The issue of equal rights of women and men is considered as resolved in the United States of America. The feminine interpretation of equality suggests that men and women should have both equal shares in social power and equal access to public resources. The first National Women’s Party led by Alice Paul drew attention to the problem of restricting women’s rights through public speaking. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the causes of inequality that remain in the eyes of society despite the great steps feminists organizations have made.
Two parts of society differ in the assessment of the most social problem of gender differences. There is still confidence that men are more likely to achieve promotion in a career or other areas of social relations. According to Neuwirth, “we are all learning that we are linked not ranked” (Neuwirth 14). The phrase means that society still recognizes the superiority of men. These facts give the reason to suspect that a hidden and opposite interest still exists, a desire to maintain the gender asymmetry.
American human rights were first documented in the 18th century. Researchers note that, in 1789, James Madison offered the first sample of the Bill of Rights, which was subsequently approved by Congress and sent to the states (Endersby and Overby 166). It is possible to note that the amendments in the Bill of Rights included freedom of religion, assembly, speech, and people’s protections since they did not deal with the personality protection against the state (Veit et al.76). The bill of rights was created as the most optimal version of the political system for the United States.
The term “gender equality” has endured about four stages of reforms. The primary one was the idea of absolute equality between people as an example of a socially equitable society. Historical development has shown that such an issue seems to be utopian. No doubt, there were “equal societies,” since equality was achieved with a general decrease in the social status of its members within the framework of an oppressive distribution system.
It is possible to note that the so-called “equality in unfreedom”, equality at a low level of human development, equality in meeting the minimum needs are carried out at the cost of losing the personality (“Representative Martha Griffiths’s Discharge Petition for the Equal Rights Amendment”). The second step in understanding the term “equality” was the realization of the need for equal rights of all citizens of a democratic society.
Women made a significant contribution to the development of the equality concept at each formation stage of this term. However, a sense of “understatement” is the idea of equality in terms of building a society free from gender discrimination is also present. People continue to operate within the framework of a “male” society, in which women are adapted to the standard of male character traits, spheres of activity, and professions. “Male” norms are present both in the samples of leadership and management and in the examples of most of the things and objects around us, designed for the average male person.
Researchers note that the gender theme is one of the most popular in the discussions on the Internet, especially in family forums (Neuwirth 28). The discussions concern both high spheres of politics and everyday life: relations in the family and at work. However, some women are focused on more modern values, others on traditional values.
The inherent value of women must be recognized by society. It will remove the problem of the hierarchy of differences between men and women. Both “male” and “female” character traits and areas of activity are valuable for communities. Everybody is useful: mothers, wives, fathers, husbands, workers, nurses, and doctors. The value of a person belonging to a particular social group should be recognized not only in the declared slogans.
It should also be evaluated by a real public measure that is the payment for the work of individuals of this or that quality. For example, a problem can be solved through adequate, equivalent recognition of “female” professions and “female” fields of activity.
It is safe to say that neither the National Women’s Party nor the “Uppity Women Unite” can solve the problem of women’s rights completely. Most people are convinced that gender equality necessarily implies financial independence, for example, in the situation of divorces. Others believe that the very idea of gender equality is artificial, that a woman’s strength is not in competition with men, and the role of a wife and mother is more important for women. It should be borne in mind that men do not want to recognize the dominance of women in all spheres of activity, especially in business. Public speaking, arguments in the defense of rights and freedoms, demonstrations – these are some of the things that have led to the changes in the designation of men and women’s equality.
Works Cited
Endersby, James W., and L. Marvin Overby. “Congress and the Constitution: The Twenty-seventh Amendment and the Past and Future of Constitutional Alteration.” Congress & the Presidency. vol. 45, no. 2, 2018, pp. 166-184.
Neuwirth, Jessica. Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment Is Now. New Press, 2015.
“Representative Martha Griffiths’s Discharge Petition for the Equal Rights Amendment,” Digital Public Library of America. Web.
Veit, Helen E., et al. Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress. Edited by Helen E. Veit, Kenneth R. Bowling, Charlene Bangs Bickford, JHU Press, 1991.