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 June 19 - 20 , 1848 - Seneca Falls Convention

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 June 19 - 20 , 1848 - Seneca Falls Convention

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The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention that helped spark the following events to bring women their freedom.Many women's suffrage activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton came together to draft the Declaration of Sentiments during this convention.This movement called for the attention of people to pay to attention to women's suffrage. 300 people attended this convention to help call for the attention of the injustice women faced at the time.

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The announcement of an upcoming 'Woman's Rights Convention' in the Seneca County Courier was small, but it attracted Charlotte Woodward's attention. On the morning of July 19, 1848, the 19-year-old glove maker drove in a horse-drawn wagon to the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in the upstate New York town of Seneca Falls.

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Sojourner Truth was a women who was born into slavery and this helped her mold into an anti-slavery activist who also  supported the women's rights movement.While Sojourner Truth was working on her antislavery movement she got involved in the women's rights movement. She attended the Women's Rights Convention in Ohio and gave the famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?" where she addressed both injustice to women and racism in one speech.She used ethos and pathos to persuade the audience that women deserve equal rights.

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"I sell the shadow to support the substance." -- Sojourner Truth. Carte de Visite, circa 1864, in the collections of the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97513239/)

Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth, would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century. Her early childhood was spent on a New York estate owned by a Dutch American named Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh. Like other slaves, she experienced the miseries of being sold and was cruelly beaten and mistreated. Around 1815 she fell in love with a fellow slave named Robert, but they were forced apart by Robert's master. Isabella was instead forced to marry a slave named Thomas, with whom she had five children.

In 1827, after her master failed to honor his promise to free her or to uphold the New York Anti-Slavery Law of 1827, Isabella ran away, or, as she later informed her master, "I did not run away, I walked away by daylight...." After experiencing a religious conversion, Isabella became an itinerant preacher and in 1843 changed her name to Sojourner Truth. During this period she became involved in the growing antislavery movement, and by the 1850s she was involved in the woman's rights movement as well. At the 1851 Women's Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speeches in American history, "Ain't I a Woman?" She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and women during and after the Civil War. Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1883.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman?
Delivered 1851
Women's Rights Convention, Old Stone Church (since demolished), Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.[1]

But Wait!
There is some controversy regarding Sojourner Truth's famous 'Ain't I a Woman?' Speech listed above. There are different versions of the speech. The popular 'Ain't I a Woman' Speech was first published by Frances Gage in 1863, 12 years after the speech itself. Another version was published a month after the speech was given in the Anti-Slavery Bugle by Rev. Marius Robinson. In Robinson's Version the phrase 'Ain't I a Woman' is not present.

Compare the speeches and decide yourself at the Library of Congress or at The Sojourner Truth Project. [2]

[1] This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
[2] This article first appeared on the Women's Rights National Historical Park website.

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Sojourner Truth: Ain't I A Woman? (U.S. National Park Service)

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Born into slavery in 1797, Isabella Baumfree, who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth, would become one of the most powerful advocates for human rights in the nineteenth century. Her early childhood was spent on a New York estate owned by a Dutch American named Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh.

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May 15, 1869 - Creation of the NWSA(National Women's Suffrage Association)

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May 15, 1869 - Creation of the NWSA(National Women's Suffrage Association)

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In 1869 due to the betrayal of the American Equal Rights Association because of the ratification of the 14th amendment women right's activists felt it was best to create their own association known as the NWSA (National Women's Right's Association). And Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first president of the NWSA. In September the women who supported the 14th amendment created their organization known as the AWSA.These organizations did not get along well because of their own views on the 14th amendment.But both of these organization sought to fight for women's suffrage rights.

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Founded: May 15, 1869, in New York City

Preceded by: American Equal Rights Association (split between American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman Suffrage Association)

Succeeded by: National American Woman Suffrage Association (merger)

Key figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony. Founders also included Lucretia Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, Ernestine Rose, Pauline Wright Davis, Olympia Brown, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Anna E. Dickinson, Elizabeth Smith Miller. Other members included Josephine Griffing, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Florence Kelley, Virginia Minor, Mary Eliza Wright Sewall, and Victoria Woodhull.

