Women Rights

During the past years United States has experienced economical, population and social growth, as well as family structure, culture, religion and political views have changed. The habitants of thiscountry and the people that immigrate have been the responsible ones for making these changes. One of the greatest changes had been the women’s rights.

At the outset of the century, women could notvote, they had no access to higher education, and they were excluded from professional occupations. American law accepted the principle that a wife had no legal identity apart from her husband (Mintz,2007). She could not make a contract, nor own a property. She was not permitted to control her own wages or gain custody of her children in case of separation or divorce.

According with DaphneSpain the status of women and the nature of cities have changed dramatically since World War II, but it started earlier when Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed in 1869 the National WomanSuffrage Association which the principal goal of the organization was to achieve voting rights for women. By 1918 eighteen states had adopted the 19th amendment.

The families on the United Statesused to be extremely big, each couple had between 4 and 10 children during the periods of the 80’s. As today, the struggle for reproductive control took shape in women's health clinics (Spain, 2011);now the families consist of a smaller amount of members; parents are having between 1-3 children at the most in order to give their family a quality life.

Almost one hundred years earlier, in 1877,the Women's Educational and Industrial Union opened on Boylston Street as a center to promote women's intellectual and economic independence. Elite and middle-class women of the era also sought a rolein urban politics. They

became "municipal housekeepers" who did more than clean up the city the way they cleaned their homes. (Deutsch, 1870-1940) Showing that they could do more than just be at...