Important Anniversary for Women
On Thursday, August 26, 1920, women were granted the right to vote in the US. Did you know that? I didn't until Sonia Pressman Fuentes reminded me. She has a new article out, available on line here, published in "On the Issues" e-zine. It's about the advances for women's rights since 1964.
Would you have found this statement, with which she begins her article, surprising? I would have before reading some of her summaries of women's rights history. She said,"Actually, women secured no addtional rights in the 44 years after suffrage was ratified." The year women began to get more rights was 1964. You can review her guest postings on our own site about Title VII on equal employment and about pregnancy and childcare leave rights by clicking on the colored words.
Here's what I'm interested to find out from you: Do you find these excursions into the history of women's rights to be interesting and useful, or do you think they take away from our focus on women in science?
A They are very good background. I don't know about these legal protections and the hard work women went to in getting them, and I appreciate the updates.
B. I am glad they happened, but I'm not too interested in history, so I think we should be more focused on science most of the time.
C. Forget history, just focus on women's trials and triumphs in science.
I need one of those books, women's history for idiots, and it needs to be INTERESTING! So Sonia's posts really work for me. Downplaying dates, emphasizing problem-solving--good stuff.
I'm glad you find it interesting. I don't think it'll take over the forum, "OK" so don't worry. I am learning a lot from Sonia and she has been very generous in sharing her thoughts with us.
cheers,
Laura
A. Always been a feminist..probably always will, so I enjoy being reminded of these big dates and the history. I have found the struggles of women here and abroad for basic human rights fascinating. Why it has taken so long in and of itself is an interesting question. And it has impacted the history of science profoundly, so I think its relevant from that perspective too. In the two body problem discussion, there is a quote about how nepotism laws were used to keep from having to hire the female trailing spouse for so long. And this didn't just happen in universities!
B. I'm OK with having this information from time to time, and I admit I never knew it before. But in general, I prefer to read and comment about science-related topics over these. It's fine to have a mixture like you've been doing.
Like "Surprising Data", I might never find out these things if I had to dig them out for myself. It's interesting information! Keep having Sonia on!
A. love the background! And I never have time to look it up normally.
Here are some tidbits from this article:
Equal employment was legally provided to women starting in 1964. Before that, it was legal to prefer hiring men, and legal to ask women applicants if they were pregnant, etc.
Only 14% of military personnel were women in 2009
17% of Congresspeople were women. Pelosi is the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives ever.
