Brenna Levitan-Garr

Feminism Essay
The failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and the continual discrimination of women has created
the need for women to be afforded the legal protection of a minority. Minorities need protection because
they are treated worse and have less opportunities, and often have been labeled as a lesser group than the
majority. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was fought for by feminists across the United States.
When the ERA failed, the discrimination against women did not change. It took years for women to get
more rights and equality.
The United States should consider women as a minority and give them the legal protection that is
due to minorities. The affirmative action programs were made to [open] up opportunities for women and
minorities to begin to take their rightful place in society (National Womens Law Center). Affirmative
action was the effort to enforce race and sex classifications when necessary to correct past
discriminatory patterns (Civil Rights) and was a result of civil rights legislation. For women, such
affirmative actions related to employment and education. Discrimination in the workplace included
different pay for women and men, even if they had the same job. For education, women were not
encouraged into certain fields that men occupied normally. Those discriminatory acts should qualify
women as needing protections. The affirmative action programs recruited women for jobs and offered
them educational grants and fellowships.
Phyllis Schlafly was an anti-feminist who opposed the Equal Rights Movement because she
lauded stay-at-home mothers and wives (Andrea Sachs). She said all feminists gave us was divorce,
millions of fatherless children and the idea that its O.K. to be a single mom (Andrea Sachs). Schlafly
argued that the culture of gender roles should not change. Susan Brownmiller, however, did not agree.
Brownmiller was a strong feminist and she viewed the attempt to ensure the ERAs ratification as
something necessary for life as a women in the United States.
One of the things Brownmiller is adamant about addressing is pornography. This type of hate
speech is directed solely towards women. The misogynistic portrayal in pornography is offensive. It is

hate speech because it incites prejudicial action and disparages females. It is made plain that 90 percent
of all pornography made is geared to the male heterosexual market (the other 10 percent is geared to the
male homosexual taste) (Susan Brownmiller). Pornography dehumanizes women for male enjoyment,
and because it attacks based on gender, it is considered as hate speech.
The treatment of women in America has improved drastically since the start of the feminist
movement, but there are still things that need to be changed. During the beginning of the movement
Brownmiller wrote Against Our Will to address the issue of rape. The reality of her book was a shock in
1975. It helped bring attention to the issue, but even so, rape was not criminalized everywhere in the
United States until 1993. Brownmiller wrote that cultural sexism is a conscious form of female
degradation designed to boost the male ego by offering proof of his native superiority (and of female
inferiority) everywhere he looks (Susan Brownmiller). From 93 until present day one would think the
respect of women would reach its due amount, but rape is still present only in a different form. Marital
rape (or spousal rape) is still a problem. Equality is meant for everyone, the discrimination gets in the way
of that and it needs to be stopped.
In conclusion, the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and the continual discrimination
of women has created the need for women to be afforded the legal protection of a minority. Women
deserve to be given protection as a minority as long as they continue to be treated as such.

Works Cited-

"Affirmative Action and What It Means for Women." National Women's Law Center.
N.p., 1 July 2000. Web. 3 May 2015. <http://www.nwlc.org/resource/
affirmative-action-and-what-it-means-women>.

Brownmiller, Susan. "Women Fight Back." Against Our Will. N.p.: n.p., n.d.
389-93. Print.

"Civil Rights." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 3 May 2015.
<http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Civil+Rights>.

Schlafly, Phyllis. "Q&A: Phyllis Schlafly at 84." Interview by Andrea Sachs.

Time. Time Inc, 7 Apr. 2009. Web. 3 May 2015.
<http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1889757,00.html>.