Women's Rights In The 19th Century

Throughout history, women have gone from having no rights at all to very little rights in the working field to finally being treated equal to man. However, even today women are still viewed as being the minority. Women had been perceived as evil human beings who were considered weak. Being a wife and mother were women’s most significant professions. Later, women slowly spoke up and earned the right to work, but was still limited on what they participated in. Finally, in the twentieth century they could do just about everything a man could. Women’s economic roles and legal rights have grown in the past few centuries. Women were viewed weaker than men. “Men were considered as the strong sex and thought to be intelligent, courageous, and determined.

It was then when they were able to work outside of the home, mostly in garment shops and mills. Even though they were allowed to work, nursing jobs in hospitals were still almost exclusively men. The nineteenth century started to be a market economy. More and more household goods were bought instead of being made at home, making women’s household work less relevant. “In 1824, the courts established the ‘Rule of Thumb’ which allowed the men to beat their wives as long as the stick was no thicker than the thumb.” (Elman 43) “The first women’s rights convention took place in July of 1848.” (Fighting for the Vote, para. 1) When they were able to work, their day consisted of twelve hours nonstop work. “Great Britain passed a ten-hour-day law for women and children in 1847, but in the United States, it was not until the early 1900s that the different states began to pass limited work hours.” (The Legal Status of Women, para. 4) The twentieth century was when women finally became a part of

Technological and economic changes made it certain that women would be given the same rights as men. It was made illegal to sack a pregnant woman in 1975. “Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected into the United States House of Representatives in 1917. Hattie Caraway was the first woman elected to the United States Senate in 1933.” (Women in Politics, para. 2) The nineteenth amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 and approved in 1920. This amendment gave women the right to vote. “The equal pay act required equal pay between man and woman and was created in 1963. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was created and banned discrimination against women by any company with 25 or more employees.” (The Legal Status of Women, para. 6) It was at this time that woman and man were considered