Gender Inequality in Government and Law
Bryce Leung
010721464
Gender Inequality in the Government and Law In terms of social geography, humankind has come a long way from its roots. Since the beginning of time, males were selected by default to be the dominant gender, but the empowerment of women signifies the first movement of society where the “natural” order of things are questioned. By examining modern government and law, one can easily see that although we have just recently started eliminating social prejudice between males and females, women have not yet found equality. In 1776, fifty-six delegates signed the single most democratizing piece of paper. Yet, despite this major impact that this document made upon United States of America, the Declaration of Independence was still gendered, which ultimately crusaded the biased attitudes towards females in the latter years. An example of how the Declaration of Independence is gendered is the language it uses only applied to males. For example, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, the all men are created equal...” This is obviously gendered in the fact that the document does not specifically include women. The Declaration of Independence declared freedom for many humans, it did not specifically include women, but rather only included males in the equation. In 1848, a group of people (mostly females), first challenged this flaw. Although it was never ratified, the “Equal Rights Amendment” of 1848 pushed for the Constitution to include “equality of rights...shall not be denied or abridged by United States on account of sex”. It wasn't until 1971, that the Supreme Court finally declared any law discriminating against women was unconstitutional. Among citizen obligations, taxation is one that has been very controversial throughout many decades. “No Taxation Without Representation”. One of the most famous slogans originated during the 1750s illustrated the upset of British colonists in the thirteen colonies against government greed. This
010721464
Gender Inequality in the Government and Law In terms of social geography, humankind has come a long way from its roots. Since the beginning of time, males were selected by default to be the dominant gender, but the empowerment of women signifies the first movement of society where the “natural” order of things are questioned. By examining modern government and law, one can easily see that although we have just recently started eliminating social prejudice between males and females, women have not yet found equality. In 1776, fifty-six delegates signed the single most democratizing piece of paper. Yet, despite this major impact that this document made upon United States of America, the Declaration of Independence was still gendered, which ultimately crusaded the biased attitudes towards females in the latter years. An example of how the Declaration of Independence is gendered is the language it uses only applied to males. For example, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, the all men are created equal...” This is obviously gendered in the fact that the document does not specifically include women. The Declaration of Independence declared freedom for many humans, it did not specifically include women, but rather only included males in the equation. In 1848, a group of people (mostly females), first challenged this flaw. Although it was never ratified, the “Equal Rights Amendment” of 1848 pushed for the Constitution to include “equality of rights...shall not be denied or abridged by United States on account of sex”. It wasn't until 1971, that the Supreme Court finally declared any law discriminating against women was unconstitutional. Among citizen obligations, taxation is one that has been very controversial throughout many decades. “No Taxation Without Representation”. One of the most famous slogans originated during the 1750s illustrated the upset of British colonists in the thirteen colonies against government greed. This