26. 21st century women
The events of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath reshaped American society, sparking intense political, cultural, and gender-related shifts. The War on Terror intensified domestic divisions, from rising Islamophobia to backlash against dissenting voices like the Dixie Chicks, highlighting tensions between patriotism and freedom of expression. Women played pivotal roles in both political and cultural arenas, from Hillary Clinton's leadership as Secretary of State to the growth of feminist activism in media, exemplified by shows like Sex and the City. While women broke barriers in politics, business, and security—such as the takedown of Osama bin Laden led by female analysts—their struggles for equality continued, as seen in the fight for equal pay, exemplified by Lilly Ledbetter, and the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter. Legal and cultural shifts, including Title IX reforms and the push for justice in campus sexual assault cases, underscored the evolving role of women in shaping the nation's discourse on gender, justice, and power
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September 11, 2001 and the War on Terror:
The new millennium began with a day of terror for Americans and our allies abroad. For more than a decade, tension in the Middle East had mounted after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August of 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War. The events of September 11, 2001 revealed that the United States was vulnerable to individual acts of terrorism. On that morning, chief flight attendant Betty Ann Ong boarded American Airlines flight 11 for a routine trip from Boston to Los Angeles. When she lost contact with the cockpit, she called her airline and delivered the first to alert that something was terribly wrong on board her flight. Her 23-minute recording in which she reported the details of the hijacking is a reminder of the terror of the moment. Most Americans were unaware of this terrorist act until Ong’s plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46am. This was the first horrific event in one of the most catastrophic days in American history.
A second plane hit the South Tower at 9:03 am. As many fled the burning buildings and smoke, firefighters and emergency responders rushed towards the scene. At 9:59 the South tower collapsed. At 9:37 am, American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing 125 people on the ground and 64 people on the plane, including a small group of students and a three-year-old girl. Flights throughout the country were grounded.
United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco was flying over Pennsylvania when passengers retook the cockpit and crashed the plane into a field, preventing it from being used as a weapon. It’s unclear, but many suspected the plane was intended for the White House.Courageous passengers gathered in the back of the plane where they formulated a plan. CeeCee Lyles, who was a former cop and a flight attendant, was among those who helped to foil the hijackers’ plan. Elizabeth Wainio was on the phone with her mom. Her last words were, “Mom, they’re rushing the cockpit. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
At 10:28am the North Tower fell. By the end of the day, 2,977 Americans were dead while the world watched in horror. In the aftermath of the attacks, many women police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics were active in the effort to recover and identify remains. Subjected to toxic fumes as they worked on “the pile,,” women were among those who suffered long-term health challenges, including fatal cancers.
War was not inevitable. Osama bin Laden and his extremist group, Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks and went into hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was one of the only women in the decision room in the aftermath of 9/11. She later recalled, a meeting about the US response at Camp David, and said:
“something that I remember most about the Camp David meeting was when we put the map out on the table, you look at the map, you look at Afghanistan and you look where it is -- I think the color kind of drained from everybody's faces, because [of] the stories of British defeats in Afghanistan, and Soviet defeats in Afghanistan, not to mention the potential for instability in Pakistan. It sits there on the Iranian border. We have no relations with Iran. States like Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. I think everybody thought, ‘Of all of the places to have to fight a war, Afghanistan would not be our choice.’ But we didn't choose Afghanistan; Afghanistan chose us.”
The new millennium began with a day of terror for Americans and our allies abroad. For more than a decade, tension in the Middle East had mounted after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August of 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War. The events of September 11, 2001 revealed that the United States was vulnerable to individual acts of terrorism. On that morning, chief flight attendant Betty Ann Ong boarded American Airlines flight 11 for a routine trip from Boston to Los Angeles. When she lost contact with the cockpit, she called her airline and delivered the first to alert that something was terribly wrong on board her flight. Her 23-minute recording in which she reported the details of the hijacking is a reminder of the terror of the moment. Most Americans were unaware of this terrorist act until Ong’s plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46am. This was the first horrific event in one of the most catastrophic days in American history.
A second plane hit the South Tower at 9:03 am. As many fled the burning buildings and smoke, firefighters and emergency responders rushed towards the scene. At 9:59 the South tower collapsed. At 9:37 am, American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing 125 people on the ground and 64 people on the plane, including a small group of students and a three-year-old girl. Flights throughout the country were grounded.
United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco was flying over Pennsylvania when passengers retook the cockpit and crashed the plane into a field, preventing it from being used as a weapon. It’s unclear, but many suspected the plane was intended for the White House.Courageous passengers gathered in the back of the plane where they formulated a plan. CeeCee Lyles, who was a former cop and a flight attendant, was among those who helped to foil the hijackers’ plan. Elizabeth Wainio was on the phone with her mom. Her last words were, “Mom, they’re rushing the cockpit. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
At 10:28am the North Tower fell. By the end of the day, 2,977 Americans were dead while the world watched in horror. In the aftermath of the attacks, many women police officers, fire fighters, and paramedics were active in the effort to recover and identify remains. Subjected to toxic fumes as they worked on “the pile,,” women were among those who suffered long-term health challenges, including fatal cancers.
