Women’s Changing Status
Woman’s Changing status in the 70’s and the 80’s
Women’s role in society changed dramatically as feminism started to spread all across the world. Through this, women’s social level started to increase and some women came to hold high ranking positions in their government, not just in the US but also the world. We will be focusing on the political and economical side of this change.
Brief History of Feminist Movements
The women’s feminist movement happened even before the 20th century. During the last years of the 19th century women started to fight for the right to vote. This eventually became the Women’s Suffrage movement, which took all across the world. Women’s suffrage was achieved inBritain’s Australian colonies ofNew Zealand and southernAustralia by giving women the right to vote, in 1893 and 1895. This movement also took place in theUS but the bill for women to vote wasn’t passed until 1920. Some notable figures of the movement in theUS are Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. The women’s Movement of the 70’s is called the Second Wave of feminism. The first movement tends to focus more on suffrage and legal rights, such as voting rights.
Women’s Roles in Politics
During the 70’s women’s movement focused more on desegregating women in the society which men ruled as the top. In 1970 the Equal Rights Amendment was re-introduced; it was first introduced to congress in 1923 by Alice Paul who was a feminist activist. In 1972 when the bill was on its way to being ratified it was stopped because only 35 states out of 38 states ratified. As feminism spread it won over many supporters, who believed in equality between man and women. Through the support many women were able to speak out and appoint women as key advisors of a nation. Some important figures during this era are President Isabel Martinez de Peron, Margret Thatcher prime minister of Great retain and Indira Ghandi prime minister ofIndia. Both the Prime Ministers of G.BritainandIndiaremain to be well respected and influential figure in politics, even during the 1980’s. These women symbolized the influence the feminist movement had.
Women’s Role in the World of Business
Women did not have as much job opportunities as men and were often times “stay at home moms.” Women were in the labor since as early as the 1800s, but they were never really recognized for what they did. After the Education Amendment Act, women were able to get better education which gave them knowledge on how to compete for high positions in business. In 1970’s and 80’s is the time period which set off the women’s rise to the top, by 1990’s women were the 45% of the work force.
- Women’s Change in Earnings
Women’s gap of pay was very large due in the 70s and 80s, due to the fact of sexual discrimination and the failed ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Even though the ERA failed to be ratified it did not stop the increase in income of women, and the increase in the amounts of rights that was being passed. Women’s growth income was all due the amount of women who graduated from colleges and universities. Earnings of women with college degrees increased by 33% since 1979, which is 11% more than of male college graduates. The percentage of earning for married women, have increase to 22& in 2007 then 4% from 1970.
In 2010, women covered about 47% of the workforce, holding 52% in management and professional job positions. But only 14% of women held high positions in companies in fortune 500, while the rest of 86% were made up mostly of men, also only 3% of women of those companies held the position of a CEO.
thewoottonpost 
Very great article! 🙂
really educational 🙂
-Tal Goldstein
really good information. And i think its a very good topic! -demi pietriiiiiii