Women's Rights/Issues

Sexism and Feminism

Assigned Blog #1-50 points(10 points discussion)

• Choose any woman/event/law in history that has greatly impacted women in the US or around the world.

• Research and write a blog entry on the impact that the woman/event/law has had on women

• Give a good effort, include two pictures, and be sure add your sources.

• Due next Wednesday.

• Topic needs to be chosen by Friday. First come first serve.

A Question for the Girls

• Have you ever felt discriminated against because you are a girl?

A Question for the Boys

• Have you ever made fun of a girl for being a girl?

• “You throw like a girl!”

• “You run like a girl!”

• “You hit like a girl!”

• Like a Girl Video

Is Softball Sexist?

• Link

Emma Watson’s UN SpeechSeptember, 2014

• Video

• HeforShe

• Defined Feminism

• The negativity of feminism needs to change

• Males are impacted as well by stereotypical gender roles

Women in World History

• Discuss

Women Rights in US-A Brief History

• During the time of the Revolutionary War(late 1700’s) it was believed that a woman’s brain was smaller in capacity to men’s

• Therefore women were inferior

Early 19th Century Women.1. Unable to vote

2. Legal status of a minor3. Single could own her own property4. Married no control over her property

or her children.5. Could not initiate divorce.6. Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or

bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission

Cult of Domesticity

• Developed throughout 1800’s

• The ideal of womanhood had four characteristics:

• 1. Piety

• 2. Purity

• 3. Domesticity

• 4. Submissiveness

Piety

• Nineteenth-century Americans believed that women had a natural inclination for religion.

• The modern young woman of the 1800’s was thought of as a new “Eve” working with God to bring the world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure, and passionless love.

Purity

• Female purity was also highly revered.

• Without sexual purity, a woman was no woman, but rather a lower form of being.

Domesticity

Woman's place was in the home.

Woman's role was to be busy at those morally uplifting tasks aimed at maintaining and fulfilling her piety and purity.

Submissiveness

This was perhaps the most feminine of virtues.

Men were supposed to be religious, although not generally.

Men were supposed to be pure, although one could really not expect it.

Men never supposed to be submissive.

Men were to be movers, and doers--the actors in life.

Women were to be passive bystanders, submitting to fate, to duty, to God, and to men.

• India still has major issues with gender roles

• Link

The Push for Equality

• 1848-Seneca Falls Declaration: Plea for the end of discrimination against women in all spheres of society, including the right to vote

• Women in the mid-late 1800’s and early 1900’s pushed for four things:

1. Abolition of slavery(13th Amendment-1865)

2. Temperance(18th Amendment-1920)

3. Women’s suffrage(19th Amendment-1920)

4. Child Labor laws

The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, 1848

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

This image made the point that, in being denied the vote, respectable, accomplished women were reduced to the level of the disenfranchised outcasts of society.

Both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were furious that Congress had given the vote to black men but denied it to women.

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) led by Anthony and Stanton.

• World War I interrupted the campaign for woman suffrage.

• Women took the men’s jobs in WWI showing the country that they could do hard work

World War I(1917-1918)

Jeannette Rankin

• Worked to win suffrage in Washington state.

• Was elected the first woman in Congress in 1916.

• Voted against war in WWI and WWII(only vote)

Finally, on Aug. 20, 1920, the 19th

Amendment became part of the United States Constitution when Tennessee became the 36th

state to ratify it.

19th Amendment

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United

States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.”

• It was ratified on August 18th, 1920.

Alice Paul

• She was the head of National Women’s Party.

• Felt that the 19th

Amendment wasn’t enough.

– Pushed for an Equal Rights Amendment to be added to the constitution.

January 11th, 1885- July 9th, 1977

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

“Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.”

– It was first introduced to Congress in 1923.

– Made all forms of discrimination based on sex illegal.

– Passed Congress in 1972

– 35 out of the required 38 had ratified it by 1979

– Never ratified

The Roaring 20’s

• The 1920’s were a good decade for women’s rights

• 19th Amendment

• Flapper girls

• Going to college more

• Working more outside the home

Margaret Sanger

• In 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League (ABCL)– Today known as Planned

Parenthood• Women were then able to

control their own bodies.• This movement educated

women about existing birth control methods.

Education

• By 1928, women were earning 39% of the college degrees given in the United States.

• It had risen from the original 19% it was at the beginning of the century.

1928 Olympics• These were the first Olympics

that women were allowed to compete in.

• There were many arguments about these actions.

– Some argued that it was historically inappropriate since women did not compete in ancient Greek Olympics.

– Others said that physical competition was “injurious” to women.

The 1928 Dutch Women’s Gymnastics team. They won the gold medal in the group event.

“Pink Collared” Jobs-1920’s-1970’s

• Gave women a taste of the work world.

