Equal Opportunity Has the cultivating of equal opportunity programs helped the people of South Africa, and the people of the United States, move forward? The answer to the question would appear to be obvious -- given that equal opportunities have the potential to make life fair and just for any society. However, the facts do not back up the appearances of "equal opportunities" -- and this paper delves into the question

Elsie Hill defines equality broadly, to include all manner of equal protections under the law and equal access to opportunities and legally ensconced freedoms. According to Hill, women are not entitled to control over their own earnings and even over their own children. Women are also excluded from serving in public office, even though they are taxpayers. Hill calls for the removal of any and all forms of discrimination. The

Equal Rights The one group of people in American society that has been systematically denied equal rights has been women. Women comprise half the population, but only received the right to vote in 1920. Two specific actions that have been taken to help women overcome inequity has been the suffragist movement, which helped lead to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, and also the National Organization for Women (NOW). Second

The true spirit and meaning of the amendments, as we said in the Slaughter-House Cases (16 Wall. 36), cannot be understood without keeping in view the history of the times when they were adopted, and the general objects they plainly sought to accomplish. At the time when they were incorporated into the Constitution, it required little knowledge of human nature to anticipate that those who had long been regarded

This made the United States the only Western nation to criminalize contraception at that time (Time). While women (and men) continued to illegally access birth control, often using devices labeled differently for contraceptive purposes, it would be decades before birth control could be openly used within the United States. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States, but it is shut down in

Amendment XIX Enactment of Amendment XIX and its contribution to the achievement of equal female rights The enactment of the 19th amendment empowered women on many fronts. They were allowed to vote and consequently seized the opportunity to influence political decisions. The enactment saw the legalization of contraception and even abortion. There was economic empowerment too in the process. The more common availability of reproductive services and education doors increasingly opening up,