Women in the United States
General Statistics | |
---|---|
Maternal mortality (per 100,000) | 14 (2015) |
Women in parliament | 26.7% (2021)[1] |
Women over 25 with secondary education | 95.4% (2015) |
Women in labour force | 56.0% (2015) |
Gender Inequality Index[2] | |
Value | 0.179 (2021) |
Rank | 44th out of 191 |
Global Gender Gap Index[3] | |
Value | 0.769 (2022) |
Rank | 27th out of 146 |
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Women in society |
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The legal status of women in the United States is, in comparison to other countries, equal to that of men, and women are generally viewed as having equal social standing as well. In the early history of the U.S., women were largely relegated to the home. However, the role of women was revolutionized over the course of the 20th century. Labor shortages during WWII led to an influx of women in the workforce, which helped to build toward the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and '70s.
However, there are several major pieces of legislation aimed to bolster women's rights that the United States has never ratified, including the U.N's
History
The earliest women living in what is now the United States
Laws
Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
The United States has never ratified the U.N.'s
Equal Rights Amendment
38 states as of January 2020 have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). [7] Three-fourths or 38 out of 50 states are required to ratify a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Several states originally ratified the ERA, but subsequently rescinded the ratification. Recessions in other amendments have been ignored by the courts.[8] The status of the ERA is currently unclear.[9]
Marriage
Child marriage, as defined by UNICEF, is observed in the United States. The UNICEF definition of child marriage includes couples who are formally married, or who live together as a sexually active couple in an informal union, with at least one member — usually the girl — being less than 18 years old.[10][11] The latter practice is more common in the United States, and it is officially called cohabitation. Laws regarding child marriage vary in the different states of the United States. Generally, children 16 and over may marry with parental consent, with the age of 18 being the minimum in all but two states to marry without parental consent. Those under 16 generally require a court order in addition to parental consent.[12]
Parental leave
The United States is the only high income country not to provide required paid parental leave.[13]
Reproductive rights
Birth control is legal nationwide as of 1965.[14][15] Abortion was made legal nationwide as of 1973, with states allowed to place regulations on abortion which fall short of prohibition after the first trimester of pregnancy.[16][17] On June 25, 2022, the guarantee of a right to abortion under 25 weeks of life was revoked by the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade.[18] This decision left abortion largely to states to regulate, leading to a flood of legislation from states seeking to restrict the procedure. Many of those states have made a point of pushing the limits of the Dobbs decision in hopes of banning the procedure at as early a gestational age as possible and to encourage further judicial action to enshrine pro-life values.[19] There have been a myriad of legal challenges, as well as a push to protect abortion at both the state and federal levels.[20]
Representation in government
President and Vice President
A woman has never been President of the United States. Kamala Harris is the first woman to become Vice President of the United States, in 2021.
United States House of Representatives
The first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives was in 1917, Jeannette Rankin, who represented Montana. Women who served before her were finishing someone else's term who died in office or had resigned.[21]
In 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as Speaker. In 2019 she was again elected Speaker for the 2nd time (55th) and the first former Speaker to return to the position since 1955. As Speaker, Pelosi was the second highest ranking female elected official and second in the presidential line of succession.
As of 2021, there are 119 women of 435 total in the U.S. House of Representatives, 88 Democrats, 31 Republicans.[1]
United States Senate
In its first 130 years in existence, the Senate was entirely male. In 1931,
Presidential Cabinet
In 1933
The 1970s would see several women appointed for the first time in cabinet positions such as
In the 1980s, Elizabeth Dole was appointed United States Secretary of Transportation in 1983. Elaine Chao would become third woman and first Asian American to hold this position in 2017. Susan Engeleiter was appointed the head of the Small Business Administration in 1989.
In the 1993, Janet Reno as United States Attorney General and Sheila Widnall as United States Secretary of the Air Force were the first women appointed to their positions. Three women have served as United States Secretary of State. The first was Madeleine Albright in 1997. In 2005 Condoleezza Rice became the second woman and first person of color to serve in this position. She was succeeded by former First Lady of the United States and U.S. Senator, Hillary Clinton in 2009.
Ann Veneman as United States Secretary of Agriculture, Gale Norton, United States Secretary of the Interior and Susan Livingstone, United States Secretary of the Navy were all the first women appointed to their positions in 2001 and 2003 respectively.
Janet Napolitano became the first woman to be appointed United States Secretary of Homeland Security in 2009 and Gina Haspel was the first woman appointed Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2018.
United States Supreme Court
On the Supreme Court, there are three women justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett. The first woman justice was Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 followed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
State and local governments
As of 2021, there are 9 women state governors, 6 Democrats, 3 Republicans; there are 17 Lt. Governors, 10 Democrats, 7 Republicans. Women hold 31.0% of the seats on state legislatures. Of the 100 largest cities in the United States, 31 have a woman as mayor.[1]
Twenty-one state supreme courts (the highest state court) are currently or have been majority female.[6][12]
Desire to leave the United States
According to a Gallup poll from January 2019, 40 percent of women under the age of 30 would like to leave the United States, with most preferring Canada as a place to live for a better life.[22]
Rankings
Gender equality ranking
As of 2021, the United States is ranked 30th of 156 applicable countries in gender equality on the
Statistics
Education
As of 2014, women in the United States earn more post-secondary (college and graduate school) degrees than men do.[24]
Marriage
As of 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available, average
Workforce
As of 2014, women are 46.5% of the total United States workforce.[26]
Sex discrimination has been outlawed in non-ministerial employment in the United States since 1964 nationwide; however, under a judicially created doctrine called the "ministerial exemption," religious organizations are immune from sex discrimination suits brought by "ministerial employees," a category that includes such religious roles as priests, imams or kosher supervisors.[27][28]
A woman's median salary in the United States has increased over time, although as of 2014 it is only 77% of man's median salary, a phenomenon often referred to as the Gender Pay Gap. (A woman's average salary is reported as 84% of a man's average salary.)[29][30] Whether this is due to discrimination is very hotly disputed, while economists and sociologists have provided evidence both supporting[31][32][33] and debunking[34][35] this assertion.
