History of Women’s rights

A Brief History of Women’s Rights

By CHRIS5NA AYOUB

The year 2021 is a year of firsts in women’s history as Kamala Harris has been elected as Vice President of the United States of America. She holds the highest office ever in what many consider the world’s most powerful and influential country, noted as being the world’s largest economy and most massive military. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden holds a doctoral degree, although asked to relinquish her title, it would seem as though equality is becoming more of a reality as opposed to a dream.

Women have come to be known for a great many accomplishments such as the Princess Spy Noor Inayat Khan, descendant of a Sultan Muslim ruler who spied for Britain during WWII, eventually killed by

Nazis, and American cryptography pioneer Elizabeth Friedman.

One of the most important scientific revelations of the twentieth century, the double helix formation, catapulted our understanding of human DNA, is historically disputed as being discovered by Rosalind Franklin when a colleague leaked photos. Her work to make clearer X-ray patterns of DNA molecules later portrayed as the foundation for James Watson and Francis Crick’s suggestion that DNA is a doublehelix polymer.

Equality has been a focus for American women since the founding of the U.S. when first lady Abigail Adams pled with Founding Father John Adams to remember the ladies warning of possible rebellion if not heard and validated in 1776. Women were given the right to vote in 1920, and later in 1972 law was enacted prohibiting discrimination for educational Federal financial assistance. The amended Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, military, pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation (additional state law stipulations enacted).

As Hilary Clinton said while accepting her nomination, “When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit!”