Key characteristics (especially in contrast to the American Woman Suffrage Association):

condemned passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments, unless they were changed to include women

supported a federal Constitutional Amendment for women's suffrage

became involved in other women's rights issues beyond suffrage, including the rights of working women (discrimination and pay), reform of marriage and divorce laws.

had a top-down organizational structure

men could not be full members although they could be affiliated

Publication: The Revolution. The motto on the masthead of The Revolution was "Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less!" The paper was largely financed by George Francis Train, a woman's suffrage advocate also noted for opposing suffrage for African Americans in the campaign in Kansas for women's suffrage (see American Equal Rights Association). Founded in 1869, before the split with the AERA, the paper was short-lived and died in May 1870. The rival newspaper, The Woman's Journal, founded January 8, 1870, was much more popular.

Headquartered in: New York City

Also known as: NWSA, "the National"

About the National Woman Suffrage Association

In 1869, a meeting of the American Equal Rights Association showed that its membership had become polarized on the issue of support for ratification of the 14th Amendment. Ratified the previous year, without including women, some of the women's rights activists felt betrayed and left to form their own organization, two days later. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first president of the NWSA.

All members of the new organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), were women, and only women could hold office. Men could be affiliated, but could not be full members.

In September of 1869, the other faction which supported the 14th Amendment despite it, not including women, formed its own organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).

George Train supplied significant funding for the NWSA, usually called "the National." Before the split, Frederick Douglass (who joined the AWSA, also called "the American") had denounced the use of funds from Train for women's suffrage purposes, as Train opposed Black suffrage.

A newspaper headed by Stanton and Anthony, The Revolution, was the organ for the organization, but it folded very quickly, with the AWSA paper, The Woman's Journal, much more popular.

The New Departure

Before the split, those who formed the NWSA had been behind a strategy originally proposed by Virginia Minor and her husband. This strategy, which the NWSA adopted after the split, relied on using the equal protection language of the 14th Amendment to assert that women as citizens already had the right to vote. They used language similar to the natural rights language used before the American Revolution, about "taxation without representation" and "governed without consent." This strategy came to be called the New Departure.

In many locations in 1871 and 1872, women attempted to vote in violation of state laws. A few were arrested, including famously Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, New York. In the case of United States v. Susan B. Anthony, a court upheld Anthony's guilty verdict for committing the crime of attempting to vote.

In Missouri, Virginia Minor had been among those who attempted to register to vote in 1872. She was turned down, and sued in state court, and then appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In 1874, a unanimous verdict by the court declared in Minor v. Happersett that while women were citizens, suffrage was not a "necessary privilege and immunity" to which all citizens were entitled.

In 1873, Anthony summarized this argument with her landmark address, "Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?" Many of the NWSA speakers who lectured in various states took up similar arguments.

Because the NWSA was focusing on the federal level to support women's suffrage, they held their conventions in Washington, D.C., even though headquartered in New York City.

Victoria Woodhull and the NWSA

In 1871, the NWSA heard an address at its gathering from Victoria Woodhull, who testified the previous day before the U.S. Congress supporting woman suffrage. The speech was based on the same New Departure arguments that Anthony and Minor acted upon in their attempts to register and vote.

In 1872, a splinter group from the NWSA nominated Woodhull to run for president as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Isabella Beecher Hooker supported her run and Susan B. Anthony opposed it. Just before the election, Woodhull released some salacious allegations about Isabella Beecher Hooker's brother, Henry Ward Beecher, and for the next few years, that scandal continued -- with many in the public associating Woodhull with the NWSA.

New Directions

Matilda Joslyn Gage became president of the National in 1875 through 1876. (She was Vice President or head of the Executive Committee for 20 years.) In 1876, the NWSA, continuing its more confrontational approach and federal focus, organized a protest at the national exhibition celebrating the centennial anniversary of the nation's founding. After the Declaration of Independence was read at the opening of that exposition, the women interrupted and Susan B. Anthony made a speech on women's rights. The protestors then presented a Women's Declaration of Rights and some Articles of Impeachment, arguing that women were being wronged by the absence of political and civil rights.

Later that year, after months of gathering signatures, Susan B. Anthony and a group of women presented to the United States Senate petitions signed by more than 10,000 advocating women's suffrage.

In 1877, the NWSA initiated a federal Constitutional Amendment, written mostly by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which was introduced into the Congress every year until it passed in 1919.

Strategies of the NWSA and AWSA began to converge after 1872. In 1883, the NWSA adopted a new constitution allowing other woman suffrage societies -- including those working at the state level -- to become auxiliaries.

