How much has changed in Your Lifetime on Womens Rights?

Question

When people talk about womens rights, do you look at the blankly and wonder what they are talking about?

Do you feel that women are largely afforded equal opportunities where you live?

Have you noticed any big changes during your lifetime?

Answer 1

In my life time I have personal experience with these changes...

1) Equal opportunities for education for girls and women---I was the first girl to take mechanical drawing and shop in our high school, but denied the opportunity to study architectural design in college
2) You can no longer get fired for not wanting sex with your boss---been there, done that
3) You no longer have to be careful at the work place that you don't get cornered and felt up by a male co-worker---been there, done that and there was no recourse.
4) Legalization of abortion
5) The invention of the pill
6) Being able to charge a husband with physical abuse now when you couldn't before
7) Child sexual abuse by a parent is no longer just a family secret that isn't taken seriously by the law---had one of those in the family
8) Equal opportunities in the work place now
9) More opportunities in the political arena for women now
10) Date rape and stranger rape are taken seriously by law enforcement now and where before it was rarely even reported
11) More respect for 'women's work' now
12) More respect for how hard it is to be a good mother now
13) Being able to have a bank account separate from a husband now
14) Getting equal pay for equal work now, where for 20 years I didn't
15) Family friendly support systems coming into place
16) The first women in a 100 years running for president
17) The gay community came out of the closet---a woman's issue because guys are no longer marrying a woman to cover up their 'real' orientation which messed up a lot of women in my time
18) Thought of another one...teens are no longer pressured to get married when pregnant. It was the unwritten rule when I was just out of high school
19) Unmarried women are no longer expected to give up their babies to adoption, if they doesn't want to
20) Women have the right to be satisfied in bed now which was a new concept in my lifetime

I've seen lots of changes that the Women's Movement has given society. I'm sure I've left many off the list.

Answer 2

I don't know what has happened in the larger social context during my lifetime...well, I do and I don't, but most of it happened before I came along. However, I will answer with my own personal experience. A job I had in the late 80s, early 90s was as a secretary at a university. About three weeks in, someone said, "it's your turn to make the coffee." I was taken aback...make coffee? What? I asked where in my job description does it say that, and the response was that it was in the "other duties as required" section. Now, making coffee was not a simple matter: the secretaries took turns going to the lounge and preparing coffee, on our break, for the (largely male) faculty, and then returning later to clean up. We had to ensure there was milk and sugar, that the area was clean, and so on and so on. These weren't little coffee machines, but big urns. Previous to my tenure there, the secretaries not only had to make it, but had to serve it...wearing white gloves. Yup, this was in the 1990s. I did it once, then filed a grievance and it ended within 2 months of my being there. One of the faculty said, "if I ever find out who did this, I'll make sure she's fired." People didn't know it was me until later and by then, they couldn't fire me if they tried. That was a major incentive for me to go back to school, which I did very shortly afterwards.

That story may seem trivial, but it is an example of sexism and classism in their purest forms. The secretaries were there to serve, and if that meant typing a paper, good enough--that's the job, but if it meant serving coffee, not so good and not the job. It was humiliating, demeaning, and completely unnecessary.

At that same university, I had been a groundskeeper. I was one of only two women. The job was shovelling snow, planting, laying sod, etc. Physically, no problem, but as far as the treatment by the men, there were problems. The storage shed where we took our breaks was literally plastered with images of naked women, and I was treated in one of two ways: oh, she can't handle the work, so I'll help her, or give her the hardest and worst possible job and watch her fail. But I didn't fail. I could do everything the guys did, and over time, I was treated better, but the initial period of "proving myself" was very stressful. There are several women working there now doing that same job.

One other thing of great significance to me is that I became pregnant at 18, and had my daughter when I was 19. There was a lot of social stigma, but there was nothing preventing me from keeping my child, other than the negative attitudes of ignorant people. My mother, who was growing up in the 1950s also had a child before she was married, but the society was such that she couldn't keep hers. She has no idea what became of her child: I raised mine. I will always be grateful to feminists and feminism for fighting for my right to carry and keep my daughter.

Answer 3

Here's what I didn't have before the woman's movement:

1. The ability to get a small loan of $200 after working for 6 yrs w/o my father co-signing it.

2. When married, the ability to get checks in my own name.

3. Not getting promotions because of my sex. The higher jobs always went to men.

4. Being limited to being a secretary, nurse or teacher & then getting married & having kids.....and not working after marriage!

5. Not being able to get a credit card w/o having a long talk with the manager.

Probably lots of other things but that's all I can think of now.

I will say that when I finally retired, the majority of supervisors and management were female. And the pay was equal since everyone was paid on the same scale at each level.

Answer 4

there is sufficient women's organization to protect their rights / end discrimination etc. to create another one under cedaw and iccpr is also good so as to heighten awareness but it will be mainly duplicating work of some other orgs. it is prudent to pull all resources into one big organization and concentrate on achieving clear objectives. unifem is another place where resources are required as its the main un body for women. also all these orgs are working slowly to end injustice. its tough, its still a man's world whether in east or west. its everywhere. its only a change in the mindset of the pple that can change the world. to this end, we found the bahai writing on equality of women and men and how to go about doing it from both top and grassroot level that we think it will be achievable in the long run. we're still in the stage of firefighting and hence no remarkable change will occur. its only when the foundations are changed that women will take her rightful place beside men in global governance

Answer 5

absolutely Nothing
In the Netherlands women have been practically equal
as far as normal life and the job market is concerned for more than 40 years

they even insist on paying for half the lunch
what is wrong with that???

Answer 6

A lot of women still stayed home when I was a kid.
They had the choice to go out and work or stay home. Now I feel like women have to work unless they are wealthy. AND still get everything else done. I wish I had a wife to help me most of the time. My husband tries, but he is out working it and trying to keep us afloat as well. I am glad women can work if they want now, I just wish I still had the choice to stay home. I think there is just so much stress in American families now.

Answer 7

There was also another profession for women. That was airline stewardess. Those jobs went to young, attractive women and they had to retire by the time they were in their early 30s.

Answer 8

my mother had a gun held to her head on 2 occassions but never left my fahter (who was uncommunicative and short-tempered) b/c she had to raise 5 kids. most of her friends were beat at home.

my sister also had to make coffee as a secretary and she hated it b/c it was so demeaning. she used to put salt in his coffee!

i have faced harrassment (one guy was fired for it, but i have been harrassed several times, esp when in my early 20s). i was also mistreated for "gettting the guy fired". i also saw a guy with fewer credentials get promoted over me.

also lived with a guy who was abusive in my 20s.

i've also been harrassed on the street and i dress conservatively - any of my friends would vouch for that.

in my lifetime, although i've experienced many forms of sexism, life is getting better for women in many ways. we do have more rights and opportunities.

but we have more to fight for. our status in some ways has gone down with raunch culture and the explosion of porn. women are harrassed on the streets probably more today than in the 70s.

we are still sterotyped, discredited, and blamed for everything. still need reproductive rights, rights to security, promotions and equal pay, help in the household & from the government in regards to time off & child care (for both parents).

Answer 9

They have the right to work now, but other than that, it seems they are still responsible for their other chores also, such as cleaning the house, making meals for family, laundry, shopping, care for the kids and other family members when they're sick, etc.
We finally got what we wanted, but now it's more than we anticapated.

Its' still a mans world, we just cant win.

Answer 10

India - 20% out of 100% but we women are happy.