“I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. … We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back,” said Malala Yousafzai. The Feminist movement is defined as a movement to achieve equality between the sexes. American society was not alway unequal. In fact, before the constitution was ratified women in America had the right to vote from 1691 to 1780. Securing women’s right to vote was the foundation for major political, legal, economic and cultural advances that empowered women in America to be heard. The major phases of the feminist movement that impacted Catherine’s life was as a women gaining the right to vote, advancements in civil and workplace legal protections and gaining of reproductive rights. Catherine Oak was born in 1956. This was 36 years after women re-gained the right to vote, yet equality was still a distant dream. Her views of her future were greatly shaped by what she saw around her. There was almost no women holding power in government and women in prestigious careers like law or medicine were looked upon as a peculiar novelty. Yet, she was determined to become educated and assert her place in the world, cultural norms be damned.
Long before America was established, Native American women lived in societies that were much more egalitarian. After the constitution was ratified women lost the right to vote. Over time a narrative, reinforced by Christianity, about women as being natural subjects or property of men became ingrained in law and custom (Stanton). This development created a stark contrast between American women and women in nearby Native American tribes. Gender equality was practiced in the Haudenosaunee nation which was adjacent to New York. This contrast showed that, “Non-native women were bound by religious dogma instructing them to follow God’s edict that they be under the authority of men, with science telling them they were dumber, weaker, and naturally dependent,” (Wagner). This contrast became the inspiration for suffragists who later planned the 1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention.
Frederick Dougulas, an African American Abolitionist, stated that, “When the true history of the antislavery cause shall be written, women will occupy a large space in its pages, for the cause of the slave has been peculiarly women’s cause,” (Douglass). Women and slaves were both considered property. The horrors of slaves shocked the consciousness of millions of Americans into believing slavery should be ended and African Americans should be enfranchised. The same did not happen for women. While many African Americans supported women’s rights and saw the fight as parallel to their own fight, “White men split the coalition apart by offering the vote to black men first, only to limit their votes with poll taxes, impossible literacy tests, and violence,” (Stanton). Another parallel existed with immigrants. As immigration restrictions grew, a Chinese citizen Sam Sung Bo pointed out the hypocrisy of the statue of liberty welcoming immigrants when he, a man of Chinese descent, was not welcome (Lecture 6). Equally incensed, women pointed out, around the same time, the hypocritical nature of a woman representing liberty when not one woman had her own liberty in America.
Catherine came from a family of strong women. Her Grandmother Roxy was a role model because she ran a liquor business in town, was a successful stock investor and had a strong character. During the Great Depression, Roxy was the only one not fired in her bank branch. This is in spite of never attending college. Her Grandma Roxy was such a role model that Catherine said, “I think I took after her.” In college, Catherine majored in business and became fascinated with business law and thought she should go to law school. After sharing her plans, teachers and friends all remarked that she would not be respected as a woman and would be worked to death because of her low-status. She instead decided to enter the workforce. Catherine’s first job was at a national insurance firm and trained to become a marketing representative. When a permanent marketing position opened up, she quickly applied. The manager dismissed her application as he didn’t want a woman working for him. Additionally, her bosses cautioned her on the way she dressed in order to prevent male colleagues from flirting with her. Despite this a few years later, she became, “the first Insurance Association Director in the USA. Insurance was a very male dominated industry,” Catherine remarked.
America’s constitution failed to recognize half of its citizens. But in 1920, the 19th Amendment passed recognizing a women’s right to vote. Yet it was only the first step. It took years afterward for women to navigate through society’s hierarchy to break glass ceilings, win legal protections and become a reference to younger generations of what was possible. Courageous women trail blazed paths by, “Pushing open the doors to the higher education that had excluded them, they became doctors, lawyers, professors, business owners, and ministers,” (Santon). The legal ability to enter these fields and be treated equally had been codified in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The original bill prohibited discrimination because of race, color, religion, and national origin. Yet, at the last minute Howard Smith, a Democrat from Virginia, added the additional protected category of sex. This was seen as so funny that the US House of Representatives erupted in laughter. Smith had to reassert that he, “was serious about this thing… women have some real grievances and some real rights to be protected,” (Thomas). Adding sex to the Equal Rights Amendment freed up half the nation’s human capital for private employment. The law additionally quashed earlier laws that prevented women from working as many hours as men. Thus with the signing of the Civil Rights Act, a ban on discrimination in employment “because of sex” became codified into law.