War was not inevitable. Osama bin Laden and his extremist group, Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks and went into hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was one of the only women in the decision room in the aftermath of 9/11. She later recalled, a meeting about the US response at Camp David, and said:
“something that I remember most about the Camp David meeting was when we put the map out on the table, you look at the map, you look at Afghanistan and you look where it is -- I think the color kind of drained from everybody's faces, because [of] the stories of British defeats in Afghanistan, and Soviet defeats in Afghanistan, not to mention the potential for instability in Pakistan. It sits there on the Iranian border. We have no relations with Iran. States like Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. I think everybody thought, ‘Of all of the places to have to fight a war, Afghanistan would not be our choice.’ But we didn't choose Afghanistan; Afghanistan chose us.”

President Bush was prepared to go after any nation that harbored extremists, and despite little evidence, put Iraq on his list. In 2002, Women Against War was established by a collective of women from the Capital District who strongly believed in the necessity of taking a stand against the U.S. government's intention to engage in war with Iraq. Their impassioned plea for action garnered widespread support from hundreds of local women, all dedicated to raising their voices and opposing violence.
As America mourned, artists took to song. Some sang their patriotism, rallied Americans together, while others advocated for peace. Music generally split down party and gender lines with a significant urban and rural divide. The Dixie Chicks, a popular female country band from Texas, faced backlash from their fans after their lead singer, Natalie Maines, stated in 2003 that she was ashamed that Bush was from Texas. At that point they were the most popular female band in country music with two consecutive diamond-certified albums. Fans boycotted the Dixie Chicks across the country, burning their CDs and demanding that radio stations not play their music. The Dixie Chicks responded in 2006 with the song "Not Ready to Make Nice" which reflected on their frustration with their fans. The song hit the fourth position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Dixie Chicks dropped the word Dixie from their name after the death of George Floyd in 2020 as a way of distancing themselves from the implied racism in the word Dixie.
9/11 rallied Americans together, but this also created rampant islamophobia. Muslims from the middle east had been immigrating in greater numbers in the later half of the 20th century. By 9/11 an estimated 1 million people had immigrated to the US from Muslim majority countries. For many Muslim-American women, their religious beliefs were on display everywhere they went because of the practice of wearing a hijab, or headscarf, in Islamic tradition. After 9/11 the scarf made Muslim women targets of public commentary, ridicule, and violence. Women had their hijabs forcibly ripped from their heads by strangers on the street. Religious centers, called mosques, had to build fences and hire security to protect the faithful in the years after the attacks and while the US fought the “wars on terror” due to domestic, anti-Muslim terrorists. An American immigrant, Omar, recalled how her neighbors stopped talking to her and “everything around you made you feel that you didn’t belong here.”
The war in Afghanistan opened up opportunities for women in military service. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 300,000 American women served in the War on Terror. According to the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), 166 women lost their lives in combat operations, and over 1,000 were wounded during their deployments. At the start of the conflicts, women were still officially barred from serving in ground combat roles. However, the nature of the conflict—with shifting frontlines and frequent insurgent attacks, women regularly came under enemy fire but also returned fire.
Notably, other women like Ann Dunwoody became the first female four star general in military history in 2008. Leigh Anne Hester became the first woman to earn a silver star in combat and the first woman in American history to be cited for valor in combat. During a supply convoy route scanning and clearing operation, Hester's squad encountered an attack from enemy insurgents. In response, Hester effectively guided her team and then engaged in direct combat on foot, resulting in the elimination of at least three insurgents. The intense confrontation ultimately led to the killing or injury of 33 insurgents, with one being captured, while all members of her unit survived.
Women were essential to the strategy in the War on Terror. Prevailing gender norms in the Middle East meant that women were not perceived as a threat, therefore women diplomats and intelligence agents were incredibly successful in extracting crucial information for the war effort. Lory Manning, a retired naval captain explained that, “with the cultural differences… if you were going to search a [local] woman, it had to be done by another woman. If you were going to get the sort of intelligence you could get by talking to the local people, our men couldn’t talk to the local women. Our women could talk to both the men and women.” Despite their contributions, many faced significant challenges, including ill-fitting gear designed for male bodies which made them regularly choose between function and full protection.
As America mourned, artists took to song. Some sang their patriotism, rallied Americans together, while others advocated for peace. Music generally split down party and gender lines with a significant urban and rural divide. The Dixie Chicks, a popular female country band from Texas, faced backlash from their fans after their lead singer, Natalie Maines, stated in 2003 that she was ashamed that Bush was from Texas. At that point they were the most popular female band in country music with two consecutive diamond-certified albums. Fans boycotted the Dixie Chicks across the country, burning their CDs and demanding that radio stations not play their music. The Dixie Chicks responded in 2006 with the song "Not Ready to Make Nice" which reflected on their frustration with their fans. The song hit the fourth position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Dixie Chicks dropped the word Dixie from their name after the death of George Floyd in 2020 as a way of distancing themselves from the implied racism in the word Dixie.