• Low paying service occupations.

• Made less money than men did doing the same jobs.

– Examples of jobs:

• Secretaries

• Teachers

• Telephone operators

• Nurses

Why do women get paid less than men?

• They stop/pause their career to have children more so than men

• They go into job fields that typically pay less than the types of jobs men go into– Why is this?

• Perhaps more aggressive asking for raises??

• Unexplained??—Gender discrimination??

• The average woman loses more than $400,000 over her lifetime due to unequal pay practices

What year do you think women will achieve equal pay with men in the US?

• 2058

• In a new study, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research uses Census data to predict when each state will close their gender wage gap.

• Based on each state’s rate of progress from 1959 to current day, the group estimates the national wage gap will close sometime in the year 2058—or 43 years from now.

• Link to Study/Map

Study’s Findings

• The pay gap has barely budged in a decade.

– In 2013, among full-time, year-round workers, women were paid 78 percent of what men were paid.

• Women in every state experience the pay gap, but some states are worse than others.

– The best place in the United States for pay equity is Washington, D.C., where women were paid 91 percent of what men were paid in 2013. At the other end of the spectrum is Louisiana, the worst state in the country for pay equity, where women were paid just 66 percent of what men were paid.

• The pay gap is worse for women of color.

– The gender pay gap affects all women, but for women of color the pay shortfall is worse. Asian American women’s salaries show the smallest gender pay gap, at 90 percent of white men’s earnings. Hispanic women’s salaries show the largest gap, at 54 percent of white men’s earnings. White men are used as a benchmark because they make up the largest demographic group in the labor force.

• Women face a pay gap in nearly every occupation.

– From elementary and middle school teachers to computer programmers, women are paid less than men in female-dominated, gender-balanced, and male-dominated occupations.

• The pay gap grows with age.

– Women typically earn about 90 percent of what men are paid until they hit 35. After that median earnings for women are typically 75–80 percent of what men are paid.

• While more education is an effective tool for increasing earnings, it is not an effective tool against the gender pay gap.– At every level of academic achievement, women’s

median earnings are less than men’s earnings, and in some cases, the gender pay gap is larger at higher levels of education. While education helps everyone, black and Hispanic women earn less than their white and Asian peers do, even when they have the same educational credentials.

• The pay gap also exists among women without children.– AAUW’s Graduating to a Pay Gap found that among full-

time workers one year after college graduation — nearly all of whom were childless — women were paid just 82 percent of what their male counterparts were paid.

What do you think the median pay in Iowa is for a man? A woman?

• Slides 51-56 comes from the new 2015 study by the American Association of University Women(AAUW).

• Link to study

The Depression

• FDR attempted to equalize pay for women and men but could not get enforcement.

• Eleanor Roosevelt becomes a role model.

• Frances Perkins becomes the first female cabinet member.

Women in World War II

• Rosie the Riveter

• Women in the military

• Most women still did traditional women’s jobs.

After the War…1950’s

• Women were expected to go back home

• Mothers

• Homemakers

• Supporting their men

• Enjoying their new appliances.

• Young brides

The Second Wave of Feminism-1950’s

• The post war message was that truly feminine women did not want careers, higher education, political rights

• 60% of women dropped out of college to marry.

• Fewer and fewer women entered professional work.

By 1960

• Many women found that their lives were at odds with the images of women that were presented in the media.

• Suddenly, the ‘trapped housewife’ was discovered.

• Some argued that underemployed women were a wasted resource.

Betty Friedan • Wrote the book, Feminine

Mystique in 1963.• In her book, she depicted

the roles of women in industrial societies.

– She focused most of her attention on the housewife role of women.

• Argued that women did not have to give up their families; they could do more, have a choice, a career.

Feb. 4th, 1921- Feb. 4th, 2006

Equal Pay Act 1963

• It is the first federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination.

• In 1963 the average female worker’s wages in the United States were equivalent to 58.9 % of the average male worker’s earnings.

• It abolished wage differences based on sex.– “No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section

[section 206 of title 29 of the United States Code] shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs…” --Equal Pay Act

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Passed in 1964.

• It banned discrimination on the basis of color, race, national origin, religion, or sex.

• Section VII set up the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce the act.

Presidential Executive Order 11246

• It was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24th, 1965

• It prohibited bias against women in hiring by federal government contractors.

• “…Prohibits federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

National Organization for Women (NOW)

• Founded in 1966.• Betty Friedan became the

organization's first president.

• The goal of NOW is to bring about equality for all women.

• They campaigned to gain passage of the ERA amendment at the state level.

NOW (con’t.)

• Issues NOW deals with:

– works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, and the justice system.

– secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women

– end all forms of violence against women

– eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia

– promote equality and justice in society.

Changes NOW Helped/Helping Bring About….

• More women attend college.

• More women enter the workforce.

• More women go into the professions.

• Working to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, and the justice system.

• More women’s reproductive freedom, including abortion(Roe v Wade, 1973).

• Generated a movement for gay rights.

In 1972, Congress included Title IX in the Higher Education Act, providing, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal assistance.”

By 1980

• 51.5% percent of all adult women held jobs outside the home.

• Includes over 60% of women with children between the ages of 6-17.

• Inequalities in pay still exist.

1990’s

• 1993-Family and Medical Leave Act goes into effect-More on next slide

• 1994-Gender Equity in Education Act to train teachers in gender equity, promote math and science learning by girls, counsel pregnant

• 1997-Elaborating on Title IX, Supreme Court rules that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support

FMLA• Entitles eligible employees to take unpaid, job-

protected leave for specified family and medical reasons

• Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:

– the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;

– to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;

– the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;

– a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;

2000-Present

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

– restored the protection against pay discrimination that was stripped away by the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.(2007)

• Women can now serve in all roles within the US military, including combat roles-2013

Laws on the Floor of Congress-Not Passed

• Paycheck Fairness Act

–It would create incentives for employers to follow the law, empower women to negotiate for equal pay

• Fair Pay Act

–It would require employers to provide equal pay for work of equal value.

• As you will learn, women in the US have it great compared to much of the rest of the world.

Is There Hope for Girls in the US and Around the World?

The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools

• In 2009, 15% of Americans lived in poverty. Women are 29% more likely to live in poverty than men. Why? More single parent moms out there.

• 41% of all births are to an unmarried mother.

• Average age of marriage: 20 in 1960 and 26 in 2008. More time for college and work.

• In the 147 largest US cities, women’s salaries are 8% higher than men’s.

• Between Dec 07 and Feb 10, 70% of US job losses were men. Why? The types of jobs men go into-manufacturing and construction- were hit harder.

• Women overtook men in college B.A.'s in early 1980's.

• 60% of all college B.A. degrees go to women currently and is expected to continue to rise.

• Girls have a 56% better chance of getting a BA by age 22 and a 25% better chance of getting a BA by 28.

• Why are girl’s doing better in school?

–Girls tend to be more socially and behaviorally mature than boys all throughout school

–Starting in middle school and extending into high school, girls see success in school leading to success in college and in their career

–Girls are better readers upon entering elementary school.

US Still has not Elected a Female President

• Countries with women leaders

• Why is getting an education for girls extremely important around the world?

Girls and Education Facts

• Globally, 66 million school-aged girls are not in school.

• Access to education has increased over the last two decades, however, only 30 percent of all girls worldwide are enrolled in secondary school.

• In sub-Saharan Africa, there are now only 76 girls for every 100 boys in upper secondary school. The average girl receives less than two years of schooling and never learns to read and write.

• Canada’s literacy rate for men and women is 99 percent. In several sub-Saharan nations, the female literacy rate is 50 percent or less.

• Low levels of income often act as barriers to girls’ education. Many families are unable to afford costs such as school fees, books, and uniforms in order to put their children through school. As a result of poverty, many families are forced to choose which of their children to send to school. In many cases, it is the girl that is kept back.

• In more than 100 countries, school is not free and many parents cannot afford the tuition cost or uniforms.

• A child born to a mother who can read is 50 percent more likely to survive past age five.

• Each extra year of a mother’s schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5-10 per-cent.

• Research indicates that approximately half of recent reductions in child death rates are linked to gains in women’s educational attainment.

• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10-20 percent and an extra year of secondary school by 15-25 percent.

• A one percentage point increase in female education raises the average gross domestic product (GDP) of a nation by .37 percent and GDP growth rates by .2 percent.

• In 2010, only 59 percent of the girls from low-income families who enrolled in primary education reached the last grade of primary school compared to a world average of 76 percent.

• Educating girls is one of the most effective strategies to combat child marriage. When a girl remains in school she is six times less likely to marry young. On average, a girl with seven years of education will marry four years later and have 2.2 fewer children.

Sources

• * Education statistics:

• UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/)

• The World Factbook(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/)

• About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 and some 1 million girls under 15 give birth every year—most in low- and middle-income countries.

• Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the second cause of death for 15-19 year-old girls globally.

• Every year, some 3 million girls aged 15 to 19 undergo unsafe abortions.

• Babies born to adolescent mothers face a substantially higher risk of dying than those born to women aged 20 to 24.

• Source-World Health Organization

What is the Key to End Extremism?

• Education

India’s Unwanted Girls

• Link

• India’s Daughter Documentary and Ban-Indian Perspective

• The class will break into five groups

• Groups will read the article independently and then discuss it as a group

• The group will then discuss their article with the rest of the class

• Would you like to watch “India’s Daughter”?