In England, where women did not get the right to vote in all elections until 1928, suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia, helped create the Women's Social Political Union. The militant tactics of the union included clashes with police, an arson campaign and the destruction of both public and private property. Many suffragettes were arrested and mounted hunger strikes in prison in their demand for women's equality.
By GRACE H. SLAWSKI
West Springfield High School
Young women growing up now have lots of role models. Women today are small business owners, doctors, play professional sports, anchor the evening news and, yes, can even be found running in Election 2008.
To say the least, women are changing the world.
For much of history, women filled the role of the housewife.
It wasn't a stereotype at the time; it was a way of life.
Women were dominated and defined by their husbands; they were tied down with cooking, cleaning, and managing the family. They had few political or legal rights.
In the 1800s, however, a number of women became known through their efforts to abolish slavery.
Former slave Sojourner Truth, who lived for a time in Northampton, crossed the country speaking out against slavery as well as for the rights of women. Harriet Tubman, another former slave, is credited with rescuing some 300 people from slavery before the Civil War. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which made real for countless readers the ills of slavery, was serialized.
Massachusetts-born Susan B. Anthony helped lead the movement for women to vote, a right guaranteed in 1920 with the passage of the 19th amendment.
In England, where women did not get the right to vote in all elections until 1928, suffrage leader Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia, helped create the Women's Social Political Union.
The militant tactics of the union included clashes with police, an arson campaign and the destruction of both public and private property. Many suffragettes were arrested and mounted hunger strikes in prison in their demand for women's equality.
The 1960s were a pivotal time for women in the United States.
In 1961, President John Kennedy appointed Eleanor Roosevelt to chair his Commission on the Status of Women which, in 1963, documented discrimation against women in the workplace. In that same year, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, making it illegal for employers to pay a woman less than what a man would get for the same job. A year later, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act barred discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex.
Large numbers of women also started going to college in the 1960s. Prior to this, women, who studies showed did better in high school than men, were not encouraged to pursue their education.
Feminists like Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique and founder of the National Organization for Women, and Gloria Steinem, cofounder of Ms. Magazine, helped bring women together to fight for equality and change.
Women role models aren't that hard to find these days.
Turn the television to any news station, and chances are, there will be a woman reporting or making the news.
Hillary Rodham Clinton may have lost her campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president, but she remains an influential U.S. Senator from New York who has worked for the passage of some 20 bills on a variety of topics while in office.
Sarah Palin will become the first female vice president if U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is elected as President of the United States. Palin is already the first woman to be voted governor of Alaska.
Women have come a long way in society to gain equality.
Is the fight over?
No, it isn't, for the uneducated women living on the streets in Third World and even here at home where issues of equal pay, equal access across all job fields and even the lack of affordable child care remain.
"If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?" said Gloria Steinem, speaking of women's rights clashing with society.
Well, the shoe has been changed to make society better for women, and this change isn't close to stopping.