This article will explore some of the issues that have come to shape the position that women are in today. We will attempt to lightly evaluate whether or not women have an equal standing in the world today, and whether the legal rights of women are enforced.

There are a couple of ways that we can use to evaluate such a complex issue such as this. The first is that we can try to analyse and note the major milestones that provided rights to women, such as constitutional amendments or simply the social atmosphere that produced the results. The second is the role that the judiciary had on the women’s rights movement, how the decisions of the Judges brought about powerful change especially in regards to specific issues – the most widely contested being abortion.

There have been many small victories and progress made over the decades, but all the same the timeline is slow. For example, the concept of women’s suffrage was nothing extraordinary as far back as the 1700s, it could be found in the writings of authors of that period.

Around the same time the demand for women’s voting rights become more articulated. The advocates grew more vocal, and the movement became a widespread issue by the 1820s.

In fact, the first woman to vote was a woman named Lydia Chapin Taft who was granted the right to vote by a Massachusetts Colony in 1756. Following this voting rights were given to women in small, low-population settlements spread out around the country, mainly in Wyoming and Utah.

Despite these largely individual victories it wasn’t until the 1920s that women actually achieved the right in Congress. Congressional ratification finally came 42 years after the proposal was first offered. This was the culmination of a long, intricate and complicated battle with both the powerful institutions which stood in the way, and a general campaign to change the mind-set of a nation.

Perhaps the tipping point was the demonstration by the ‘Silent Sentinels’, who campaigned outside of the White House for 18 months, bringing much publicity to the cause and in turn influencing the opinions of the decision makers. Woodrow Wilson, the President at the time, announced his support of the amendment which greatly aided its movement through the bureaucracy.

However, all was not automatically rectified with the signing of the amendment to the constitution. The Judicial powers would have to decide in favour of the amendment. There were a number of opposing arguments put forth at the case which became the landmark event – Leser v. Garnett (1922). Firstly, they stated that the amendment itself was void – due to the nature of the change to the constitution they claimed it was not legal to change it. Secondly, they argued that a number of the stated that had ratified the amendment actually had contradicting laws in place already in their states – and so it was beyond the power of the court to rule another way. Thirdly, they claimed again that the amendment was void, because the votes of Tennessee and West Virginia were made in violation of legislative procedure established in those states.

Happily, the Court voted in favour of the amendment for a number of reasons. These will be explored in the next article – which can be found here.