Sex Discrimination

Although the Ninteenth Amendment was a major achievement towards women's rights, the fight against sex discrimination was just beginning. The government still believed that women were inferior to men, so in 1922, they passed the Married Women's Independent Citizenship Act. This act made women unable to gain citizenship without a husband. The government treated women as if they were second-class citizens, and ignored most attempts they made at equality. However, this perception of women was turned around during the time of World War II. While all the men were busy fighting, it was clear that America would only be able to win if they enlisted a large number of women for employment. They needed women to do very untraditional jobs such as building planes, tanks, and ships in order to fight in the war. It became the "patriotic duty" of women to go out and work, ultimately making them successful in the workforce, and more powerful within the government during the 20th century. I see this as a very crucial time for women because they were able to experience a sense of social and economic mobility. Women were suddenly faced with choices, and by exercising these choices they were able to explore their own individuality and independence. The government was able to change as well seeing the great impact women could have on the economy. Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, "mandating that women receive equal pay as men for equal work" (Sex Discrimination). Following this was the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Even though women were gaining more civil rights, there were still political groups trying to prevent them from earning anymore. This forced the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW). I believe one of the most interesting accomplishments of NOW was that, "It stipulated that every federally funded college and university had to provide equal opportunities for men and women in their varsity sports roughly equal to the proportion of each gender in the school" (Sex Discrimination). Because I play volleyball, I think it's imperative that women and men have the same chances when it comes to sports. Schools often feel that that men's sports are more important, but NOW was able to change that by defying any public or private sports program that targeted women for discrimination. Many of these cases were brought to court where women used the Fourteenth Amendment to prove certain laws as unjustifiable. This technique was used during the Plessy vs. Ferguson case when they tried to prove that the law "separate, but equal" was unreasonable. This further proves the connection between women and blacks. They were both treated as inferior to white men, and frequently had to fight for equality through laws that were unjust.

Mansbridge, Jane J., Why We Lost the ERA, 1986; McGlen, Nancy E., and Karen O'Connor. Women's Rights: The Struggle for Equality in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: Praeger, 1983; Shipley, Amy, "Playing Field Levels at Texas," The Washington Post, July 7, 1997.

Sex Discrimination