In October of 1887, Lucy Stone, one of the founders of the AWSA, proposed at that organization's convention that merger talks with the NWSA be initiated. Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony and Rachel Foster met in December and agreed in principle to proceed. The NWSA and AWSA each formed a committee to negotiate the merger, which culminated in the 1890 beginning of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. To give gravitas to the new organization, three of the best-known leaders were elected to the three top leadership positions, although each was aged and somewhat ailing or otherwise absent: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who was in Europe for two years) as president, Susan B. Anthony as vice president and acting president in Stanton's absence, and Lucy Stone as head of the Executive Committee.

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National Woman Suffrage Association: Working for Suffrage 1869-1890

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Founded: May 15, 1869, in New York City Preceded by: American Equal Rights Association (split between American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman Suffrage Association) Succeeded by: National American Woman Suffrage Association (merger) Key figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony.

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Dec 10, 1869 - Wyoming Grants Women to Vote

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Dec 10, 1869 - Wyoming Grants Women to Vote

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Wyoming passes the laws for women to vote in Wyoming in 1869 because of the women's suffrage activists and legislators of Wyoming. Even, though Wyoming passed these voting laws they did it for the sole purpose of publicity and popularity.Many people had an equal role in making this happen. William Bright, a legislator's wife helped convince him that not granting women suffrage rights was a gross injustice. Overall, because of Wyoming passing these laws many other states passed suffrage laws.

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Motivated more by interest in free publicity than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming territorial legislators pass a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote.

Western states led the nation in approving women's suffrage, but some of them had rather unsavory motives. Though some men recognized the important role women played in frontier settlement, others voted for women's suffrage only to bolster the strength of conservative voting blocks. In Wyoming, some men were also motivated by sheer loneliness-in 1869, the territory had over 6,000 adult males and only 1,000 females, and area men hoped women would be more likely to settle in the rugged and isolated country if they were granted the right to vote.
READ MORE: The State Where Women Voted Long Before the 19th Amendment
Some of the suffrage movement's leaders did have more respectable reasons for supporting women's right to vote. William Bright, a territorial legislator who was in his mid-forties, had a persuasive young wife who convinced him that denying women the vote was a gross injustice. The other major backer, Edward M. Lee, the territorial secretary who had championed the cause for years, argued that it was unfair for his mother to be denied a privilege granted to African-American males.

Ultimately, though, appeals to justice and equality did not pass the legislation-most Wyoming legislators supported Bright and Lee's bill because they thought it would win the territory free national publicity and might attract more single marriageable women to the region. Territorial Governor John A. Campbell appreciated the publicity power of the policy and signed the bill into law, making Wyoming the first territory or state in the history of the nation to grant women this fundamental right of citizenship.
READ MORE: Women Who Fought for the Vote

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Motivated more by interest in free publicity than a commitment to gender equality, Wyoming territorial legislators pass a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote. Western states led the nation in approving women's suffrage, but some of them had rather unsavory motives.

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August 26, 1920 - Ratification of 19th Amendment

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August 26, 1920 - Ratification of 19th Amendment

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The Nineteenth Amendment officially gave women the right to vote even though there has been opposition against women's suffrage, the fight for women's suffrage has been going on since 1776.  Many events helped bring this needed change to the constitution starting with the Seneca Falls Convention all the way to the creation of Women's Suffrage Parties such as the NWSA. To continue, the help of both the activists and the states who supported this idea of women's rights resulted in one of the most important events in history, which is the ratification of the 19th amendment.

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The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially extended the right to vote to women. The amendment declares in part that ‘the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.’

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The Equal Pay Act was a law that was passed that helped grant equal wages to women who were putting in as much time and effort as men to decrease the wage gap in the economy.This Act was administered when John F. Kennedy was president in 1963. This act required employers to give equal wages to women who worked in the same jobs as men and put in the same amount of effort. Even though this act was passed, studies show that women are still underpaid compared to the male ratio. Overall, the Equal Pay Act helped catalyze other acts such as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

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The Equal Pay Act is a labor law that prohibits gender-based wage discrimination in the United States. Signed by President Kennedy in 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the law mandates equal pay for equal work by forbidding employers from paying men and women different wages or benefits for doing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities. The bill was among the first laws in American history aimed at reducing gender discrimination in the workplace.

WAGE GAP

The Equal Pay Act was an effort to correct a centuries-old problem of gender-based wage discrimination.

