The Slow Decline of Women’s Rights in America
“Women’s rights are human rights” could often be heard, fervently shouted during the women’s rights resurge of the 1980s and 90s. Outraged crowds would chant it as they fought for the equal rights of women in this country… again. That’s right, this was not the first rodeo for women’s rights activists in the US. The struggle has been going on for decades. The resurge of the ’80s and ’90s was specifically due to the wave of sexual harassment, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence issues that had built up over the years. Women were now demanding more protections at work, equal pay, and harsher penalties/policies for domestic abuse cases. “Women’s rights are human rights” had been stated in a UN speech given by Hillary Rodham Clinton, but it had also been exemplified through the lessons of Gloria Steinem in the ’70s and inspired by our original team of suffragettes in the 1920s. So where is that message today?
It’s been approximately 25 years since the last women’s rights resurgence; since women banded together as proud feminists and fought for policy change. Today our rights are being revoked, opposed, oppressed or extended just out of our reach. The very rights women worked so hard to achieve over the last 100 years are slowly being ripped away. There have been a few progressive steps forward, steps exuding the placement of women within our congress, senate, and even towards the presidential ticket but it’s not enough. We seem to be asleep at the wheel and content with handing our rights over. It’s time to get woke. Let’s begin with the two most obvious debates on equal rights issues right now: The 14th Amendment, created in 1868 and The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), created in 1972.
The 14th amendment was written for and intended for slaves, giving them voting rights and protections. It was never intended for women. In fact, female slaves were specifically excluded from the amendment. The amendment only addresses male slaves. Women were later lumped into this amendment because there were no other amendments written that addressed women’s rights (this should speak volumes alone). So, while the 14th amendment does give some protections for women today, it’s not enough because it wasn’t created for women and it doesn’t specifically address women. It will never be enough.
The ERA was pushed forward as a solution to this very problem. Women are not reflected in our constitution and there are no amendments that address them, so they wrote one. And it was intended to protect the legal rights of all citizens, regardless of gender. But before you get too excited, just know, it still hasn’t passed. It was first proposed in 1923 by our suffragettes but didn’t pass through congress until 1972. Ruth Bader Ginsburg helped to make that happen by persuading the Supreme Court to embrace the idea of equality,
“I would like to be able to take out my pocket Constitution
and say that the equal citizenship stature of men and women
is a fundamental tenet of our society like free speech,”
-Justice Ginsburg
However, once it went to the final vote, there were 15 states that chose not to pass it. And the ERA has sat there cold, complacent, and untouched for 40 years since.
Women still had hope however and policies were being created due to their organized grass-route efforts. In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled, in Roe vs Wade, that a state law banning abortion was illegal. In the ’80s and ’90s, our country began to recognize domestic violence and femicide for the first time. We gave “sexual harassment” a name, in order to specify the problem and take action. The Violence Against Women Act was created in 1994. Equal pay policies were passed and organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the National Domestic Violence Hotline were being regularly supported and funded by our government.
That has all been revoked today. All of it. Nine states have already passed the legislature, or “early abortion bans,” that either ban abortion completely or prohibit it at the 6–8-week mark. This demonstrates the ongoing effort to revoke Roe vs. Wade. The Trump administration also created a gag rule that prevents women in the Title X care program, the country’s program for affordable birth control and reproductive health, from seeking advice from doctors on safety measures towards abortion or birth control at any organization such as Planned Parenthood.
Equal pay protections for women have also ended up on the cutting room floor. The equal pay rule that was created by the Obama Administration has now been Trumped as well, halting a rule that would have forced companies to report what they pay employees, by race and by gender. This rule made sure to force companies to check-in and prove that they were on the right track in hiring and paying their employees equally. They are no longer being observed in this way and they are no longer being held accountable.
There have recently been many cuts to funding for domestic violence issues as well. Funding that supported domestic violence shelters, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, food stamp programs, Medicaid, public housing, and federal health care programs, were all slashed. This support was greatly needed and relied upon by victims, to have the courage to leave, get help, and stand up against their perpetrators; to survive.
In April, when a women veteran’s policy was on the table at Capitol Hill, republicans decided to walk out on it, while 157 Republicans in the House then also opposed the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. In the EM2030’s 2019 Sustainable Development Goals Gender Index (covering 129 countries around the world), for their “Best Country to be a Woman” category, the US came in at number 28. And the ERA continues to sit, untouched and unpassed.
For 96 years we’ve been moving forward in this movement, a movement based on human rights. Women’s rights are human rights. Today, our society seems stagnant on these rights, confused. It’s going to take more than a pink hat and a march. It’s going to take courage, outrage, wisdom, grass-route efforts, reading daily what’s happening to women’s rights and most of all, it’s going to take leadership. Our future deserves to be female. Excuse me, women make up over half the US population, so correction… #TheFutureIsFemale.