Saturday, April 19, 2008
Women's Rights
I started out with the research question in mind of how did women's legal rights in the US up through the 19th century. That of course was too broad, and then I narrowed it down to how did women's suffrage rights changes which has been redone into how did women gain suffrage rights. For me, this is kind of a hard subject because I know absolutely nothing about it so I'm having to start from scratch with a basic history. I'm not finding many legal cases dealing with it early on but I'm reading a lot about how the suffrage movement came together and changed over time, so I think I'm going to concentrate on that. Does anyone have any suggestions?
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3 comments:
An important part of constitutional history is how rights are articulated. Court cases is only one way, and no court ever granted women the right to vote. Over our history, most rights have been won through a process of group organization, articulation of a rights program, and concerted political action designed to win concessions from legislatures and society at large. This is the process that it sounds like you are describing, and so it would seem worth it to read the documents to see how the rights struggle was conceived and put forward in (I might add) a hostile environment.
Leah,
You might try googling 2nd wave feminism - this was a period during the 1960's and 1970's. also NOW - National Organization for Women.
Those may help.
Good Luck!
Debbie
I did find a case in 1874 "Minor v. Happersett. The Supreme Court ruled against the feminist arguments based on historical and textual arguments. Even so it was an early attempt.
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