Efforts of Women Toward ERA through Chisholm’s Speech

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Women’s Liberal
The women's rights movement in the 1960s and 70s sought equal rights and opportunities for women. While the women's movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries concentrated on women’s legal rights, the 60s and 70s women's movements touched on diverse areas of women, like political participation, working conditions, sexuality, and family life. Women felt it was time for them to participate in societal issues like their male counterparts. Some women activists were at the forefront of fighting for women to attain equal rights. The election of Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American to US Congress in 1969, was a significant step for the women's rights movement. Chisholm’s speech to Congress advocated for an Equal Rights Amendment for women. This paper analyzes the efforts of women toward ERA through Chisholm’s speech.
Chisholm contextualizes the predicaments of African Americans to demonstrate the challenges women face. She notes that society has for a long time discriminated against blacks on the basis that they are inferior. Slavery in the US subjected African Americans to inhuman conditions (Taylor 213). The blacks were seen as an inferior race meant to be farm workers serving the interests of their white masters. Even after the abolishment of slavery, African Americans continued to experience discrimination in essential aspects of society, like education, health, politics, and the economy. Chisholm contextualizes the discrimination that blacks experience and extrapolates it to women. She notes that as a black person, she is no stranger to racial prejudice. However, Chisholm believes that she has experienced more dissemination in the political world because she is a woman than African American (Chisholm).
The speech contains biographical data to emphasize the need to liberate women. Chisholm notes that more than half of the US population is female. This translates to about 3.5 million more women in the US than men. However, only 2% of women occupy managerial positions in the country. Women are also missing in major institutions responsible for US decision-making. For instance, Chisholm indicates that no woman sits on the AFL-CIO council or Supreme Court. So far, only two women have managed to hold Cabinet positions, and the other two hold ambassadorial ranks. Congress has a single women Senator and 10 Representatives (Chisholm). The use of the data serves to demonstrate the underrepresentation of women in the political arena. Chisholm feels that while women make a proportionately higher number in the US, they have no voice on political issues, something...