It’s 2017 and millions of citizens peacefully protested for women’s rights around the world but what exactly lead to this event to occur in this current age where we have advanced in so many ways? After seeing images of elderly women holding protest signs reading “I can’t believe I still have to protest this sh*t” from the marches I really began to wonder what have the women in America faced before me and what does that say about where we are today. In order to understand the current issues that women are facing in America, I think it’s important to understand the history of women’s rights in America and what we can do about the future of women.

Women have faced various issues in American history like restrictions towards voting, employment opportunities, access to education, unfair treatment, unequal pay, reproductive rights, maternity leave, and violence. The shocking thing is that many of these are still very prevalent today some have improved which shows a sign of progression. The women’s rights movement arose out of the frustration towards the unfair treatment around the mid-1800’s with the National Women’s Rights Convention that brought attention to the struggles they faced (Imbornoni). I can’t even imagine how shocking this was for a male dominated society to hear their frustrations but the voice of women needed to be heard.

The women’s suffrage reform movement soon began but weren’t granted the right to vote until the 19th amendment was passed in 1920 over 50 years after the women’s rights movement began. The women’s movement also focused on labor issues because they weren’t given equal employment opportunities and wages due to discrimination and the strong belief in traditional gender roles. Some areas of the U.S. were more forward-looking than others offering new jobs for women but while still setting limitations like in Illinois they weren’t allowed to practice law (Imbornoni).  These new advances were great and all but it mainly applied to white women leaving all women of color behind. Okay, so some progress nonetheless with restrictions on the side but what about women of color?

The National Association of Colored Women was formed in 1896 with the mission of  “raising to the highest plane the home life, moral standards, and civic life of our race” (Imbornoni). This divide between these movements relates to the current issues with white feminism which is so important why our feminism must intersectional if we want to grow as a gender and seek equality. Another big historical event was the creation of Planned Parenthood in 1942 and the invention of birth control soon after that. With these new establishments for reproductive health, there came a lot of backlashes that resulted in restrictions towards access to contraceptives and abortions. So it turns out that our current issues with women’s rights aren’t so new therefore making the statements on those elderly woman’s signs at the protest totally reasonable.

The rights that we have today were only possible after years of our fellow women demanding equality and though we’re not quite there yet we could be heading in the right direction but how many more years will it take? I think that this question is one of the biggest reason that the Women’s March was so powerful because we have come a long way and don’t want to regress especially after the misogynous comments that our President made during his election. Fighting for equal treatment has never been easy and will remain a challenge and this is the time that we need to stand up to the fight and continue not only for ourselves but for all the ladies of the world. The want for basic human rights, justice and liberation is nothing new and we need to bring our strength together to fight for all women, our society, and for future generations like in the past women have for us!
Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. “Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S.” Infoplease. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.