one of the questions on my take-home history exam:
"There is a saying that people who are ignorant of their past are condemned to repeat it. Choose one major recurring pattern or theme in American women's experience from the colonial period to the present and explore it. In what ways has American women's ignorance of their past condemned them to repeat it? Finally, if knowledge of the past can be useful in predicting the future, what do you believe the future holds for American women?"
first of all, i think this is only a tiny indication of what a badass my history professor is. i was actually really excited to answer this, even though i have a lot more studying to do right now, but i love writing about things that i actually care about on tests! like, i actually wrote about how much i hate the icc because of what it's doing to my neighborhood on the essay portion of the sats. even though i'm sure it didn't have any affect on my score and the person who scored my test probably didn't give a shit, it felt really good to write about something i felt connected to.
Throughout history, we have seen the sinking and swelling of civil rights and civil liberties both denied from and extended to minority groups. From the colonial period to the present, women have taken a stand to fight against racial and gender injustices and have often succeeded in making radical social and judicial change. Though this seems to be an obvious, rather than speculative, recurring theme in American history as a whole, the current issues of inequality and injustice seem to have taken a backseat in our modern social framework. It seems that American women are slightly ignorant of how influential and essential they are to social movements and bringing about change to eradicate social injustices.
In the early 19th century, women’s existence and influence was limited to their domestic sphere. Not only were they second-class citizens, but they were civilly dead because of the lack of legal rights they had once they were married. This lack of legal protection coupled with the belief that women were naturally inferior beings was a motivating factor for the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments not only illustrated women’s desire to rise above their subordination but demanded sexual equality; thus, gaining women’s suffrage became the centerpiece of the women’s rights movement.
Unfortunately women’s suffrage was eclipsed by the Civil War effort and the movement to abolish slavery. Activists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony petitioned for the emancipation of slaves with the belief that both women and slaves would eventually be granted the same legal rights as white men. However, once the war was over, the American government viewed women’s suffrage and black suffrage as two separate issues and the former was placed on the backburner because it would not produce any immediate political gain. When women’s rights were side-stepped, women used their anger at being discounted to unite; they found the agency to express their resentments by petitioning being excluded from the 14th and 15th Amendments. Though the women’s movement initially split into two separate factions (NWSA and AWSA), they eventually merged together in 1890 to form the NAWSA.
From then on, the emergence of these types of diverse women’s groups gave the women’s movement new momentum and validation. Finally, in 1920, after years of petitioning and protesting, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed. This proved not only that their fighting had paid off, but that women were capable of coming together, establishing a social movement geared towards a common cause, and generating great and powerful legal change. What the establishment of the 19th Amendment symbolized was that women’s dissent was influential enough to inspire national change.
Though it would not be fair to say that American women have forgotten about or are completely ignorant of this power, it is a fact that there are still groups of people who are currently being denied the same civil rights and liberties that the women’s movement fought so hard to achieve for themselves. Still today, there are American citizens who are blatantly denied the rights to equal protection under the law in the same way that women were denied legal equality before the passage of the 19th Amendment. For example, there is an unfortunate and very clear lack of social justice being applied to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) population. Not only are they denied the right to marry in 45 states, but they are not guaranteed full protection in the workplace (as stipulated in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act).
Americans in general seem to be more and more willing to accept the laws that allow these types of injustices to exist without protest. The passage of Proposition 8 in our most recent election is the first time in history that a group of people has had their previous legal rights taken away from them. This is not only a violation of legal justice but it is a deplorable violation of human morality. If we allow this type of jurisdiction to continue forcing its way into our legal system, we are bound to eventually tolerate the same discrimination we fought against for the sake of the women’s rights movement.
LGBT activism is absolutely relevant to women, feminism, and the women’s right movement because we should be promoting equality for women-all women. The fact of the matter is that by disallowing equal rights to same-sex couples and LGBT people, we are not only denying them of their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but we are also excluding them from being full members of society. If we continue to ignore the injustices that appear on our streets, in front of our faces, on our televisions, in our courthouses, and on our voting ballots, then we insult and discredit the efforts made by any human being who has ever fought against a civil injustice. If we, as women, continue to ignore this inequality, then we commit the ultimate sin-forgetting that we have not always had the legal rights we are taking for granted.
The blatant discrimination as laid out in Proposition 8 should serve as a wake-up call to all American women. If we do not stand up now and put ourselves on the frontlines of opposition to these types of civil injustices, then we will be faced with a very bleak and frightening future. If we continue to allow the rights of LGBT women to be eradicated, then who’s to say that the legal rights of heterosexual women won’t eventually be eradicated as well? American women-and not just those within the LGBT community-need to unite in their anger in the spirit of first-wave feminists and fight against this discrimination if for no other reason than for the sake of upholding and advocating legal justice and equality for all people.