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Women’s rights

Minor v. Happersett case

Ana-Marija Rodevic

12th AP literature

Mr. Janosch

11/30/18
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Women’s rights

Women’s rights is something that women had been fighting for a long time, in some

countries women still don’t have equal rights as men. Throughout centuries women were fighting

for equal rights and still are. Some strong women like Susan B. Anthony, Ruth B. Ginsburg,

Audre Lorde, Malala Yousafzai, Barbara Walters, and many more strong women. All these

women were fighting for women’s and girls better future. For them not to experience the same

thing they did and what they went through. It’s weird to say that women won their right to vote

in 1920, it’s only been 98 years. Men never had to fight for the right to vote, to work, to learn or

the right to be heard. Women went through so much throughout the centuries, because how

society portray women. Women were always represented as a weaker gender, that should stay

home, take care of their kids and their husbands, while the men work. We can fix it by realizing

that we are equal, that what a men can do a women can to it also and the same goes for men.

Women in United States had been fighting for their rights for 150 years (1848-1998).

Women for generations worked really hard and deliberately to create a better world and they

have succeeded. The beginning of the women’s right movement was in July 13, 1848, in upstate

New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was invited to tea with her four female friends, Lucretia

Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock and hostess Jane Hunt. While they were having

their tea, the conversation turned towards women’s rights how women have no rights, even

though they had taken equal tremendous risks in American revolution. This became a Seneca

Falls Convention, the first women’s rights conference in the Western world. The women wanted

to improve the new republic, by using the Declaration of Independence as the framework to write

“ Declaration of Sentiments.” Women that wrote it was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In the

Declaration of Sentiments, Elizabeth C. Stanton wrote about the inequality towards women and
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how unjustly they are treated .Stanton’s version read, “The history of mankind is a history of

repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the

establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid

world.” Here are some things that women had to go thru “Women were not allowed to vote,

Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their formation, Married women had no

property rights, Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent

that they could imprison or beat them with impunity, Divorce and child custody laws favored

men, giving no rights to women, Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine

or law, Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would accept

women student”. This is how women were treated, for enslaved Black women it was even

worse. Elizabeth C. Stanton continues in her draft: “Now, in view of this entire

disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation,

— in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves

aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they

have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of

these United States.” After the convention Declaration of Sentiments and 12 resolutions received

unanimous endorsement, but the only resolution that did not pass was the right for women to

vote.

The reason why women could was written in the article “Racker” by Tamar

Altebarmakian the reason were “ If women vote, the human race will end, women are too

emotional to be responsible voters, women should not get the vote because men would have to

hear them talk more, women are too delicate to engage in politics, if women get the vote, men
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might lose all the respect for them, if women vote, families will suffer…”. Here are only a few of

the reasons why society thought women should not have the right to vote.

Virginia Louisa Minor, a leader of women’s suffrage movement in Missouri, over the age

of twenty-one years and citizen of United States, attempted to register to vote on October 15,

1872, in St. Louis County, Missouri, applied to Reese Happersett, the registrar of voters, to

register her as a lawful voter, but he refused to do it, because she was not a "male citizen of the

United States," but a woman. Later her husband Francis Minor sued Reese Happersett in

Missouri court State, because she had been denied by the “ privileges and immunities of

citizenship” written in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court stated that the privileges

and immunities of citizenship are defined by the U.S Constitution.

The inequality that women had to deal with before, had really changed. Women have the

right to vote, work, get education, own land and have job that were considered for men (

scientist, doctor, lawer, etc.). Now women can do the thing they could not do before, but there is

still some inequality and that inequality comes from work.

The article “ The State of women in America” written by Anna Chu and Charles Posner,

are talking about the problem and an inequality that women still go thru. One of the is that

women are still getting paid less than men. Women recieve more college degrees than men, but

women still get paid less. The articles says that “Women in the United States are paid only 77

cents for every dollar a man makes. The pay gap is even larger for women of color. On average,

African American women make 64 cents for every dollar that white men make.” This is unfair,

because women do the same job that men do, but they still get paid less. Another problem that
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women are solving is health insurance. In the article it says “Over the past few years, women

have been able to end gender discrimination by big insurance companies and gain free

contraception coverage because of the Affordable Care Act.” but still in some states like Texas,

Massachusetts, Vermont, Wisconsin and Hawaii do not have have health insurance, nearly 25

percent of women. Another quote from the article is worth to mention is “Our analysis

determined that on matters of economics, leadership, and health, women, on average, fare the

best in Maryland and the worst in Louisiana. More than 22 percent of women in Louisiana are in

poverty, compared to 11 percent of women in Maryland. Additionally, taking in all of the

leadership factors considered, Maryland ranks first in the nation in terms of women reaching

leadership positions in the public and private sector.” This article was written back in 2013, so

some information has changed, but this is still modern day problems.

The solution to this problem is that women should not be quiet with the inequality that

they are dealing with and speak up. Women and men are now trying to solve the problem. The

article that showed me that women and men got together and are now solving it, was written in

2017 written by Marianne Schnall called “ 2018 will be the year of women”. This article is about

how women and men are solving the inequality that women are still facing. Here are some

actions that women are taking “Women everywhere are rising up, taking the women's movement

into the mainstream, Women's political power is growing, Powerful men are being held

accountable in cases of sexual harassment and assault, And men are a part of this cultural

revolution’’. It’s important that women are not the only one that are fighting for equality, the

men are taking part of it too. This helps to end inequality faster and women won’t have to deal

with it again, because their won’t be the society norms that were in the past. Our society won’t
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be telling how a women or a men should act or where to work. In the past women for their rights

were fighting alone, this took a longer time for women to get where they are now. The past

society norm is what is stopping us from becoming more accepting.

In conclusion women went a long way and changed a lot for our future, but there are still

some inequality that women face. Without those powerful women we would not be where we are

today. In the past and now women are still portrayed as a weaker gender, that should stay home,

take care of their children and husbands, while men are at work. What was society norms in the

past should change, because we have to move forward and make our society a more accepting

and better place for everyone. Because we need to realizing that we are equal, that what a men

can do a women can to it also and the same goes for men.

Work cited
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Eisenberg, Bonnie, and Mary Ruthsdotter. “History of the Women's Rights Movement.”

National Womens History Project, www.nwhp.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/history-

of-the-womens-rights-movement/.

Cook, Meghan. “16 Women throughout History Who Famously Fought for Equality.”

INSIDER, INSIDER, 22 Aug. 2018, www.thisisinsider.com/women-who-fought-for-rights-2018-

8#16-malala-yousafzai-b-1997-continues-to-make-progress-for-female-education-and-advocacy-

16.

“Minor v. Happersett.” LII / Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute,

www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/88/162.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Minor v. Happersett.” Encyclopædia

Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Apr. 2014, www.britannica.com/event/Minor-v-

Happersett.

Chu, Anna, and Charles Posner. “The State of Women in America.” Center for American

Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2013/09/25/74836/the-state-of-

women-in-america/.

Schnall, Marianne. “2018 Will Be the Year of Women.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15

Dec. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/opinions/2018-will-be-the-year-of-women-

schnall/index.html.
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