Women made up a quarter of the American workforce by the early 20th century, but they were traditionally paid far less than men, even in cases where they performed the same job. In some states, female workers were also forced to contend with laws that restricted their working hours or prohibited them from working at night.

Efforts to correct the wage gap escalated during World War II, when scores of American women entered factory jobs in place of men who had enlisted in the military. In 1942, for example, the National War Labor Board endorsed policies to provide equal pay in instances where women were directly replacing male workers.

Three years later in 1945, the U.S. Congress introduced the Women's Equal Pay Act, which would have made it illegal to pay women less than men for work of "comparable quality and quantity." The measure failed to pass, however, and despite campaigns by women's groups, little progress was made on pay equity during the 1950s.

By 1960, women still earned less than two-thirds of what their male counterparts were paid.

THE EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963

Calls for a federal equal pay law coalesced in the early 1960s during the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

Esther Peterson, head of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, was a vocal supporter of the proposed legislation, as was former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Representatives Katharine St. George and Edith Green helped lead the charge for a bill in Congress.

Despite the opposition of powerful business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Merchants Association, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

In its final form, the Equal Pay Act mandates that employers cannot award unequal wages or benefits to men and women working jobs that require "equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions."

The law also includes guidelines for when unequal pay is permitted, specifically on the basis of merit, seniority, workers' quality or quantity of production and other factors not determined by gender.

The Equal Pay Act was among the first federal laws in American history to address gender discrimination. In signing it into law on June 10, 1963, Kennedy praised it as a "significant step forward," but acknowledged that "much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity" for women.

Among other things, Kennedy stressed the need for child day care centers to support working mothers.

OTHER EQUAL PAY LAWS

Following the passage of the Equal Pay Act, several other laws were enacted with the aim of reducing employment discrimination.

Perhaps the most important was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned employers from discriminating on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

The Educational Amendment of 1972, meanwhile, expanded the reach of the Equal Pay Act to include white-collar executive, professional and administrative jobs-categories that had been exempted under the original law.

Other important gender equity employment laws include the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which strengthened protections for pregnant workers; and 2009's Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which reduced time restrictions on wage discrimination complaints.

EFFECTS OF THE EQUAL PAY ACT

Under the regulations of the Equal Pay Act, employees who believe they are being discriminated against can either file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or directly sue their employer in court. Combined with increased education and career opportunities for women, these regulations have been credited with helping to narrow the gender wage gap in the United States.

Nevertheless, studies show that women are still paid less than men on average. Estimates vary, but according to a study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time women workers in 2016 were paid 82 cents for every dollar men earned.

SOURCES

The Equal Pay Act of 1963. U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
Facts About Equal Pay and Compensation Discrimination. U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
Work in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Policy, and Society, Volume One. Edited by Carl E. Van Horn and Herbert A. Schaffner.
Equal Pay Act of 1963. National Park Service.
Inch by Inch: Gender Equity Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By Mary E. Guy and Vanessa M. Fenley.
The History of the Battle for Equal Pay for American Women. Time Magazine.

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The Equal Pay Act is a labor law that prohibits gender-based wage discrimination in the United States. Signed by President Kennedy in 1963 as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the law mandates equal pay for equal work by forbidding employers from paying men and women different wages or benefits for doing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities.

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June 23 , 1972  - Title IX / Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act

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June 23 , 1972  - Title IX / Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act

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Title IX or the Equal Opportunity in Education Act was passed in 1972 to ensure that people of all genders had access to education. It was signed as a law by Richard Nixon on June 23 of 1972. This act really served of great use to women athletes at the college level because women wanted the right to have equal opportunities and facilities as men when it comes to athletics. Because of this, Title IX required the ratio of male athletes to female athletes to be equal to the ratio of male to female students on campus at the collegiate level.

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Title IX, also called Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, clause of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments, signed into law on June 23, 1972, which stated that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." In 2002, following the death of its coauthor, U.S. Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink, Title IX was officially renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

Although Title IX applies to a variety of programs, it has received the most attention for its impact on athletics, especially at the collegiate level. An amendment introduced in 1974 to exclude income-generating sports from Title IX coverage was rejected, and it was followed by like-minded amendments in 1975 and 1977, both of which also failed. In 1975 provisions that specifically prohibited sex discrimination in athletics and provided educational institutions with three years to fulfill the requirements of Title IX were signed into law. Attempts to curtail Title IX enforcement continued into 1978, but the following year the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) issued a final interpretation of Title IX's effect on intercollegiate athletics, in which HEW mandated that educational institutions provide equal opportunity to men and women in athletic programs. Upon its establishment in 1980, the Department of Education was given the responsibility of overseeing compliance with Title IX through its Office for Civil Rights.