9/11 rallied Americans together, but this also created rampant islamophobia. Muslims from the middle east had been immigrating in greater numbers in the later half of the 20th century. By 9/11 an estimated 1 million people had immigrated to the US from Muslim majority countries. For many Muslim-American women, their religious beliefs were on display everywhere they went because of the practice of wearing a hijab, or headscarf, in Islamic tradition. After 9/11 the scarf made Muslim women targets of public commentary, ridicule, and violence. Women had their hijabs forcibly ripped from their heads by strangers on the street. Religious centers, called mosques, had to build fences and hire security to protect the faithful in the years after the attacks and while the US fought the “wars on terror” due to domestic, anti-Muslim terrorists. An American immigrant, Omar, recalled how her neighbors stopped talking to her and “everything around you made you feel that you didn’t belong here.”
The war in Afghanistan opened up opportunities for women in military service. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 300,000 American women served in the War on Terror. According to the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), 166 women lost their lives in combat operations, and over 1,000 were wounded during their deployments. At the start of the conflicts, women were still officially barred from serving in ground combat roles. However, the nature of the conflict—with shifting frontlines and frequent insurgent attacks, women regularly came under enemy fire but also returned fire.
Notably, other women like Ann Dunwoody became the first female four star general in military history in 2008. Leigh Anne Hester became the first woman to earn a silver star in combat and the first woman in American history to be cited for valor in combat. During a supply convoy route scanning and clearing operation, Hester's squad encountered an attack from enemy insurgents. In response, Hester effectively guided her team and then engaged in direct combat on foot, resulting in the elimination of at least three insurgents. The intense confrontation ultimately led to the killing or injury of 33 insurgents, with one being captured, while all members of her unit survived.
Women were essential to the strategy in the War on Terror. Prevailing gender norms in the Middle East meant that women were not perceived as a threat, therefore women diplomats and intelligence agents were incredibly successful in extracting crucial information for the war effort. Lory Manning, a retired naval captain explained that, “with the cultural differences… if you were going to search a [local] woman, it had to be done by another woman. If you were going to get the sort of intelligence you could get by talking to the local people, our men couldn’t talk to the local women. Our women could talk to both the men and women.” Despite their contributions, many faced significant challenges, including ill-fitting gear designed for male bodies which made them regularly choose between function and full protection.

The Bush Era:
The Bush administration's domestic approach to the wars was to discourage dissent and to get the press in line. The press were pressured to hide images of dead enemy civilians, women, and children at the end of the newspaper where they were less likely to be seen. The aim was to keep Americans united against the war effort. Yet, questions were mounting. The pressure on the press to provide independent journalism all while being patriotic reached fever pitch. Helen Thompson made history in 1961 as the first woman in the White House Press Corps, a group of reporters that follow and report on the president. By 2003, she was a veteran reporter known for her blunt and persistent questioning. The Bush administration’s press secretary, Dana Perino, moved Thomas to the back row during press conferences where she was still called upon, but less frequently. She explained that the change in her treatment came from the fervor around the war, adding, “They didn't like me. . . . I ask too many mean questions.” Thomas was reprimanded by Perino at a conference in 2007 for implying that the US was killing too many innocents. She did not back down, rebutting by asking if the secretary even knew how many Iraqi civilians had been killed by the US. The exchange went like this:
“Thomas: Do you know how many we have (killed) since the start of this war?
Perino: How many -- we are going after the enemy, Helen. To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it.
Thomas: Oh, regret? It doesn't bring back a life.
Perino: Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing.”
If the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not already controversial, the domestic front also left a complicated legacy for George W. Bush where America was rattled by Hurricane Katrina which struck Lousianna and surrounding areas the hardest. To better understand the experiences of women, particularly those of low-income status, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research conducted a five-year study across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The research revealed that women were at greater risk during and after the disaster due to various factors, including poverty. At the time, 25.9% of women in New Orleans lived below the poverty line, compared to 20% of men, limiting resources for evacuation or survival. Many women living in public housing lacked access to vehicles and relied on walking or public transportation, which became inaccessible after the flooding. Women also faced challenges related to caregiving responsibilities, unstable housing conditions, pregnancy, and mobility limitations. Furthermore, women, who constitute a greater proportion of the elderly, were particularly vulnerable when hospitals failed to evacuate.
Gender-based violence significantly increased in the aftermath of Katrina, with incidents such as sexual assault and domestic violence becoming more prevalent, especially among displaced women in shelters and temporary housing. In Mississippi, for instance, the rate of gender-based violence rose from 4.6 per 100,000 per day at the time of the hurricane to 16.3 per 100,000 per day a year later. These findings highlighted the compounded risks women faced during and after disasters, emphasizing the need for intersectional approaches to disaster preparedness and response.
