You've Come A Long Way Babe

Yeah, you've come a long way babe!

Since, August 26th is fast approaching, I thought it would be entirely right to write an article on Women and their struggle for equal rights.
Their struggle has been extremely hard and long going back for thousands of years. I'm pushing 72 years old and have a daughter and
would like her to have every benefit and right that I enjoyed in my lifetime.

It has been only 90 years since the 19th Amendment was passed on August 16, 1920. Neither of my grandmothers could vote until then.
It's amazing when you realize how recent it has been since women obtained this simple right to vote in the U.S.

Some of you younger women do not know the fight that women have waged over the years for women's rights. You are the beneficiary of their
hard won gains against men who they had to fight and claw every inch of the way.

Women's deference to man has been imbedded in religion and culture for thousands of years and is still embedded in this day and age as
witness the latest Papal encyclical equating condemning pedofilia with condemning ordination of women priests in the same papal pronouncement thus
putting them on the same sin level. The Pope has received a lot of blow back from this by women's rights groups and rightly so.

Even today Mormons practise polygamy in many towns out west even though the church condemned it in order to become a state. The US government
would not annex Utah until the church renounced this practise. If you go to towns such as Logan, Utah where I've been, you'll discover that
most of the local political leaders such as mayor and sheriff openly practise polygamy. This is true all in small towns all over Utah, Wyoming and Idaho.

Polygamy was justified by Mormon's founder Joseph Smith on authority from the Bible, namely the old Testament where many of the ancient figures
in it had multiple wives. This is the same as many modern Muslims being in accordance with the Koran in having multiple wives.

Basically, religion treated women as property.

The three monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism which arose from the same Book of Abraham(The First Testament) have
enshrined in them women's deference to man. Since our citizens are primarily Christians, I'll confine my words to them. We know how fundamental Muslims
treat their women. They are about 500 years behind us such as in our time in Europe's middle ages where superstition, ignorance and terror were the norm.

We're all familiar with Witches of Salem occurring in the US in the late 1600's. Religious extremest men would deem women whom they deemed to
practice witchcraft. So if a women suffered from dementia, epilepsy etc, they would be accused of being infected by the devil and would be burned
at the stake. Yes, it happened on US soil. However, this was a carryover from the European middle ages where burning witches at the stake
was common in all European countries for 300 years and thousands of innocent women suffered this fate.

When I was a kid and would go spend the summer with my grandparents in the small town of Franklinton, Louisiana I witnessed how the fundamental
Christians treated their women. The women would have their hair in a bun, no make up , head covered with long dresses. These were Pentecostals or
as my grandpa would call them "Bible Thumpers." The women would always walk behind the men. My grandfather was sheriff and on Saturday on
the courthouse lawn, he would listen people who had gripes or needed his help. As a 12 year old I noticed the man would talk and the women would
stand back. When my grandfather would ask the wife for more explanation that her husband had told my grandfather, the women would look at
her husband in askance and he would nod yes or no for permission to speak. This was not unique to Louisiana. It was common in the rural south.

Why were women treated this way. Simple, they were religious Christians who followed the Bible.

The First Testament is clear on the subject:

Wives must submit to their husbands "in every thing" as though they were Christ. "For the husband is the head of the wife." Persians:22-

"Men are superior to women since Adam was made before, and sinned after, Eve. But even though women are inferior to men, they shouldn't be discouraged because they shall "be saved in childbearing." Timothy2:14-15

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."Timothy 2:11-12

Women are to dress modestly, "with shamefacedness" -- "not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." Timothy 2:9

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.Corinthians 11:3

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. Corinthians 11:5

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.Corinthians 11:6

In the last days, "silly women" who are "ever learning" will be "led away with divers lusts." 3:6-7 Timothy

Only 144,000 celibate men will be saved. (Those who were not "defiled with women.") 14:1-4 Revelations

Throughout all parts of the Bible, you can find passages replete with treating women badly due to them being essentially evil, causing men to become lustful,
tempting them, being untrustworthy and conniving(ie Samson and Delilah. The Bible treats them as baby makers.

This ethos has not left modern culture entirely. It is hidden to some degree except for the last month's decree of the Catholic Church re ordination of
women priests and the Mormon Polygamy situation.

But, it is part of our culture which has been influenced by religion and has been very difficult to overcome.

Smart and agressive women have been fighting to overcome this for many years culminating with Susan B. Anthony and her friends getting the 19th amendment
passed.

Well, that was a start. Then modern feminist like Betty Friedan pushed for being treated more equally with her book "The Feminist Mystique."
People like Gloria Steinem who pushed extremely hard for equal rights at every opportunity which earned her the name of a "FemNazi" by Rush Limbaugh.
There are to many smart and aggressive women to mention who in the last century have brought about a sea change in women's rights and every single
one of you females owes them a great debt.

Conservative men and a few conservative women have fought equal rights. But the fight has not been successful because as America has morphed into
modernity, culture changes. As the Muslim countries march into modernity, they will change also. There are Arab Muslim feminist talking out as we speak.

In conclusion, I decided to pen this writing due to the fact that the notion hit me that this month of August celebrates two happenings re women's rights.
A women named Kagan has been appointed to the Supreme Court and will become the third woman on the court and it was 90 years ago that
women acquired the right to vote. You have to thank President Reagan for the first women named and President Obama who named two within
a year.

Just think Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female appointed and this was in 1981. So your numbers have risen to three in just 29 years.

Yeah, you've come a long way babe and don't forget to give thanks to the feminist (some men also) who worked over the years for gender equality.

Below is a timeline I researched this Saturday afternoon reflecting the various laws enacted in acquiring gender equity.

I hope everyone enjoys this article and has learned a little about the situation.

Bob White
August 7, 2010

19th Amendment passed in August 26, 1920 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

1937 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Washington state’s minimum wage laws for women.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 required equal wages for men and women doing equal work

In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing

1971 Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation, 400 U.S. 542 (1971): The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the practice of private employers refusing to hire women with pre-school children.

Supreme Court gave women power over their own bodies with Roe vrs. Wade decision in 1973.

1974 Housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress

1975 Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975), denies states the right to exclude women from juries.

1978 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women.

1981 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that excluding women from the draft is constitutional.

Kirchberg v. Feenstra, 450 U.S. 455, 459-60 (1981), overturns state laws designating a husband “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.

1984 In Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984), sex discrimination in membership policies of organizations, such as the Jaycees, is forbidden by the Supreme Court, opening many previously all-male organizations (Jaycees, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions) to women.

Hishon v. King and Spaulding, 467 U.S. 69 (1984): The U.S. Supreme Court rules that law firms may not discriminate on the basis of sex in promoting lawyers to partnership positions.

1994--The Violence Against Women Act funds services for victims of rape and domestic violence, allows women to seek civil rights remedies for gender-related crimes, provides training to increase police and court officials’ sensitivity and a national 24-hour hotline for battered women.

1996 United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), affirms that the male-only admissions policy of the state-supported Virginia Military Institute violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

1997 Elaborating on Title IX, the Supreme Court rules that college athletics programs must actively involve roughly equal numbers of men and women to qualify for federal support.