Opponents of Title IX achieved a short-lived victory in the 1984 lawsuit Grove City v. Bell, the decision of which stated that Title IX affected only those programs that directly receive federal assistance; this eliminated the clause's applicability to athletics programs. In 1988, however, the Civil Rights Restoration Act overrode Grove City v. Bell, stating that Title IX applied to all programs and activities of any educational institution receiving federal financial assistance. Beginning in 1996, under the terms of the 1994 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, all coeducational colleges and universities participating in federal student financial aid programs were required to submit annual reports with information about their intercollegiate athletics programs to determine Title IX compliance.

Failure of educational institutions to comply with Title IX legislation led to various lawsuits, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (1992). The court ruled unanimously that punitive damages should be awarded to plaintiffs when it can be proved that an institution intentionally evaded compliance with Title IX. According to the Title IX clause, each college and university must have a ratio of male-to-female athletes that is equal to its ratio of male-to-female students, but a school is still in compliance with Title IX if it has a proven record of expansion in an effort to reach the correct ratios.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Brian Duignan.

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Title IX, also called Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, clause of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments, signed into law on June 23, 1972, which stated that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

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The Roe v Wade case's legal decision was announced on January 22, 1973. This case argued whether women had a right to an abortion or not. In the late 19th century before this case, abortion was illegal. Before this final case decision, many events took place in 1965 the United States removes the ban on distributing contraceptives to married couples, and 5 years later Hawaii as a state legalized abortion. In that same year Jane Roe, known as Norma McCovey sought to fight against Henry Wade, a district attorney to fight for women's right to abortion.

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Abortion Before Roe v. Wade

Until the late 19th century, abortion was legal in the United States before "quickening," the point at which a woman could first feel movements of the fetus, typically around the fourth month of pregnancy.

Some of the early regulations related to abortion were enacted in the 1820s and 1830s and dealt with the sale of dangerous drugs that women used to induce abortions. Despite these regulations and the fact that the drugs sometimes proved fatal to women, they continued to be advertised and sold.

In the late 1850s, the newly established American Medical Association began calling for the criminalization of abortion, partly in an effort to eliminate doctors' competitors such as midwives and homeopaths.

Additionally, some nativists, alarmed by the country's growing population of immigrants, were anti-abortion because they feared declining birth rates among white, American-born, Protestant women.

In 1869, the Catholic Church banned abortion at any stage of pregnancy, while in 1873, Congress passed the Comstock law, which made it illegal to distribute contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs through the U.S. mail. By the 1880s, abortion was outlawed across most of the country.

During the 1960s, during the women's rights movement, court cases involving contraceptives laid the groundwork for Roe v. Wade.

In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law banning the distribution of birth control to married couples, ruling that the law violated their implied right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution. And in 1972, the Supreme Court struck down a law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried adults.

Meanwhile, in 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortion, although the law only applied to the state's residents. That same year, New York legalized abortion, with no residency requirement. By the time of Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion was also legally available in Alaska and Washington.

Jane Roe

In 1969, Norma McCorvey, a Texas woman in her early 20s, sought to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. McCorvey, who had grown up in difficult, impoverished circumstances, previously had given birth twice and given up both children for adoption. At the time of McCorvey's pregnancy in 1969 abortion was legal in Texas-but only for the purpose of saving a woman's life.

While American women with the financial means could obtain abortions by traveling to other countries where the procedure was safe and legal, or pay a large fee to a U.S. doctor willing to secretly perform an abortion, those options were out of reach to McCorvey and many other women.

As a result, some women resorted to illegal, dangerous, "back-alley" abortions or self-induced abortions. In the 1950s and 1960s, the estimated number of illegal abortions in the United States ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

After trying unsuccessfully to get an illegal abortion, McCorvey was referred to Texas attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, who were interested in challenging anti-abortion laws.

In court documents, McCorvey became known as "Jane Roe."

Henry Wade

In 1970, the attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of McCorvey and all the other women "who were or might become pregnant and want to consider all options," against Henry Wade, the district attorney of Dallas County, where McCorvey lived.