The final months of Bush's presidency were dominated by a severe stock market crash, a controversial bailout of financial institutions and automotive companies, and a deep recession that caused widespread job losses and had lasting effects on the U.S. economy. This crisis, like others, disproportionately impacted women who saw higher unemployment rates, increased economic insecurity, and a greater burden of unpaid care work. As women lost jobs in heavily hit industries like hospitality and retail, they also disproportionately faced challenges related to accessing credit and housing due to gender-based disparities in lending practices. Some began to refer to the recession as the "shecession."
The Bush administration's domestic approach to the wars was to discourage dissent and to get the press in line. The press were pressured to hide images of dead enemy civilians, women, and children at the end of the newspaper where they were less likely to be seen. The aim was to keep Americans united against the war effort. Yet, questions were mounting. The pressure on the press to provide independent journalism all while being patriotic reached fever pitch. Helen Thompson made history in 1961 as the first woman in the White House Press Corps, a group of reporters that follow and report on the president. By 2003, she was a veteran reporter known for her blunt and persistent questioning. The Bush administration’s press secretary, Dana Perino, moved Thomas to the back row during press conferences where she was still called upon, but less frequently. She explained that the change in her treatment came from the fervor around the war, adding, “They didn't like me. . . . I ask too many mean questions.” Thomas was reprimanded by Perino at a conference in 2007 for implying that the US was killing too many innocents. She did not back down, rebutting by asking if the secretary even knew how many Iraqi civilians had been killed by the US. The exchange went like this:
“Thomas: Do you know how many we have (killed) since the start of this war?
Perino: How many -- we are going after the enemy, Helen. To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it.
Thomas: Oh, regret? It doesn't bring back a life.
Perino: Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing.”
If the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not already controversial, the domestic front also left a complicated legacy for George W. Bush where America was rattled by Hurricane Katrina which struck Lousianna and surrounding areas the hardest. To better understand the experiences of women, particularly those of low-income status, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research conducted a five-year study across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The research revealed that women were at greater risk during and after the disaster due to various factors, including poverty. At the time, 25.9% of women in New Orleans lived below the poverty line, compared to 20% of men, limiting resources for evacuation or survival. Many women living in public housing lacked access to vehicles and relied on walking or public transportation, which became inaccessible after the flooding. Women also faced challenges related to caregiving responsibilities, unstable housing conditions, pregnancy, and mobility limitations. Furthermore, women, who constitute a greater proportion of the elderly, were particularly vulnerable when hospitals failed to evacuate.
Gender-based violence significantly increased in the aftermath of Katrina, with incidents such as sexual assault and domestic violence becoming more prevalent, especially among displaced women in shelters and temporary housing. In Mississippi, for instance, the rate of gender-based violence rose from 4.6 per 100,000 per day at the time of the hurricane to 16.3 per 100,000 per day a year later. These findings highlighted the compounded risks women faced during and after disasters, emphasizing the need for intersectional approaches to disaster preparedness and response.
The final months of Bush's presidency were dominated by a severe stock market crash, a controversial bailout of financial institutions and automotive companies, and a deep recession that caused widespread job losses and had lasting effects on the U.S. economy. This crisis, like others, disproportionately impacted women who saw higher unemployment rates, increased economic insecurity, and a greater burden of unpaid care work. As women lost jobs in heavily hit industries like hospitality and retail, they also disproportionately faced challenges related to accessing credit and housing due to gender-based disparities in lending practices. Some began to refer to the recession as the "shecession."

Women in the Obama Era:
In 2008, after eight years of president George W. Bush and controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that had no end in sight, America headed into a presidential election. In Democratic primaries Obama won against the favorite: Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and then Senator from New York. Pollsters and pundits had expected Clinton to win because of her name recognition, experience, and years in the public spotlight, but Obama won the Democratic nomination. He was a youthful, charismatic politician, and a natural leader. Obama selected Joe Biden to be his running mate.
Sarah Palin of Alaska was selected as vice presidential candidate alongside former Vietnam War POW and Senator from Arizona, John McCain in his bid for the presidency. Palin became the second woman to be nominated as vice president and the first Republican woman. As governor of Alaska, Palin had substantial executive experience, but she also made several missteps in their campaign that hurt the team election day. Palin’s brand of Republicanism and her campaign of faith and guns was a precursor to the rhetorical style of the conservative Tea Party that brought radical conservatism to American politics starting in 2009 just after Obama’s election.
The 2008 financial crisis and the election of America’s first Black president contributed to the rise of the Tea Party movement on the political right. The Tea Party movement was initially dismissed as dominated by "angry white men," yet women were the majority of the movement and played critical roles in the national leadership. Jenny Beth Martin, Rebecca Wales, and Darla Dawald became prominent figures driven by concerns about healthcare, family finances, and government spending. Women’s activism within the movement has drawn parallels to earlier historical moments when women organized outside traditional political structures, providing them with direct influence.
