The rise in girls' and women's participation in athletics tells the
story: One in twenty-seven high school girls played sports 25 years ago;
one in three do today. The whole world saw how much American women athletes
could achieve during the last few Olympic Games, measured in their astonishing
numbers of gold, silver, and bronze medals. This was another very visible
result of Title IX.
In society at large, the Women's Rights Movement has brought about measurable
changes, too. In 1972, 26% of men and women said they would not vote for
a woman for president. In 1996, that sentiment had plummeted to just over
5% for women and to 8% for men. The average age of women when they first
marry has moved from twenty to twenty-four during that same period.
But perhaps the most dramatic impact of the women's rights movement of the
past few decades has been women's financial liberation. Do you realize that
just 25 years ago married women were not issued credit cards in their own
name? That most women could not get a bank loan without a male co-signer?
That women working full time earned fifty-nine cents to every dollar earned
by men?
Help-wanted ads in newspapers were segregated into "Help wanted - women"
and "Help wanted- men." Pages and pages of jobs were announced for which
women could not even apply. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled
this illegal in 1968, but since the EEOC had little enforcement power, most
newspapers ignored the requirement for years. The National Organization for
Women (NOW), had to argue the issue all the way to the Supreme Court to make
it possible for a woman today to hold any job for which she is qualified.
And so now we see women in literally thousands of occupations which would
have been almost unthinkable just one generation ago: dentist, bus driver,
veterinarian, airline pilot, and phone installer, just to name a few.
Many of these changes came about because of legislation and court cases pushed
by women's organizations. But many of the advances women achieved in the
1960s and '70s were personal: getting husbands to help with the housework
or regularly take responsibility for family meals; getting a long-deserved
promotion at work; gaining the financial and emotional strength to leave
an abusive partner. Return to Index
The Equal Rights Amendment Is Re-Introduced
Then, in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment, which had languished in Congress
for almost fifty years, was finally passed and sent to the states for
ratification. The wording of the ERA was simple: "Equality of rights under
the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state
on account of sex." To many women's rights activists, its ratification by
the required thirty-eight states seemed almost a shoo-in.
The campaign for state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment provided
the opportunity for millions of women across the nation to become actively
involved in the Women's Rights Movement in their own communities. Unlike
so many other issues which were battled-out in Congress or through the courts,
this issue came to each state to decide individually. Women's organizations
of every stripe organized their members to help raise money and generate
public support for the ERA. Marches were staged in key states that brought
out hundreds of thousands of supporters. House meetings, walk-a-thons,
door-to-door canvassing, and events of every imaginable kind were held by
ordinary women, many of whom had never done anything political in their lives
before. Generous checks and single dollar bills poured into the campaign
headquarters, and the ranks of NOW and other women's rights organizations
swelled to historic sizes. Every women's magazine and most general interest
publications had stories on the implications of the ERA, and the progress
of the ratification campaign.
But Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved prophetic once again. Remember her prediction
that the movement should "anticipate no small amount of misconception,
misrepresentation, and ridicule"? Opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment,
organized by Phyllis Schlafly, feared that a statement like the ERA in the
Constitution would give the government too much control over our personal
lives. They charged that passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning
their families, unisex toilets, gay marriages, and women being drafted. And
the media, purportedly in the interest of balanced reporting, gave equal
weight to these deceptive arguments just as they had when the possibility
of women winning voting rights was being debated. And, just like had happened
with woman suffrage, there were still very few women in state legislatures
to vote their support, so male legislators once again had it in their power
to decide if women should have equal rights. When the deadline for ratification
came in 1982, the ERA was just three states short of the 38 needed to write
it into the U.S. constitution. Seventy-five percent of the women legislators
in those three pivotal states supported the ERA, but only 46% of the men
voted to ratify.
Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the population supporting
the ERA, it was considered by many politicians to be just too controversial.
Historically speaking, most if not all the issues of the women's rights movement
have been highly controversial when they were first voiced. Allowing women
to go to college? That would shrink their reproductive organs! Employ women
in jobs for pay outside their homes? That would destroy families! Cast votes
in national elections? Why should they bother themselves with such matters?
Participate in sports? No lady would ever want to perspire! These and other
issues that were once considered scandalous and unthinkable are now almost
universally accepted in this country. Return to Index
More Complex Issues Surface
Significant progress has been made regarding the topics discussed at the
Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The people attending that landmark discussion
would not even have imagined the issues of the Women's Rights Movement in
the 1990s. Much of the discussion has moved beyond the issue of equal rights
and into territory that is controversial, even among feminists. To name a
few:
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Women's reproductive rights. Whether or not women can terminate pregnancies
is still controversial twenty-five years after the Supreme Court ruling in
Roe v. Wade affirmed women's choice during the first two trimesters.
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Women's enrollment in military academies and service in active combat. Are
these desirable?
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Women in leadership roles in religious worship. Controversial for some, natural
for others.
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Affirmative action. Is help in making up for past discrimination appropriate?
Do qualified women now face a level playing field?
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The mommy track. Should businesses accommodate women's family responsibilities,
or should women compete evenly for advancement with men, most of whom still
assume fewer family obligations?
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Pornography. Is it degrading, even dangerous, to women, or is it simply a
free speech issue?
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Sexual harassment. Just where does flirting leave off and harassment begin?
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Surrogate motherhood. Is it simply the free right of a woman to hire out
her womb for this service?
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Social Security benefits allocated equally for
homemakers and their working spouses, to keep surviving wives from poverty as
widows.
Today, young women proudly calling themselves "the third wave" are confronting
these and other thorny issues. While many women may still be hesitant to
call themselves "feminist" because of the ever-present backlash, few would
give up the legacy of personal freedoms and expanded opportunities women
have won over the last 150 years. Whatever choices we make for our own lives,
most of us envision a world for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters
where all girls and women will have the opportunity to develop their unique
skills and talents and pursue their dreams. Return to Index
1998: Living the Legacy
In the 150 years since that first, landmark Women's Rights Convention, women
have made clear progress in the areas addressed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
in her revolutionary Declaration of Sentiments. Not only have women won the
right to vote; we are being elected to public office at all levels of government.
Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress, in 1916. By 1971,
three generations later, women were still less than three percent of our
congressional representatives. Today women hold only 11% of the seats in
Congress, and 21% of the state legislative seats. Yet, in the face of such
small numbers, women have successfully changed thousands of local, state,
and federal laws that had limited women's legal status and social roles.
In the world of work, large numbers of women have entered the professions,
the trades, and businesses of every kind. We have opened the ranks of the
clergy, the military, the newsroom. More than three million women now work
in occupations considered "nontraditional" until very recently.
We've accomplished so much, yet a lot still remains to be done. Substantial
barriers to the full equality of America's women still remain before our
freedom as a Nation can be called complete. But the Women's Rights Movement
has clearly been successful in irrevocably changing the circumstances and
hopes of women. The remaining injustices are being tackled daily in the courts
and conference rooms, the homes and organizations, workplaces and playing
fields of America.
Women and girls today are living the legacy of women's rights that seven
generations of women before us have given their best to achieve. Alice Paul,
that intrepid organizer who first wrote out the Equal Rights Amendment in
1923, said, "I always feel the movement is sort of a mosaic. Each of us
puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end."
Women, acting together, adding their small stones to the grand mosaic, have
increased their rights against all odds, nonviolently, from an initial position
of powerlessness. We have a lot to be proud of in this heroic legacy, and
a great deal to celebrate on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the
founding of the Women's Rights Movement.
© By Bonnie Eisenberg and Mary Ruthsdotter, the National Women's
History Project. 1998
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