Are women trated differently in the legal system - Essay Example

Although conditions are very much different between these two periods, this particular research will discuss arguments why women should not be treated differently in the legal systems. A. Discrimination of women in the past. There are conditions wherein women were treated separately in the legal systems of the past and today. During the 19th century, women were not allowed to vote and were denied of their legal rights to exercise the right to suffrage in the U.S. At that time, women were not treated equally with male counterparts and were subjected to the social tradition and English common low that denied their rights to vote, own property, keep their own wages, or obtain the charge of their own children.

Even the wife of US President, Abigail Adams, took note of this women’s condition, and reminded Pres. John Adams in 1776 as she wrote to him, “"In the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands." John Adams replied, "I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems" (Francis, Roberta, n.d.). This author recalls in her article that the fight to win women’s right to vote took 72 years before it was finally acknowledged in the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The heroines of the movement for the constitutional rights, as related in the history, suffered long years of persecution and humiliation but were not moved out of their protests. Accordingly, the specific written guarantee of the 19th Amendment, when won, was the following, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex" (Francis, Roberta, n.d.). This victory of women led to other protests on further amendments to equal rights to women; similar to their first protest, it took many years because of many laws in the workplace and in the society that had categorized women as second class citizens and perpetuated gender inequalities.

In the past, the proposal of women for equal rights for employment was contradicted by the labor movements on the reason that it was a threat to power structures and also by business interests because of economic costs. 2. Should the current law system be changed in order to treat women equally? This issue is still very much debated upon today, that even the United Nations took it upon as one of their duties to be responsible of ensuring that it promotes and protect gender equality and women empowerment (Gender Equality, n.d). The U.N. argues that gender-based discriminations are often times permitted by laws, policies and practices of institutions and nations.

For instance, in many countries in the Middle East, women do not have the same rights for inheritance and property and even are not allowed to testify in court. According to the writings of J.Arlandson, the superiority of men over women was drawn from the rulings of the Islam’s Qu’ran, which Islam followed to the letter. Wage gap also exists in the U.S. today, as shown in the Pay Equity information of the National Committee on Pay Equity, which states that women are paid an average of $36,931 in comparison with $47,715 paid to male counterparts.

The Pay Equity Information also stated that working women, particularly colored ones, were undervalued due to sex, and race; the numerous cases filed in several courts in the US could attest to inequality in