Obama created a presidency led by a coalition of Democratic leaders and appointed his former rival, Hillary Clinton, in the top cabinet position: Secretary of State, only the third woman to ever hold the role. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State was marked by significant achievements and challenges, solidifying her place in history. Among her most notable contributions were her advocacy for women's rights, her role in international diplomacy, and her efforts to address global crises. She supported the 2011 U.S. intervention in Libya, which helped oust Moammar Gadhafi but left lasting instability, and played a key part in opening diplomatic relations with Myanmar after decades of isolation. Clinton also facilitated ceasefire negotiations in the 2012 Gaza conflict, imposed sanctions on Iran, and worked to isolate Syria’s Assad regime. Her leadership extended to resolving a crisis involving Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and advancing U.S. foreign policy during critical moments.
One of the most important moments of the Obama presidency and the War on Terror happened under Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State: SEAL Team 6 terminated Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, after a decade-long hunt. Over that decade, female analysts led and dominated the ranks of the CIA unit known as “Alec Station” which focused on locating bin Laden– at one point the entire unit was female. These women followed the clues that led to the first capture of a major al Qaeda target: Abu Zubaydah. Then again they located and orchestrated the assassination of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. They also played central roles in interrogations, sometimes employing controversial techniques, and led efforts to establish “black sites” for detaining terror suspects. Figures like Jennifer Matthews, who tragically died in a 2009 al Qaeda attack in Afghanistan, showcased the intense dedication, encyclopedic knowledge, and unique perspective women brought to intelligence work. Despite their successes, some women faced criticism and institutional resistance, yet their impact on U.S. intelligence remains profound, with women continuing to hold key positions in counterterrorism and national security.
Although women had been operational in combat roles throughout the conflict, the US did not lift the official ban until 2013 under Obama. The ban had stigmatized women’s contributions making them feel they constantly had to earn their place despite multiple deployments and years in service. As veterans, women often didn’t claim their benefits because of prevailing stereotypes and perceptions of what a veteran looked like.
Sexual assault and harassment was epidemic for female service members. A report suggests that official government estimates likely understate the prevalence of sexual assault in the military by two to four times. Drawing on a comparison between independent data and statistics from the U.S. Department of Defense, with over 70,000 cases annually. During the war in Afghanistan, an average of 24 percent of active-duty women and 1.9 percent of active-duty men reported experiencing sexual assault. The report emphasizes that gender inequality is most severe for women of color, who face compounded racism and sexism as one of the fastest-growing demographics in the military. It also highlights that queer and transgender service members face a disproportionately high risk of sexual assault, as confirmed by independent data.
The military made efforts to improve the situation by mandating sexual assault prevention training, but this had mixed results in large part due to the way conservative politicians pushed back on these progressive efforts that amounted to more women in the military. Politicians complained of the “emasculation” of the military as it opened doors to women, lesbian, and trans people. These issues only became worse as the war continued and American politics became even more polarized.
Women made strides in politics everywhere during the early 21st century, but in no state was this more obvious than New Hampshire. In 2012, it became the first state have all five executive posts filled by women: Maggie Hassan became the second woman to serve as governor of the state, Jean Shaheen was formerly the first female Governor of New Hampshire and then serving as Democratic senator; the former Attorney General, Kelly Ayotte was a Republican senator for New Hampshire; two Democrats, Annie Kuster and Carol Shea Porter, represented the state in the house of representatives. Each of these women had long careers in politics.
Barack Obama appointed Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina justice on the Court and a strong voice for women’s rights. Kagan became the first Justice in decades to join the Court without prior judicial experience. Her confirmation marked a significant moment as she brought a unique perspective shaped by her background as U.S. Solicitor General and Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan is widely regarded as a liberal voice on the Court, consistently supporting landmark decisions on issues such as the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage, gun control, and voting rights. She has also stood out for her accessible and clear judicial writing, emphasizing language that the general public can understand. Her occasional use of humor, such as Spider-Man references in a patent case, has further set her apart, making her opinions among the most distinctive on the bench.
Sonia Sotomayor's tenure on the Supreme Court has been marked by her vigorous participation in oral arguments, impassioned dissents, and a strong commitment to justice in areas such as civil liberties, privacy rights, and social equity. In her early days on the Court, she dissented in Citizens United v. FEC, questioning the legal basis of corporate personhood, and later authored key opinions like her dissent in Berghuis v. Thompkins, which upheld Miranda rights. Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a reliable member of the Court's liberal bloc, often aligning with Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan, and has been noted for her sharp critiques of rulings that, in her view, undermine constitutional protections for marginalized groups. Her opinions, such as those in United States v. Jones advocating for modernized Fourth Amendment protections, reflect a forward-thinking approach to civil rights in the digital age. Despite occasional ideological alliances with conservative justices, Sotomayor remains a steadfast advocate for justice reform, privacy rights, and the protection of vulnerable populations, securing her legacy as one of the Court's most distinct and impactful voices.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in her golden age in the early 2000s as a Supreme Court Justice having been confirmed during the Clinton administration. It was then she began writing famous dissents. A dissent is when a justice disagrees with the overall decision of the other justices and writes their legal argument and perspective for future generations to use. She became an iconic figure for progressives writing legal arguments to be used long after her death.
