Have men and women been treated equally in the United States?
Here are nine things a woman couldn°®¶¹app™t do before 1971:
°®¶¹app¢ Get a credit card in her own name without her husband°®¶¹app™s consent.
°®¶¹app¢ Be guaranteed she would not get fired for being pregnant.
°®¶¹app¢ Serve on a jury in all 50 states.
°®¶¹app¢ Fight on the front lines.
°®¶¹app¢ Get an education at each of the Ivy League colleges.
°®¶¹app¢ Take legal action against workplace sexual harassment.
°®¶¹app¢ Decide not to have sex with her husband.
°®¶¹app¢ Obtain health insurance at the same rate as a man.
°®¶¹app¢ Take the birth control pill.
I°®¶¹app™ve never understood why women weren°®¶¹app™t guaranteed the right to vote until the 19th Amendment passed in 1920. While there were states that granted voting rights earlier, it seems strange it was ever an issue.
Why would a country exclude the talent of half its population?
Of course, it was men who excluded women. Though, to be fair, some women also opposed the 19th Amendment.
To paraphrase an Aug. 20, 2020 article by Samantha Schmidt in the Washington Post: Anti-suffragists believed voting would put women in competition with men; suggested that if women did the work of men they would become uglier, less feminine and less desirable; that women couldn°®¶¹app™t get involved in politics while caring for their children and home; and that gender role reversals would happen.
Allison Lange, an associate professor of history at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, wrote, °®¶¹appœI think we°®¶¹app™re still dealing with exactly these messages. Even a century later, women°®¶¹app™s rights activists and female leaders are still faced with exactly the same criticism.°®¶¹app
After the 19th Amendment passed, and in what may seem a twist of irony, some of the anti-suffragists went on to start women°®¶¹app™s colleges, pioneer investigative journalism, establish child care centers and run for office.
Taking flight
Perhaps the most famous piece of legislation for women°®¶¹app™s equality is the Equal Rights Amendment. First proposed in 1923, it simply states: °®¶¹appœEquality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.°®¶¹app
It seems pretty straightforward but still hasn°®¶¹app™t been ratified even though 168 U.N. members have done something similar. Digging deeper, there are more stories.
During World War II, the United States and Great Britain needed more pilots to get planes from Point A to B, but using all-male crews took men out of combat.
Both nations decided to start using women to ferry planes, and the U.S. created the Women Airforce Service Pilots. WASP members flew as ferry pilots, test pilots and military flight instructors, as well as towing targets for live-fire military artillery exercises. Flying more than 60 million miles, WASPs delivered 12,652 military aircraft and flew 78 different types of aircraft, often many different types in one week.
By the end of the war, of the 1,078 women flying, roughly 3.5% or 38 members had lost their lives in flying accidents. As they were not considered active military, the bodies of the women who died were transported home at family expense. As men began returning from war, the WASPs were disbanded and their files classified and sealed for the next 35 years.
With jobs unavailable in either military or commercial aviation, the WASPs returned to regular civilian life.
Military and Congress members in 1944 went to bat for the WASPs to get them full military status (including the GI Bill) but couldn°®¶¹app™t get legislation passed. In the 1970s another bill proposed by Sen. Barry Goldwater was defeated. And in 1972 a bill was defeated again.
By an elegant twist of fate in 1977, WASP records were unsealed after a news release stated the Air Force was training the first women to fly military aircraft.
The remaining WASP pilots called baloney, and a bill was passed to designate WASP service as °®¶¹appœactive duty.°®¶¹app Honorable discharge certificates were issued in 1979.
Then we have the movie °®¶¹appœHidden Figures°®¶¹app based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly about women who worked on teams that solved the complex mathematical equations of flight from the 1940s through the 1960s. They also swam against the currents of sexism, racism and barriers to women in science. Their story also was unknown for so long.
Changing times?
I°®¶¹app™ve never understood this reluctance to acknowledge the accomplishments or potential of women. But, then again, maybe I can.
It was easier to go back to a limited way of thinking about women as wives, mothers and daughters than to try to absorb the magnitude of what they did. It was easier to make their accomplishments invisible than to expand our own horizons of thought.
Unless, that is, you knew a woman who happened to fly airplanes or work complex mathematical problems.
The good news is we°®¶¹app™ve come a long way. It°®¶¹app™s not unusual to find a doctor, dentist, congressperson or pilot who is a woman. It°®¶¹app™s not unusual to find women in positions of higher authority in business, science, the military, academics, government or the arts. Women°®¶¹app™s sports has also taken off.
In the movies we°®¶¹app™ve been introduced to women superheroes, starship commanders and, heck, even Barbie is weighing in. But there°®¶¹app™s still further to go. And some things happening now are downright appalling.
New laws deny women autonomy over their own bodies and put their lives in peril when they dream of becoming a mother.
I°®¶¹app™m thinking of the young woman from Fort Wayne living in Texas, Amanda Zurawaski. Four months into her pregnancy, her water broke. The baby wouldn°®¶¹app™t live, and her life was in danger. But her doctors were so afraid of being prosecuted they refused her the best medical option for her survival °®¶¹app” an abortion. She almost died and now has damage to her reproductive organs.
Then there are the actions by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita against Dr. Caitlin Bernard for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled his judgment was so defective and without legal merit it issued a public reprimand.
From the court°®¶¹app™s legal opinion: °®¶¹appœRespondent (Rokita) appeared on a national television program ... . During that appearance Respondent described the physician as an °®¶¹app˜abortion activist acting as a doctor °®¶¹app” with a history of failing to report.°®¶¹app™ Respondent admits, and we find, that he engaged in attorney misconduct by making this statement.°®¶¹app
Men do not have any laws that prohibit their health care choices. None.
And we only need to look at the results of a law to understand its impact. If a law makes it impossible to get crucial health care, I°®¶¹app™d consider any representative who voted for it highly suspect in their judgment. And, if they°®¶¹app™re still in favor of it after learning the results have life-threatening implications for women, I don°®¶¹app™t want them to represent me.
Despite the tragedies and inequalities, life can also show us what success looks like. As a society, we love the trailblazers. We are frightened for, and maybe even by, them at the same time. We love their spirit when they dare to dream and strive for goals that seem out of reach.
A woman flying an airplane? We loved Amelia Earhart. A women working to end segregation? Rosa Parks. Pure talent on the tennis court? Serena Williams. A brilliant scientific mind? Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Marie Curie. And on, and on, and on, women had the courage to face barriers in their way and say, °®¶¹appœI want to. So why shouldn°®¶¹app™t I?°®¶¹app
Through their determination, intelligence and courage, they created new pathways and followed their inner compass to reach for their dreams. And perhaps most inspiring, where some saw limitations they looked and said, °®¶¹appœWhy not me?°®¶¹app
Carl Peters of Fort Wayne is a retiree.
