Jessica Tidrick
Eth 125
University of Phoenix
Rodney Cullifer
Religion and Ethnic Diversity
The U.S. women’s movement had its beginnings in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott called the Seneca Falls Convention in New York to “discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” (NOW, 2013) It was around the early start of history in the United States, that a man virtually owned his wife and the children as he did his material things. Women were considered the weaker sex for much of history. Men thought women could only do household work; tend to the children and leaving heavier work to the men. A good forma education for girls has been second the one a boy receives. Women did not attend the same schools as boys, the only time they got to go the same school was if the boys were not there. Till the end of the 19th century, however, the number of women students had increased greatly. Higher education particularly was broadened by the rise of women's colleges and the admission of women to regular colleges and universities. (Wic, 2013) It was in the late 1800 hundreds there was an estimated 1/5 of college and university students were women. By 1900 that proportion had increased to more than 1/3. Also in the 19th Century women started working outside the home for the first time, mostly because of wars.
Today women are on their way to becoming just as equal as men. During the 1960s several federal laws improving the economic status of women were passed. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 required equal wages for men and women doing equal work. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination against women by any company with 25 or more employees. (Wic, 2013) Around 1967 there was prohibited bias towards hiring women by federal government contractors. The biggest struggle for women today is to get equal pay to men; we are still not making the same amount of money for the same jobs as men. Also we are making strides in business, but we could be in bigger roles like CEOs.
Examples of concepts or constructions of masculinity and femininity is that from the moment you are born you are given gender designed toys. Girls are given dress up clothes, Barbies, and told to play with makeup. Boys are given trains, trucks, and told to play sports. Another example in media is ESPN they have in the past been a mostly guy show and they gear mostly to them. It is all about sports 24/7. In past few years they have hired more women as sports broadcasters and more women have been getting in to sports broadcasting. It could be just a way to get more guys attention. In movies the guy is always the superhero who is rescuing the women who is in trouble.
In our History GLBT has been treated has a low sub class of people. They have been toured, beaten, and bullied for being