In 2008, after eight years of president George W. Bush and controversial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that had no end in sight, America headed into a presidential election. In Democratic primaries Obama won against the favorite: Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and then Senator from New York. Pollsters and pundits had expected Clinton to win because of her name recognition, experience, and years in the public spotlight, but Obama won the Democratic nomination. He was a youthful, charismatic politician, and a natural leader. Obama selected Joe Biden to be his running mate.
Sarah Palin of Alaska was selected as vice presidential candidate alongside former Vietnam War POW and Senator from Arizona, John McCain in his bid for the presidency. Palin became the second woman to be nominated as vice president and the first Republican woman. As governor of Alaska, Palin had substantial executive experience, but she also made several missteps in their campaign that hurt the team election day. Palin’s brand of Republicanism and her campaign of faith and guns was a precursor to the rhetorical style of the conservative Tea Party that brought radical conservatism to American politics starting in 2009 just after Obama’s election.
The 2008 financial crisis and the election of America’s first Black president contributed to the rise of the Tea Party movement on the political right. The Tea Party movement was initially dismissed as dominated by "angry white men," yet women were the majority of the movement and played critical roles in the national leadership. Jenny Beth Martin, Rebecca Wales, and Darla Dawald became prominent figures driven by concerns about healthcare, family finances, and government spending. Women’s activism within the movement has drawn parallels to earlier historical moments when women organized outside traditional political structures, providing them with direct influence.
Obama created a presidency led by a coalition of Democratic leaders and appointed his former rival, Hillary Clinton, in the top cabinet position: Secretary of State, only the third woman to ever hold the role. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State was marked by significant achievements and challenges, solidifying her place in history. Among her most notable contributions were her advocacy for women's rights, her role in international diplomacy, and her efforts to address global crises. She supported the 2011 U.S. intervention in Libya, which helped oust Moammar Gadhafi but left lasting instability, and played a key part in opening diplomatic relations with Myanmar after decades of isolation. Clinton also facilitated ceasefire negotiations in the 2012 Gaza conflict, imposed sanctions on Iran, and worked to isolate Syria’s Assad regime. Her leadership extended to resolving a crisis involving Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and advancing U.S. foreign policy during critical moments.
One of the most important moments of the Obama presidency and the War on Terror happened under Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State: SEAL Team 6 terminated Osama bin Laden, the architect of 9/11, after a decade-long hunt. Over that decade, female analysts led and dominated the ranks of the CIA unit known as “Alec Station” which focused on locating bin Laden– at one point the entire unit was female. These women followed the clues that led to the first capture of a major al Qaeda target: Abu Zubaydah. Then again they located and orchestrated the assassination of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. They also played central roles in interrogations, sometimes employing controversial techniques, and led efforts to establish “black sites” for detaining terror suspects. Figures like Jennifer Matthews, who tragically died in a 2009 al Qaeda attack in Afghanistan, showcased the intense dedication, encyclopedic knowledge, and unique perspective women brought to intelligence work. Despite their successes, some women faced criticism and institutional resistance, yet their impact on U.S. intelligence remains profound, with women continuing to hold key positions in counterterrorism and national security.
Although women had been operational in combat roles throughout the conflict, the US did not lift the official ban until 2013 under Obama. The ban had stigmatized women’s contributions making them feel they constantly had to earn their place despite multiple deployments and years in service. As veterans, women often didn’t claim their benefits because of prevailing stereotypes and perceptions of what a veteran looked like.
Sexual assault and harassment was epidemic for female service members. A report suggests that official government estimates likely understate the prevalence of sexual assault in the military by two to four times. Drawing on a comparison between independent data and statistics from the U.S. Department of Defense, with over 70,000 cases annually. During the war in Afghanistan, an average of 24 percent of active-duty women and 1.9 percent of active-duty men reported experiencing sexual assault. The report emphasizes that gender inequality is most severe for women of color, who face compounded racism and sexism as one of the fastest-growing demographics in the military. It also highlights that queer and transgender service members face a disproportionately high risk of sexual assault, as confirmed by independent data.
The military made efforts to improve the situation by mandating sexual assault prevention training, but this had mixed results in large part due to the way conservative politicians pushed back on these progressive efforts that amounted to more women in the military. Politicians complained of the “emasculation” of the military as it opened doors to women, lesbian, and trans people. These issues only became worse as the war continued and American politics became even more polarized.
Women made strides in politics everywhere during the early 21st century, but in no state was this more obvious than New Hampshire. In 2012, it became the first state have all five executive posts filled by women: Maggie Hassan became the second woman to serve as governor of the state, Jean Shaheen was formerly the first female Governor of New Hampshire and then serving as Democratic senator; the former Attorney General, Kelly Ayotte was a Republican senator for New Hampshire; two Democrats, Annie Kuster and Carol Shea Porter, represented the state in the house of representatives. Each of these women had long careers in politics.
