The late twentieth century and early twenty-first century witnessed many
groups agitating for equal rights, including women, seniors, the disabled, and gays
and lesbians.
Women
Like African Americans, women have had to struggle to win equal protection
under federal law. The Constitution explicitly gives men power and rights that
were not given to women, including the right to vote.
The First Women’s Movement (1840s–1920s)
In 1848, a group of women met in Seneca Falls, New York, to organize
the suffrage movement. The Seneca Falls activists were
disappointed when the Fifteenth Amendment extended the right to vote to
black men, but not women. Women did not win the right to vote until the
Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920.
The Second Women’s Movement (1960s)
The civil rights movement of the 1950s galvanized many women to create
their own movement for civil rights. Feminism, the movement
that seeks social, political, and legal equality for women, gained strength.
In 1966, several feminists formed the National Organization for Women (NOW)
to promote their goals, including the Equal Rights Amendment.
