Women's Rights

4/27/2016
Women nowadays are able to do almost anything men are able to do. Women are strong
and just as reliable as men are but are still struggling to be treated as equals.. Women have
been treated as lesser than men for a very long time and it is now becoming a bigger world
problem. Feminism is working its way to being a bigger deal than it is now.
For women it has been a big deal to be able to join the military. During World War II,
most of the men were deployed and the women had to take over all of the men's jobs proving
themselves to be just as hardworking and able as men. Men were thought to be the only ones
who could work in factories or do the hard jobs until most of them got shipped off and women
had to take responsibility.
Women to this day, still make less than men do in the workplace. Women who become
pregnant and take maternity leave usually are let go during their leave or are laid off after they
come back. Women also still lack the availability to work in all male workplaces or fields that
only men are thought to be able to handle (ACLU). Factories are more likely to hire male
workers than to hire women workers because of how well women are thought to work compared
to men.
Percentages of women who have been domestically beaten or raped are significantly
higher than men's percentages (ACLU). Women are more likely to be victimized than men
because they are thought to be weaker and to put up less of a fight than men would. Both
genders deal with domestic violence, but women deal with it almost double what men do.
Why don't we ever hear about men being trafficked for sex? Why aren't men dealing with
the same fears of going somewhere in public, thinking someone is going to take them away
forever? Women are the #1 target for sex trafficking and being used for sex laborers. (Humans
Rights Watch). The statistics say that 50,000 women a year are raped or used for illegal sex
trafficking versus 20,000 men per year (Human Trafficking Center). The Victims of Trafficking

and Violence Protection Act states that any victim who is rescued by the government is
protected for the rest of their life. In the 1900s this problem became more of a political issue and
was recognized as being morally wrong. The Mann Act of 1910 forbid that anyone be
transported over states or internationally for prostitution or anything relating to that. Along with
sex trafficking, asian women are sometimes sold to brothels for up to 16,000 dollars so the
problem is international and not just in the United States.
The Women's Rights Movement (1848-1920) helped women broaden their goals for
equality. The first convention was held from July 19th to the 20th in Seneca Falls, New York.
About 100 people showed up and the majority was women (History Art and Archives). Susan B
Anthony was a huge women's activist at this time. She made an alliance with Elizabeth Stanton
who had originally started the movement. They became the spokeswoman for the movement
and women's suffrage. Eventually this movement became bigger and wasn't just for equality. It
was for equality in the workplace, in education and economic opportunities (History, Art and
Archives). The movement gained many more women as it moved across the country. Later on,
Anthony and Stanton rallied a unsucessful Congress to include women in the provisions of the
14th and 15th amendment. Stanton and Anthony then created the National Woman Suffrage
Association which focused more on getting women included in laws and voting. Coming at the

government full force did not work as well as they had hoped so they worked individually with
each state thinking that they could win over enough states to get the laws to change.
The NWSA was lacking momentum until they experienced a surge of volunteerism
among middle class women during the 1880s and early 1890s. This helped the movement seem
more real and made it more legitimate to officials in the government.
The NWSA kept working on getting the state's approval. Eventually they got Montana to
be the first state to approve women being able to vote. Finally on June 4th 1919 the 19th
amendment was ratified and on August 19th 1920 it was passed and women had the right to
vote.

Women have always had to fight for their rights and to be treated as equals compared to
men. To this day women are still fighting for their rights but things have gotten better. There is a
lot of history dealing with this topic and there is more history to be made.

Work Citations

"Women's Rights." American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

<https://www.aclu.org"Women's Rights."
Human Rights Watch. Web. 26 Apr. 2016. <https://www.hrw.org/topic/womensrights>./issues/womens-rights>
"Human Trafficking: What about the Men and Boys? Home HTC Blog Human
Trafficking: What about the Men and Boys?" Human Trafficking Center. Web. 26 Apr.
2016. <http://humantraffickingcenter.org/posts-by-htc-associates/men-boys/>

"Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000." U.S. Department of State.
U.S. Department of State, 2000. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.state.gov/j/tip/laws/61124.htm>
"The Women's Rights Movement, 18481920 | US House of Representatives: History,
Art & Archives." The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1920. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
<http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/NoLady/Womens-Rights/>
http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=13
"The Nineteenth Amendment." The Nineteenth Amendment. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
<http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm>.
History.com Staff. "19th Amendment." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010.
Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendment>.
"Women and Global Human Rights." Women and Global Human Rights. Web. 03 May
2016. <http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/trafficking.html>.