Women

Question 1

When was the first Woman’s Suffrage bill passed in Wyoming?

Answer 1

1869?

Question 2

Which Supreme Court judgement and set of laws were passed in 1873, which disadvantaged women?

Answer 2

• Bradwell v. Illinois: Rules that a state has the right to exclude a married woman (Myra Colby Bradwell) from practicing law.
• Comstock Laws: Prevented the sale of distribution of contraceptives and/or items used in abortion (3,600 prosecuted and upheld until the 1960s).

Question 3

What did Minor v. Happersett (1875) reaffirm?

Answer 3

That the Constitution did not grant women the right to vote

Question 4

What did Belva Lockwood achieve in 1879?

Answer 4

Through special Congressional legislation, she became the first woman admitted to try a case before the Supreme Court.

Question 5

When did Margaret Sanger win her suit in New York to allow doctors to advice their married patients about birth control for health purposes?

Answer 5

1818

Question 6

What did the 19th and 20th amendements do?

Answer 6

• 1919 Eighteenth Amendment: Prohibition of alcohol is passed, proving the power of the women’s Temperance movement and making them a legitimate political force.
• 1920 Nineteenth Amendment: Prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.

Question 7

Which 1921 act provided federal funding for maternity and child care?

Answer 7

The Sheppard-Towner Act

Question 8

What is the Equal Rights Amendment? When was it first introduced? How has it developed over time?

Answer 8

Written by feminist activists Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, then introduced to Congress in 1923. It was raised in every Congress until 1972 when it was finally passed and sent to states to be ratified. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 of 38 states needed to add it to the constitution. The ERA has been introduced into every Congress since the deadline.

Question 9

Which 3 pieces of New Deal legislation impacted women?

Answer 9

• 1933 Social Security Act: Provides welfare benefits for poor families.
• 1935 Aid to Dependent Children: Helped single women with young children who were unable to work.
• 1937 Fair Labor Standards Act: Set a new minimum wage but legislation and agencies often discriminated against women.

Question 10

Which two organisations fought the 1936 United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries case? What did it achieve?

Answer 10

Sanger’s American Birth Control League (ABCL) and the Birth Control Clinic Bureau (BCCB) - later merged to become Planned Parenthood in 1942

Won judicial approval of medicinal use of birth control.

Question 11

What did the 1961 Hoyt v. Florida ruling uphold?

Answer 11

Rules adopted by the state of Florida that made it far less likely for women than men to be called for jury service on the grounds that a “woman is still regarded as the center of home and family life.”

Question 12

What did the Equal Pay Act aim to achieve?

Answer 12

1963 Equal Pay Act: amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and aimed to abolish wage disparity based on sex. Part of Kennedy’s ‘New Frontier’ programme.

Question 13

Kennedy commissioned a Report on American Women. What did it include?

Answer 13

Stated that constitutional equality between men and women was essential and should be achieved through a Supreme Court decision holding that women were protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Refused to support ERA and still emphasised the importance of ‘traditional gender roles’.

Question 14

How did gender discrimination come to be covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 14

Southern congressman, Howard Smith wanted to sabotage the Civil Rights Act and jokingly suggested that ‘sex’ should be added. His amendment was adopted and women’s organisations were quick to bring legal cases in response.

Question 15

Which two Supreme Court decisions, positive for women’s rights, were made in 1965?

Answer 15

• 1965 Weeks v. Southern Bell: Condemned restrictive labor laws and company regulations on the hours and conditions of women’s work, opening many previously male-only jobs to women.
• 1965 Griswold v Connecticut: Overturned one of the last state laws prohibiting the prescription or use of contraceptives by married couples.

Question 16

When did Johnson issue an Executive Order that extended Affirmative Action to women?

Answer 16

1967

Question 17

Why was the Reed v. Reed judgement of 1971 so significant?

Answer 17

Deemed a state law (Idaho) unconstitutional for establishing automatic preference for males as administrators of wills. Thisw as the first time the court struck down a law treating men and women differently. The Court finally declares women as “persons,” but uses a “reasonableness” test rather than making sex a “suspect classification,” analogous to race, under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 18

Which bill did Nixon veto in 1971 and what would it have done if passed?

Answer 18

Comprehensive Child Development Bill: Would have provided a multibillion-dollar national day-care system designed to make it easier for single parents to work and care for children. Nixon vetoed the bill, arguing it would encourage a “communal approach to child-rearing” and that America was built on strong families with traditional gender roles, in order to evoke fears associated with communism.

Question 19

Which two important Supreme Court judgements that were important for birth control happened in 1972 and 1973?

Answer 19

• 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird: Ruled that the right to privacy encompasses an unmarried person’s right to use contraceptives.
• 1973 Roe v. Wade: The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state’s interests in regulating abortions: protecting women’s health and protecting the potentiality of human life.

Question 20

What did the 1974 Women’s Educational Equity Act fund?

Answer 20

The development of nonsexist teaching materials and model programs that encourage full educational opportunities for girls and women.

Question 21

Which two regressive judgements concerned with women’s rights were made by the Supreme Court in

a) 1976
b) 1989

Answer 21

• 1976 General Electric Company V. Gilbert: Held that employers could legally exclude conditions related to pregnancy from employee sickness and accident benefits plans.
• 1989 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services: Affirmed the right of states to deny public funding for abortions and to prohibit public hospitals from performing abortions.

Question 22

Which supreme court judgement overturned state laws designating a husband “head and master” and gave unilateral control of property between him and his wife?

Answer 22

1981 Kirchberg v. Feenstra

Question 23

What Supreme Court judgement and Act of Congress did Tracey Thurman help bring about?

Answer 23

• 1984 Thurman v. City of Torrington: Granted Tracey Thurman $2.3million in compensation for the numerous occasions she phoned the police department to report her husband’s domestic abuse and they responded with negligence due to her being married to him. They had attended one attack that left her partially paralysed, refusing to arrest her husband until he tried to harm her in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
• 1984 The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (aka. Thurman Law): provides federal funding to help victims of domestic violence and their dependent children by providing shelter and related help, offering violence prevention programs, and improving how service agencies work together in communities.