Earlier, in 1964, Wade was in the national spotlight when he prosecuted Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

Supreme Court Ruling

In June 1970, a Texas district court ruled that the state's abortion ban was illegal because it violated a constitutional right to privacy. Afterward, Wade declared he'd continue to prosecute doctors who performed abortions.

The case eventually was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, McCovey gave birth and put the child up for adoption.

On Jan 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, struck down the Texas law banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure nationwide. In a majority opinion written by Justice Harry Blackmun, the court declared that a woman's right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment.

The court divided pregnancy into three trimesters, and declared that the choice to end a pregnancy in the first trimester was solely up to the woman. In the second trimester, the government could regulate abortion, although not ban it, in order to protect the mother's health.

In the third trimester, the state could prohibit abortion to protect a fetus that could survive on its own outside the womb, except when a woman's health was in danger.

Legacy of Roe v. Wade

Norma McCorvey maintained a low profile following the court's decision, but in the 1980s she was active in the abortion rights movement.

However, in the mid-1990s, after becoming friends with the head of an anti-abortion group and converting to Catholicism, she turned into a vocal opponent of the procedure.

Since Roe v. Wade, many states imposed restrictions that weaken abortion rights, and Americans remain divided over support for a woman's right to choose an abortion.

In 1992, litigation against Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act reached the Supreme Court in a case called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. The court upheld the central ruling in Roe v. Wade but allowed states to pass more abortion restrictions as long as they did not pose an "undue burden."

Roe v. Wade Overturned

In 2022, the nation's highest court deliberated on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which regarded the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts had ruled the law was unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. Under Roe, states had been prohibited from banning abortions before around 23 weeks-when a fetus is considered able to survive outside a woman's womb.

In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Mississippi's law-and overturned Roe after its nearly 50 years as precedent.

Sources

Abortion in American History. The Atlantic.
High Court Rules Abortion Legal in First 3 Months. The New York Times.
Norma McCorvey. The Washington Post.
Sarah Weddington. .
When Abortion Was a Crime, Leslie J. Reagan. University of California Press.

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Roe v. Wade: Decision, Summary & Background

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Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued on January 22, 1973, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States.

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April 25, 2004 - March for Women's Lives

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April 25, 2004 - March for Women's Lives

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On April 25, 2004 many people came together at Washington DC. Social Activists and Women's Rights Activists came together to protest President Bush's family planning programs and anti-feminist policies which brought together the largest Women's Rights protest in history.Many controversial topics were argued with during this protest such as the idea of family planning, abortion, and contraception.The slogan "My Body, My choice originated from this march for rights and freedom.

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WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)-More than one million pro-choice activists, as counted by organizers, converged in the nation's capital Sunday to protest the government's persistent effort to chip away at women's reproductive and health rights.

The March for Women's Lives-organized by a coalition of activist organizations-easily broke attendance records for national reproductive-rights rallies, according to organizers, overwhelming the 750,000 benchmarkset in 1992.

After a two-mile walk from the Washington monument down Pennsylvania past the White House and toward the U.S. Capitol Building, demonstrators returned to their starting point on the national mall for a four-hour late-afternoon rally led by a diverse group of women's rights leaders and entertainment-world celebrities.

Brandishing a white coat hanger, comedian Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the afternoon rally with a vow to never to return to the days of back-alley abortions that prevailed before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973.

"This was the choice," Goldberg said as she held up the hanger. "This was it. And I'm here to tell you, never again. We are not going backwards child, never again."

A sea of faces stretched more than a mile, from one end of the national mall to the other. Under an overcast sky, the dozens of lawmakers, celebrities and political organizers looked out at them and issued a collective call to restore and preserve women's health and reproductive rights.

Delivering a Political Warning

While avoiding partisan politics, one speaker after the next warned that the anti-choice leaders who control the White House and Congress will pay a political price in this fall's elections for restricting the access of women in the United States and around the globe to abortion and reproductive health services. They portrayed the Bush administration's anti-abortion and abstinence-only policies as steps toward an ultimate goal of outlawing abortion and dramatically reducing the availability of contraception.

Speakers included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is the highest ranking elected female official in U.S. history; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; and feminist leaders from the past, present and future including Gloria Steinem, who founded the Ms. Magazine; Kate Michelman, who will step down from the helm of NARAL Pro-Choice America within the week and Carrie Sietstra, executive director and founder of Law Students for Choice. Speakers representing the African American, Hispanic and gay and lesbian communities also addressed the crowd.