As Catherine’s career progressed, she continually ran into chauvinistic businessmen. Catherine traveled frequently, visiting companies her firm was hired to help. One client’s first impression of her was memorable. “He said ‘How did you get in front of my desk’ when I reported for my consulting project,” Catherine recalled. While he started with low expectations, she was able to turn the situation around and became that man’s trusted advisor over her male co-consultant. A competent woman who could outperform her male colleagues was a tremendous departure from many business men’s traditional stereotypes. This uguly bias was exposed when Catherine was joining a new firm. She asked the company to send the employment contract. “We don’t have it ready,” the head of HR remarked, “but we can send you Johns since it’s for the same position.” The contract showed John was receiving a tremendously higher salary for the same exact work. “I was always the only female consultant and women consultants always made less than men,” said Catherine. Yet despite the patriarchal historical precedent of the 1970s she decided to reject the offer and search for a firm that treated both genders equally. The Equal Pay Act, passed almost a decade earlier in 1963, covers offenses such as these experienced by Catherine. It explicitly prohibits differential pay. The laws text states, “that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal,” (Thomas). This shows that despite legal protections in Catherine’s favor, gaps in enforcement and knowledge failed to rectify her episode of discrimination.
Much of the later femminist movement took place in the courts, not the streets. Activist lawyers petitioning for more protections made up the bulk of the major victories during this time. Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, many subsequent protections took decades to appear through case law. For instance, hostile work environments were not legally protected until 1986. Some of the most important progress of the feminist movement was not just from the text of the new laws. Instead it came from case law that resulted from obscure trials which gradually extended the protections of the 1964 landmark bill. The reliance on the 1964 bill became especially acute after the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have prohibited any legal inequality, to be ratified by US States.
A few key cases, during Catherine’s career, that she may have been unaware of as they happened, can help explain the growing legal latticework of protections. Additionally, they reveal the harassment and abuses that were still permitted in the workplace. For instance, hostile work environments were recognized as a category of discrimination in Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson (1986). In the case, a female named Vinson worked at a bank and her boss Taylor, despite being married, demanded sexual favors. When she refused sexual advances her boss told her he would, “fire you, just like I made you, I’ll break you, and if you don’t do what I say then I’ll have you killed,” (Thomas). Underpinning this case was the emergence of a new term: sexual harassment. Professor MacKinnon, in the book Sexual Harassment of Working Women, wrote that the working relationship between men and women when sex is involved is not just a personal one and instead it helps: “to perpetuate women’s subordinate place in the workplace and society,” (MacKinnon). Courts in 1976 ruled that sexual harassment, “created an artifical barrier to employment that was placed before one gender and not the other.” Catherine experienced this first hand when her married supervisor made romantic advances on her. She refused and the boss backed down; she was still promoted later on. But had to exit the firm later on due to the tension this created. Today, companies recognize the unequal power differential of a boss making a sexual advance on an employee below him or herself. Many corporations have put in policies forbidding any sexual relation with employees that are considered direct reports. This is not only unfair to the targeted victim, but also to the other unsolicited colleague who might also be vying for that advancement.
Technological advancements in the “pill” and safer abortion procedures allowed women to take control and plan their reproduction. Women having children is the biggest reason why they exit or take a break from the labor force (Stanton). This has had a significant historical effect at perpetuating unequal pay disparities. For a long time, legal codes restricted the use of both birth control methods. One of the biggest legal advancements was Roe V. Wade. The court ruled in Roe that, “State criminal abortion laws… violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects the right to privacy, including a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy,” (US Supreme Court). Catherine said that she always felt that she was protected with contraceptives. She never took the pill because she said, “it was too strong back then with too many side effects.” But she agreed women should have the right to choose, especially if their life is threatened. Other health care technological advancements have also aided women’s family and career planning during this time period. Catherine for instance, did not have her first kid until she was 39. Racing against her own biological clock and dismayed at the still experimental egg freezing procedures she decided the time was finally right to have children.
Not all women were in favor of the actions of the feminist movement. Catherine was dismayed at calls for special privileges for women because of past discrimation. She thought, “we needed to prove it with actions and knowledge and not just expect it because we were woman.” She also took personal improvement courses to try and get ahead. But recognized that despite her personal perseverance others, “gave up.” Catherine broke multiple class ceilings in her industry. But she was also greatly aided from the removal of barriers as the result of legal challenges stemming from the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Just a few examples were, “The right to remain employed during pregnancy, the right to be a working mother… the right to be free of sexual harassment and the right to look and act like oneself,” (Thomas). These victories have surely been significant. However, women continue to face discrimnation. Modern day feminists continue to move the needle by using their right to vote to influence the nation’s laws. Female lawyers then help enforce those protections in our court system. Just like the women at the height of the feminist movement did in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Bibliography
Douglass, Fredrick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. 1881.
MacKinnon, Catharine. Sexual Harassment of Working Women. 1979.
Stanton, Elizabeth C. History of Woman Suffrage. Susan B. Anthony, 1881.
Thomas, Gillian. Because of Sex. Picador, 2016.
US Supreme Court. “Roe V. Wade.” https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep410/usrep410113/usrep410113.pdf.
Wagner, Sally R. The Women’s Suffrage Movement. Penguin Classics, 2019.