Authors:

  • Claudia Goldin

Excerpt

April 20, 2023, Paper: "How, when, and why did women in the US obtain legal rights equal to men’s regarding the workplace, marriage, family, Social Security, criminal justice, credit markets, and other parts of the economy and society, decades after they gained the right to vote? The story begins with the civil rights movement and the somewhat fortuitous nature of the early and key women’s rights legislation. The women’s right movement then formed to press for further rights. Public opinion to strengthen women’s status became more favorable in the 1970s. Of the 134 critical moments in women’s rights history from 1905 to 2023, almost 50% occurred between 1963 and 1973. The greatly increased employment of women, the formation of women’s rights associations, and the unstinting efforts of various members of Congress (mainly women) were behind the advances. But, women became splintered by marital status, employment, region, and religion far more than men. A substantial group of women emerged in the 1970s to oppose various rights for women, just as they did during the suffrage movement, and they remain a powerful force today."