At the morning rally, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, received a rousing welcome as participants assembled on the national mall before the walk, which began at 1 p.m. Saying that the last national reproductive rights march in 1992 had ushered in the election of a pro-choice president, Clinton called for all assembled to register and vote in the fall election-a major message of the event.

She urged the audience "to support individual freedom and oppose the threats to individual rights." She added, "Abortion is a question of conscience."

The delegation of pro-choice Republicans was 500-strong with representatives from 12 states. Jennifer Blei Stockman, head of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, said that her members were marching because they oppose government's intrusion into individual lives and are deeply concerned by recent actions by Congress and White House that attacked women's right to chose.

"We support our party on many traditional issues," Stockman said, "but we do not agree with the recent actions that limit personal freedom."

It was a reference to what many demonstrators here consider an intensifying and frontal attack on abortion rights since 2002, when an anti-choice White House and Congress began using legislation, judicial appointments and executive fiat to roll back the clock on abortion rights.

November Abortion Ban

Last November, Bush signed a law criminalizing "partial birth" abortions, a term criticized for being so clinically vague that it leaves women and doctors open to prosecution for procedures occurring after the 12th week of pregnancy. The law includes an exception to preserve the life of the mother but not her health. It is the first federal statute to restrict abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision giving women the legal right to abortion.

Now being appealed by a number of pro-choice organizations, the partial-birth law is currently blocked from enforcement by a federal court injunction.

In April, Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, a federal law that confers legal status to fetuses injured by crimes against pregnant women. Pro-choice activists worry that by granting embryos and fetuses full human rights it may create a precedent for those seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade. They also say the law may be used to prosecute pregnant women for either drug or alcohol abuse.

The demonstration was officially opened in the morning by the soprano Margie Adam singing "We Shall Go Forth," the spiritual she had written for the abortion-rights march 25 years ago. By the time she sang, the 1.5-mile-long mall was filled with women, men and even nursing babies wearing the bright pink T-shirts identifying and listening to a virtual Who's Who of the women's movement.

Speakers' messages throughout the day resonated with the calm crowd representing a U.S. cross-section and including leaders from more than 50 countries. A hefty portion of the crowd was under 25, according to organizers, who said the younger women's presence belied the conventional wisdom that their generation was politically apathetic.

A contingent of anti-globalization activists in town to protest the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank also joined the march.

"I'm marching because I'm showing my people we do have a choice, said Melinda Garcia, a 26-year-old mother from Massachusetts who said her main reasons for attending the march were political. "If you let Bush win, he's going to take all choices away," she said. "He won't stop."

Precious Nthanga, a 23-year-old woman who works with Planned Parenthood in Zambia, agreed. "It's the women from the United States who helped liberate the women from Africa," she said. "If the women from the United States lose their rights, we will be doomed, because there will be no one to stand up for us."

Dispensing Morning-After Prescriptions

In what they called an act of civil disobedience, a group of physicians stood near the beginning of the march dispensing prescriptions to those who asked for morning-after pills. Dr. Kaneen Geer, from the Institute for Urban Family Health in New York City, said that 15 physicians had joined the action and by the midpoint of the walk she had dispensed more than 150 prescriptions.

"It has 12 refills," she told one recipient. "We want it to be over-the-counter, so please give them to your friends." The surprised-looking woman quickly agreed.

A contingent of anti-choice protesters also took the opportunity to air their views on what they called a "Death March." Randall Terry, head of the anti-choice group called Operation Witness, said more than 1,000 members of his movement participated. Members of Silent No More Awareness Campaign, with offices in the Northeast, held signs saying "I Regret My Abortion" and "I Regret Lost Fatherhood." Police reported that 16 activists were arrested for demonstrating without a permit.

The march on Washington-a rich symbol of the power of the people's power over their government-is taking place at a critical time for reproductive rights, organizers said.

"The reason for this march is really to sound the alarm that our policies both globally and domestically are hurting women," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, a Northern Virginia-based group helping to organize event. "A large portion of our population does not know the terrible impact of our policies."

Smeal insisted that the message of the march is not an "electoral one." Rather, she said, it is intended to send a message to leaders of both parties at all levels of government. More generally, Smeal said, she hopes it will serve as a wake-up call to a public that may not be aware of recent efforts to undermine women's rights.

