Women's Rights (Individual Freedom, Civic Responsibility)

Gr. 7-9. In this entry in the Individual Rights and Civic Responsibilitiy series, the Chings provide a straightforward history of the struggle for women's rights, a history that might surprise girls of today, who are coming of age in a climate of unfettered choice. Readers will see that rights to education, employment, just wages, and equal legal status all came with a struggle. This also examines the tensions that arose within the movement when, in the nineteenth century, the fight against slavery sometimes created differences between white suffragists and groups working on behalf of African American women. In the twentieth century, topics included reproductive rights; the second wave of feminism, which was sparked in part by The Feminine Mystique; and the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment.