Women's History

Unit 6

Unit 6

Introduction Over the years the woman’s role has changed, laws and regulations that affect women rights continue to change. This paper will address some of the issues women faced and analyze the progress women have made in the twentieth century. Provided in this paper is the

background history of the National Organization for Women (NOW). The history of the Equal Rights Amendment and the key factors on the women’s movement in the 1970’s and 1980’s will be covered in this paper. Also discussed are issues that women were fighting for such as equality, civil rights, gender roles, racial relation and sexuality. The paper will provide a brief synopsis of how these issues impacted American Society.

Issues That Women Were Fighting For In the Twentieth Century Equal Rights Amendment In 1972 the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was reintroduced to Congress. The ERA was an immense struggle in the history of women. Protestors and supporters lobbied, petition and protested for equal rights. In 1992 the 27th Amendment was ratified to the Constitution. One of the reasons for the Act was to eliminate legal gender-based discrimination in the United States. According to U.S.History.org (2008 – 2012) in spite of the improvement by the feminist movement, social conservatism steered Americans both male and female had limits on mandating equality constitutionally between the sexes.

Unit 6

Pro – Choice Rights

Another issue that women were fighting for in the twentieth century was the rights of pro-choice which gave women the right to decide if they wanted to have an abortion or not. In 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court announced the verdict of Roe vs. Wade which the court recognized the privacy rights and rights for women to have the choice to make reproductive choices for their bodies (Pomeroy, 1994-2012).

Although Roe vs. Wade open doors for the rights of pro-choice it has had a divisional affect between women and especially with men who disagree with...