High Stakes Politically

Nonetheless, pro-choice activists routinely acknowledge that a lot is at stake in this year's elections. If Bush wins reelection this fall, he will likely appoint a successor to at least one of the five Supreme Court justices who support abortion rights. If Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, that nominee could lead to the repeal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that guaranteed women the right to decide-free from government interference-whether to end a pregnancy.

Although focused on defending a woman's right to choose from any further restrictions, demonstrators were also rallying around other issues: justice and equality for women in all socio-economic strata around the world; access for all women to the full range of contraceptive services and family planning options; the need for better health services for women of all races, incomes and ages; and the effect of the federal government's foreign and policies on women worldwide.

Smeal, the former head of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for Women, oversaw the first national march for abortion rights nearly two decades ago. Unlike that 1986 march, organized by one group and focused exclusively on the rights of U.S. women, this year's event is being led by seven activist groups addressing health and reproductive issues on a global scale.

They are the National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Black Women's Health Imperative and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Some 1,400 groups-focused on everything from civil rights, religion, healthcare, feminism and the environment-also helped organize and lead the event.

"This march is an opportunity to express solidarity among women both in the United States and globally to say 'No more!' to these policies that hurt women here and abroad," said June Zeitlin, executive director of the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organization. "The women's movement is a global movement. We really want women here to understand the linkages" with their peers overseas.

Attacking the 'Global Gag' Rule

Most prominent among these is the Mexico City policy, or the so-called global gag rule. It bars U.S. family-planning assistance to any foreign health care agency that uses funds from any source to perform abortions, provide counseling and referral for abortion or lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their country. To receive U.S. funding, the agencies may perform abortions only when there is a threat to the woman's life or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Announced by the Reagan administration, the ban was lifted by President Bill Clinton on his first day in office. Bush reinstated it on his first day in office, Jan. 22, 2001.

Republicans don't seem too worried about the message delivered by the marchers. Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, doubts the event will threaten Bush's bid for reelection. And even though the event may energize the liberal base of voters, she suggested that voters are more concerned about issues such as the economy national security.

Officials from the Bush campaign did not return calls for comment. But Vice President Dick Cheney said that abortion was a top priority for the Bush administration on Tuesday night during an awards dinner for the National Right to Life Committee, which he reportedly hailed as a "great movement of conscience."

Before the last national reproductive rights march in 1992, NOW had organized three others: two in 1989 and one in 1986. Smeal said pro-choice groups won't wait so long between marches again, a "mistake" activists made because they felt the situation for women worldwide had been improving under the Clinton administration.

Cynthia L. Cooper and Shaya Mohajer contributed to this story.

Allison Stevens covers politics in Washington, D.C.

Cynthia L. Cooper writes frequently about reproductive rights, justice and equality.

Shaya Mohajer is an intern at Women's eNews.
Photos by Jennifer Crandall.
For more information:

March for Women's Lives:
http://www.marchforwomen.org

National Organization for Women:
http://www.now.org

Global Women's Issues Scorecard on the Bush Administration:
http://www.wglobalscorecard.org

To read accounts filed earlier on the day of the march, go to

Pro-Choice Advocates Converge on Capital
http://www.womensenews/article1803

Pro-Choice Advocates Converge on Capital Today
http://www.womensenews/article1802

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Pro-Choice March Largest in History - Women's eNews

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WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)-More than one million pro-choice activists, as counted by organizers, converged in the nation's capital Sunday to protest the government's persistent effort to chip away at women's reproductive and health rights. The March for Women's Lives-organized by a coalition of activist organizations-easily broke attendance records for national reproductive-rights rallies, according to organizers, overwhelming the 750,000 benchmarkset in 1992.

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Jan 24, 2013 - Pentagon Removes Ban on Women Serving In Combat Positions.

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Jan 24, 2013 - Pentagon Removes Ban on Women Serving In Combat Positions.

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In January 24 of 2013 the Pentagon officially removes the ban of women serving in military combat positions. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced that not only men, but women could serve in combat positions in the military. Many women and people in general thought this change would be "monumental" and will "help professionalize the force" ( Londono, 7). This change helped change a male-dominated workforce to an equally balanced male-to-female ratio. Overall, Women's Rights have come a long way and the future of the United States not only rests in men but depends on women as well.

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In the Women's Rights movement, the biggest turning point in history was the ratification of the 19th amendment because it not only granted women voting rights, but also showed that women were capable of fighting for their rights and they are not to be overlooked.