Related events and developments that span the years 1865 to the present - Research Paper Example

But because of industrialization, the agricultural economy was eventually surmounted by a market economy (Jackson, 1998). Hence, this paper argues that one of the major changes in the American labor market for the past century has been the drastic transition in women’s responsibilities, from mostly unpaid domestic roles to a mixture of traditional unpaid roles and paid jobs. The important events outlined in this paper reveal the increasing participation of women in the labor market and the continuous shrinking of the pay gap between female and male employees.

With the spread of industrialization, a new state of affair emerged. The common belief during that period was that males were more able to cope with the tough, competitive environment of the workplace. On the other hand, females were believed to be incapable of dealing with the demands of the outside world. They were not allowed to vote, were prohibited from getting a job, and were kept out of the public and political arenas (Hermann, 2006). Their obligation to society was to care for, nurture, and indoctrinate children.

But all of these changed with the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the Equal Pay Act. . Feminists began to demand persistently for more comprehensive and liberal legislation. The 19th Amendment protects the right of women to vote. Since the 1800s, women protested, lobbied, and appealed to acquire suffrage rights, but it took many years before they achieved their goal. By 1916, most of the leading suffrage groups joined together to demand a constitutional amendment (Severn, 1967). The House of Representatives endorsed the amendment on the 21st of May 1919, and immediately afterward, the Senate complied.

The ratification was declared by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby on the 26th of August 1920, radically transforming the entire American voting public permanently (Monroe, 1998). Approval and endorsement of the 19th Amendment implied that U.S. citizens should be granted the right to vote, regardless of gender. It took roughly four decades until Congress passed the amendment for approval. The women’s suffrage movement was already present during the mid-19th century, during the Reconstruction era.

Throughout these years, leaders of women’s rights movement campaigned for enclosure of universal suffrage in the Reconstruction amendments (Monroe, 1998). In spite of their attempts, these amendments ignored the issue of women’s suffrage. The development of territorial constitutions, alongside persistent negotiation of the western frontier, facilitated the continuous state-wide deliberation of women’s suffrage (Schwarzenbach & Smith, 2013). Due to the committed, continuous efforts of supporters of voting rights, women’s suffrage was ratified in the new constitutions of Washington, Utah, and Wyoming.

State governments started to take into consideration suffrage