1920’s Women

Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, made history this week by announcing her pregnancy. She will become the first sitting senator in US history to give birth while in office. Her latest baby news adds to a long line of other historic firsts for the senator, who is also the first female double amputee from the Iraq war, the first female amputee elected to the US Congress, and the first member of Congress born in Thailand. The senator is also a Purple Heart recipient. The fact that it's 2018 and America is just now having its first ever sitting senator to give birth doesn't reflect well on our country. To the contrary, Duckworth's pregnancy tells us a great deal about the state of America's notoriously bad, and in some cases nonexistent, parental leave and child care policies. But more than anything, Duckworth...puts the spotlight on how the lack of women in government in America is reflected in the country's poor policies for working women and their families. This is a huge problem that directly impacts policies for women's health and rights. Bad policies and legislation for women are an obvious result of the lack of women in government. CNN 1/25/2018 

Why is Tammy Duckworth’s announcement ‘historical’? What can this article tell us about women’s rights in American in 2018?

Aim: Was women’s suffrage inevitable Aim: Was women’s suffrage inevitable? How did women activists affect change? Key Terms: Declaration of Sentiments Alice Paul, Margret Sanger, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Nineteenth Amendment Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act – provided federally funded instruction in maternal and infant health care. It in turn expanded the responsibility of the fed. government for family welfare. Women began to push for more laws to protect women in the work place, prohibit child labor. Essential Questions: What were women’s goals? What challenges did women activists face in their fight for equality? Was women’s suffrage inevitable?

Early 19c Women Unable to vote. Legal status of a child. Single  could own her own property. Married  no control over her property or her children. Could not initiate divorce. Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

Key Women Activists Alice Paul Margaret Sanger Elizabeth Cady Stanton Carrie Chapman Catt

Declaration of Sentiments (1848) “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…to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...”

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.” - Ratified (passed, approved) August 26, 1920

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Section I. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section II. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Equal Rights Amendment Ratification in the U.S. The ERA was the most highly publicized and debated constitutional amendment before the United States for most of the 1970s and early 1980s. First submitted by Congress to the states for ratification on March 22, 1972, it failed to be ratified by its final deadline of June 30, 1982. Only 35 states ratified and 38 states were needed in order for the ERA to be passed.

National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) President Carrie Chapman Catt: Focus on a federal amendment to give women the right to vote. Alice Paul (creator of ERA): Sought to mobilize women in the states where women could vote Strategy: hold the party in power responsible for failing to pass the federal amendment.

“How can our nation escape the logic it has never failed to follow, when its last unenfranchised* class calls for the vote? Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, ‘Taxation without representation is tyranny,’ and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses ‘representation.’…Is there a single man who can justify such inequality of treatment, such outrageous discrimination? Not one.” --Suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt

Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act Provided federally funded instruction in maternal and infant health care. Expanded the responsibility of the federal government for family welfare. Women began to push for more laws to protect women in the work place, prohibit child labor.

Key Cases Muller v. Oregon (1908): declared women deserving of special protection in the workplace and invalidated a minimum-wage law for women. Oregon passed a law that said women could not work over 10 hours in factories and laundries. Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923) – Court reverses Muller v. Oregon. Does not allow Congress to pass minimum wage laws.

Women’s Rights Inevitable Women’s Rights Hard Fought (not inevitable)

Person/Event Resulting Change

Opponents of Women’s Suffrage!