Jacqueline Ching - Understanding Womens Rights

Published in 2012 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010

Copyright 2012 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gordon, Minette.
Understanding womens rights/Minette Gordon,
Jacqueline Ching, Juliet Ching. 1st ed.
p. cm. (Personal freedom and civic duty)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4488-4671-9 (library binding)
1. Womens rightsUnited StatesHistoryJuvenile literature. 2. FeminismUnited StatesHistoryJuvenile literature. I. Ching, Jacqueline. II. Ching, Juliet. III. Title. HQ1236.5.U6G67 2012
323.3'40973dc22

2010044965

Manufactured in the United States of America

CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #S11YA: For further information, contact Rosen Publishing, New York, New York, at 1-800-237-9932.

On the cover: President Barack Obama signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act at the White House in 2009. The law makes it easier for employees to file charges of pay discrimination during their careers.

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I magine that because you are a woman, your opinion does not count. Imagine that youas well as your grandmother, mother, sisters, friends, and auntsare not allowed to make speeches in public. Imagine not having the same rights under constitutional law that men take for granted.

This was the state of things not that long ago in the United States of America, when the Founding Fathers wrote one of the greatest treatises on democracy, the Constitution of the United States. The values of the United States are thought to include individual freedom, equality, and personal expression. Yet how could it be that just one hundred years ago, half of the adult population could not vote simply because they were women?

Above: A delegation from the Susan B. Anthony House marches in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.

In the early days of the republic, only white men who owned property enjoyed full rights of citizenship, while the rest of the population had to fight for rights as basic as being able to speak in public. The fight for womens rights continues to this day, as women struggle for equality in areas such as employmentgetting equal pay for equal work and having the same opportunities at the highest levels of leadership in government and business.

As citizens, we expect religious and personal freedom, the ability to speak freely without persecution, and the right to have a voice in government, among other rights. Our Founding Fathers created a new nation under the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and provided a land of opportunity for the immigrants of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Yet consider that women did not win the right to vote until 1920, more than a century after the establishment of the United States. In light of this, how are we to judge the achievements of the framers of the U.S. Constitution?

We can only conclude that liberty is never given, but rather it is won. The story of the founding of the United States of America and the writing of the Constitution show this to be true. Men of intellect and courage envisioned a government that was a balance between authority and liberty, and they struggled to achieve itbut at first, they did not include women. The story of the womens rights movement proves that achieving freedom for all is a struggle that continues.

B efore the Declaration of Independence was written and signed on July 4, 1776, there was no United States of America. Americans were neither united nor autonomous. Instead, there existed thirteen British colonies, located along the Atlantic coast of North America. These thirteen colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The first settlers who came to the colonies had to bring everything they would need in their new lives. This included the legal system that they had used in England. Before the colonies created their own set of laws, they continued to operate under English Common Law. This system of law treated men and women differently.

S tatus of W omen in the C olonial P eriod

Under English Common Law, an unmarried woman had all the rights of a man, except for suffrage, or the right to vote. She could sue and be sued, keep the wages that she earned, enter into legal contracts, own or sell property, and freely choose her legal heirs.

A colonial woman's daily work was accomplished mainly inside the home. Typical tasks included building and maintaining the fire, preparing dough for bread, and sewing clothes and quilts.

On the other hand, once a woman was married, she lost these rights. In the eyes of the law, a married woman was merely a part of her husbands identity. Not only did she lose the legal rights she had as a single woman, but a married womans body belonged legally to her husband as well. She had no say in whether or not the couple would have children or how many children they would have. If her husband beat her, it was within his legal rights to do so. If another person injured a married female, it was the womans husband, not the injured woman, who had the legal right to sue for damages and compensation. In other words, upon marriage a woman effectively became a child in the eyes of the law.

Law and daily life in the colonies had a patriarchal structure. Men had authority over the women and children and had control in most important matters. Colonial women derived their status solely from that of the men to whom they were married or related.

Not all societies at the time were patriarchal, however. In contrast to the English system, Native American communities were often matriarchal societies, in which the power rested in the hands of the female elders of the tribe.

However, most European women had little status or power. In particular, poor women had few economic opportunities and no educational ones. In order to obtain the basic necessities, their only real option was to marry, even though becoming a wife lowered a womans legal status. Furthermore, there was a social stigma attached to being an unmarried woman. There were only a few years in a young womans life in which she was considered eligible for marriage. After these prime years passed, it became harder and harder for a woman to find a husband. Lacking a husband or economic opportunities, a womans livelihood might be at risk as she aged. Under these conditions, it is not difficult to understand why poor women risked their lives to travel to an unknown new world.