Barack Obama appointed Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina justice on the Court and a strong voice for women’s rights. Kagan became the first Justice in decades to join the Court without prior judicial experience. Her confirmation marked a significant moment as she brought a unique perspective shaped by her background as U.S. Solicitor General and Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan is widely regarded as a liberal voice on the Court, consistently supporting landmark decisions on issues such as the Affordable Care Act, same-sex marriage, gun control, and voting rights. She has also stood out for her accessible and clear judicial writing, emphasizing language that the general public can understand. Her occasional use of humor, such as Spider-Man references in a patent case, has further set her apart, making her opinions among the most distinctive on the bench.
Sonia Sotomayor's tenure on the Supreme Court has been marked by her vigorous participation in oral arguments, impassioned dissents, and a strong commitment to justice in areas such as civil liberties, privacy rights, and social equity. In her early days on the Court, she dissented in Citizens United v. FEC, questioning the legal basis of corporate personhood, and later authored key opinions like her dissent in Berghuis v. Thompkins, which upheld Miranda rights. Sotomayor has distinguished herself as a reliable member of the Court's liberal bloc, often aligning with Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan, and has been noted for her sharp critiques of rulings that, in her view, undermine constitutional protections for marginalized groups. Her opinions, such as those in United States v. Jones advocating for modernized Fourth Amendment protections, reflect a forward-thinking approach to civil rights in the digital age. Despite occasional ideological alliances with conservative justices, Sotomayor remains a steadfast advocate for justice reform, privacy rights, and the protection of vulnerable populations, securing her legacy as one of the Court's most distinct and impactful voices.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in her golden age in the early 2000s as a Supreme Court Justice having been confirmed during the Clinton administration. It was then she began writing famous dissents. A dissent is when a justice disagrees with the overall decision of the other justices and writes their legal argument and perspective for future generations to use. She became an iconic figure for progressives writing legal arguments to be used long after her death.

Feminism Goes Mainstream in 2000s Culture:
2000s culture was defined by sitcoms, celebrities, female athletes, and a toxic diet culture. A-List celebrity stars included Britney Spears a pop icon and Parish Hilton an heiress. Women like them who frequented the tabloids and were subjected to impossible beauty standards, invasion of personal lives, and the worst of gendered expectations and double standards. Spears for example was in a high profile relationship with Justin Timberlake, a singer in the N*SYNC who later established a successful solo career. In a memoir she wrote later, Spears recalled, "I couldn’t help but notice that the questions he got asked by talk show hosts were different from the ones they asked me.” She added, "Everyone kept making strange comments about my breasts, wanting to know whether or not I’d had plastic surgery." Later in her book, describing their break up, Spears explained, “In the news media, I was described as a harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
Girl and boy bands remained sensational in the early 2000s and none highlighted this more than Destiny’s Child, a trailblazing girl group whose music resonated in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through empowering hits like "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills," the group highlighted themes of independence, self-worth, and respect, particularly for women and girls. The album sold over 11 million copies worldwide, establishing them as a leading force in the music industry. Their lyrics and success also sparked broader conversations about feminism, exploring what it means to empower women in a way that is inclusive and intersectional. By showcasing strong, unapologetic women of color, Destiny’s Child not only created iconic music but also helped redefine feminist ideals for a more diverse and inclusive audience. The group’s success continued with their third album, Survivor, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and spawned hits such as "Independent Women Part I," "Survivor," and "Bootylicious." Beyoncé Knowles was a consistent member of the group who went on to have a highly successful solo career.
Sitcoms were simultaneously pushing back against some of these gender norms, with strong feminist characters like Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe on Friends, which ran from 1994-2004, who together with their male friends redefined male and female friendships for a new era. The show also featured a recurring gay character, Ross’s ex-wife, Carol. At the time, gay characters were incredibly rare in the media, and Friends became the first show to feature a lesbian wedding on TV.
Although subtle, Will & Grace, which ran from 1998 to 2020, also dramatically challenged public perception of sex and sexuality by providing the public with a tempered, seemingly normal gay male character, Will. Will and best friend and roommate, Grace, challenged the traditional narrative that when a man “came out” to his girlfriend she was somehow cheated. Instead, the radical idea proposed by Will & Grace was that the couple could stay friends and she wouldn’t be offended because her best friend wasn’t attracted to her. When the show first aired in the late 1998 critics said it was too soft on challenging homophobia, but Will & Grace stood the test of time and showed that subtlety has power. In fact, the show became the most cited source that changed people’s view of gay and lesbian people.
If any show challenged and changed gender norms in the new millennium, it had to be Sex and the City, which ran from 1998-2004. The four protagonists: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha challenged traditional storylines for women that culminated in early coupling and marriage. Centered in New York City, the show pushed back against slut shaming, normalized sexual pleasure for women, discussed consent, self pleasure for women, and showed four female friends who stood by one another as boyfriends or hard times came and went. For many women, the show also served as sex education, in an era when sex education left much to be desired when it came to women’s experiences. The show, although flawed, offered a narrative for independent women that had never been seen before.
