Xueting Xia
Women's Rights Music
How does music reflect change in women's role?
origin - after Civil War
After Civil War and the ratification of 13th and 14th Amendment, African Americans were granted equality as U.S. citizens through laws, encouraging feminists in the U.S. to fight for women's equal rights.
Popularity of bicycles in the United States also inspired development of feminism ideas. To ride bicycles, women need to wear pants. The transformation in women's clothes represents change in women's minds.
campaigns - gilded age
Due to industrialization throughout the United States, young women began to work in factories, for example, textile factories, and skyscrapers. With the establishment of economic status, some women started campaigns for equal rights, especially voting rights.
Billy Murray sings - Your Mother's Gone Away to Join the Army - 1913 Victor Record
result
Many states in the West granted women full or limited rights to vote. Furthermore, 19th Amendment was passed by the Congress and ratified by states.
Bessy Smith - Tain't Nobodys Business If I Do (1923)
development - the 1960s and 70s
After working in war industry during WWII, more and more women began to fight for equality at home and in the workplace. Along with African American Civil Rights movement, Women's Rights movement was led by many female figures throughout the country.
you don't own me (1963)
Lesley Gore - You Don't Own Me (lyrics)
respect (1967)
Aretha Franklin - Respect Lyrics
result
Civil Rights Act of 1964 became a significant tool to protect women from sex discrimination. Even though the Equal Right Amendment failed to be ratified, the protection under 14th Amendment to women's rights was recognized and reinforced by the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973). To end sex discrimination, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of women's rights in cases such as Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp. (1971), Reed v. Reed (1971), International Union, UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc. (1991), and United States v. Virginia (1996), protecting equality in job employments.
Contrast - African American Rights Movement
Like women's rights movement, women's rights music started with talking about clothes as a form of transformation, representing change in women's role. However, African American rights music usually talks about Christianity and faith.
Conclusion
The singers or composer of women's right music are usually highly educated women, normally college education, which was not common before the 1950s. Those women led the women's rights campaigns and encouraged more young women to fight for sex discrimination in schools and job positions. This is the reason of the success on women's rights during the 1970s.