Reproductive health
Violence
Violence against women has been recognized as a public health concern in the United States.[39] Culture in the country has promoted the trivialization of women-directed violence, with media in the United States creating the appearance of violence against women unimportant to the public.[40]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Justice reports that about 1 in every 4 women suffer from at least one physical assault experience from a partner during adulthood.[41] Studies have found that around 20% of women in the United States have been victims of rape[42][43] with many incidents of rape being underreported according to a 2013 study.[44]
In 2017, the United States was ranked the world's 9th safest country for women by the New World Wealth research group.[45]
See also
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
References
- ^ a b c d "Women in Elective Office 2021". Center for American Women in Politics, Rutgers University. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- ^ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
- ^ Baldez, Lisa (8 March 2013). "U.S. drops the ball on women's rights". cnn.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "cedaw2014.org – Just another WordPress site". cedaw2014.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ a b "cedaw2014.org – Just another WordPress site". cedaw2014.org. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ Chappell, Bill (2020-01-15). "Virginia Ratifies The Equal Rights Amendment, Decades After The Deadline". NPR. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "D.C. Court Questions Ability to Advance Equal Rights Amendment". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ Child Marriage UNICEF (2011)
- ^ Child Marriage ICRW (2010)
- ^ a b www.usmarriagelaws.com
- ^ "In Paid Family Leave, U.S. Trails Most of the Globe". New York Times. February 22, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
- ^ "Griswold v. Connecticut, The Impact of Legal Birth Control and the Challenges that Remain". Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Katharine Dexter McCormick Library. May 2000. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ Dunlap, Bridgette (March 22, 2013). "Eisenstadt v. Baird: The 41st Anniversary of Legal Contraception for Single People". RH Reality Check. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ "Roe v. Wade". Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
- ^ "Abortion Rate in 1994 Hit a 20-Year Low". The New York Times. January 5, 1997. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ "DOBBS, STATE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH ORGANIZATION ET AL" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-08-20.
- ^ "Abortion Laws by State". Center for Reproductive Rights. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- ^ McCammon, Sarah (May 7, 2023). "Jonathan Mitchell, the legal mind behind the Texas abortion ban". NPR. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
- National Public Radio. March 21, 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
- ^ "Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S." Gallup. 2019-01-14. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
- ^ "India Slides, US Gains in Gender Equality Ranking". ABC News.
- ^ "Mitch McConnell says more women graduate from college than men do". PolitiFact. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ^ "Getting Married Later Is Great for College-Educated Women - Eleanor Barkhorn". The Atlantic. 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ^ "Aug 2014 Diversity Jobs Report: Women Make Up 46.5% of Workforce - WCC Blog". blog.womenscareerchannel.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Featured Document: The 19th Amendment". Archives.gov. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
- ^ Caroline Mala Corbin (2007). "Above the Law? The Constitutionality of the Ministerial Exemption from Antidiscrimination Law". Fordham Law Review, Volume 75, Issue 4, Article 3. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ^ "Barack Obama, in State of the Union, says women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns". politifact.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Laura (April 20, 2010). "Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men?". Time. Archived from the original on April 22, 2010.
- ISBN 0465044549.
- ^ "Office of the White House, Council of Economic Advisors, 1998, IV. Discrimination". Clinton4.nara.gov. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
- ^ "Levine, Report for Congress, "The Gender Gap and Pay Equity: Is Comparable Worth the Next Step?", Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 2003" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-07-20.
- ^ Sommers, Christina Hoff (February 1, 2014). "No, Women DON'T Make Less Money than Men". The Daily Beast.
- ^ Biggs, Andrew G., Perry, Mark J. (April 7, 2014). "The '77 Cents on the Dollar' Myth About Women's Pay". The Wall Street Journal.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ S2CID 144004991.
- PMID 19072728.
- PMID 22698638.
- S2CID 20376803.
- S2CID 143452062.
- ^ The Violence Against Women Act of 2005, Summary of Provisions. National Network to End Domestic Violence. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- ^ Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey. (PDF) . Retrieved on 2011-10-01.
- ^ Kilpatrick, Dean G.; Resnick, Heidi S.; Ruggiero, Kenneth J.; Conoscenti, Lauren M.; McCauley, Jenna (July 2007). "Drug-facilitated, Incapacitated, and Forcible Rape: A National Study" (PDF). National Criminal Justice Reference Service. United States Department of Justice. pp. 43–45. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ National Research Council. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2013.
- ^ Pash, Chris. "The 10 safest countries in the world for women". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
Further reading
- Rosenau, William (2019). Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol: The Explosive Story of M19, America's First Female Terrorist Group. New York: ISBN 978-1501170126.