Culture in the 2000s was also dramatically changed by the emergence of social media. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, and social media entered a new era. MySpace and instant messaging had predated Facebook, but Facebook attracted a stronger following. Originally, the platform was designed to connect college students on campuses—like a yearbook in real time—and required users to have a college email account. However, the platform quickly became wildly popular and expanded. Eventually, people of all ages created accounts and carefully curated their profiles.
Facebook's success was followed by the rise of other platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and others. These platforms have been criticized for allowing misinformation, racism, and misogyny to spread widely. Social media has also exacerbated the prevalence of disordered eating, already epidemic among young women. The problems and opportunities social media created for women ushered in a new era.
2000s culture was defined by sitcoms, celebrities, female athletes, and a toxic diet culture. A-List celebrity stars included Britney Spears a pop icon and Parish Hilton an heiress. Women like them who frequented the tabloids and were subjected to impossible beauty standards, invasion of personal lives, and the worst of gendered expectations and double standards. Spears for example was in a high profile relationship with Justin Timberlake, a singer in the N*SYNC who later established a successful solo career. In a memoir she wrote later, Spears recalled, "I couldn’t help but notice that the questions he got asked by talk show hosts were different from the ones they asked me.” She added, "Everyone kept making strange comments about my breasts, wanting to know whether or not I’d had plastic surgery." Later in her book, describing their break up, Spears explained, “In the news media, I was described as a harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
Girl and boy bands remained sensational in the early 2000s and none highlighted this more than Destiny’s Child, a trailblazing girl group whose music resonated in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through empowering hits like "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills," the group highlighted themes of independence, self-worth, and respect, particularly for women and girls. The album sold over 11 million copies worldwide, establishing them as a leading force in the music industry. Their lyrics and success also sparked broader conversations about feminism, exploring what it means to empower women in a way that is inclusive and intersectional. By showcasing strong, unapologetic women of color, Destiny’s Child not only created iconic music but also helped redefine feminist ideals for a more diverse and inclusive audience. The group’s success continued with their third album, Survivor, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and spawned hits such as "Independent Women Part I," "Survivor," and "Bootylicious." Beyoncé Knowles was a consistent member of the group who went on to have a highly successful solo career.
Sitcoms were simultaneously pushing back against some of these gender norms, with strong feminist characters like Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe on Friends, which ran from 1994-2004, who together with their male friends redefined male and female friendships for a new era. The show also featured a recurring gay character, Ross’s ex-wife, Carol. At the time, gay characters were incredibly rare in the media, and Friends became the first show to feature a lesbian wedding on TV.
Although subtle, Will & Grace, which ran from 1998 to 2020, also dramatically challenged public perception of sex and sexuality by providing the public with a tempered, seemingly normal gay male character, Will. Will and best friend and roommate, Grace, challenged the traditional narrative that when a man “came out” to his girlfriend she was somehow cheated. Instead, the radical idea proposed by Will & Grace was that the couple could stay friends and she wouldn’t be offended because her best friend wasn’t attracted to her. When the show first aired in the late 1998 critics said it was too soft on challenging homophobia, but Will & Grace stood the test of time and showed that subtlety has power. In fact, the show became the most cited source that changed people’s view of gay and lesbian people.
If any show challenged and changed gender norms in the new millennium, it had to be Sex and the City, which ran from 1998-2004. The four protagonists: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha challenged traditional storylines for women that culminated in early coupling and marriage. Centered in New York City, the show pushed back against slut shaming, normalized sexual pleasure for women, discussed consent, self pleasure for women, and showed four female friends who stood by one another as boyfriends or hard times came and went. For many women, the show also served as sex education, in an era when sex education left much to be desired when it came to women’s experiences. The show, although flawed, offered a narrative for independent women that had never been seen before.
Culture in the 2000s was also dramatically changed by the emergence of social media. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, and social media entered a new era. MySpace and instant messaging had predated Facebook, but Facebook attracted a stronger following. Originally, the platform was designed to connect college students on campuses—like a yearbook in real time—and required users to have a college email account. However, the platform quickly became wildly popular and expanded. Eventually, people of all ages created accounts and carefully curated their profiles.
Facebook's success was followed by the rise of other platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and others. These platforms have been criticized for allowing misinformation, racism, and misogyny to spread widely. Social media has also exacerbated the prevalence of disordered eating, already epidemic among young women. The problems and opportunities social media created for women ushered in a new era.
Black Lives Matter:Black women remained a force through the early 21st century, organizing and educating. In 2013, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Ayọ Tometi (formerly known as Opal Tometi) three Black women organizers founded #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Martin was a Black teen from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot while walking back to his father’s fiancee’s townhouse in Sanford, Florida. His assailant was a member of the community watch and due to racial profiling called him into the police, but then pursued him and moments later, fatally shot him in the chest. This was one of a series of cases of white citizens or police officers killing Black people, mostly men without consequences.
In 2014, the BLM movement gained momentum following the deaths of two unarmed Black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, at the hands of police. In Ferguson, Missouri, Brown, a teenager, was fatally shot by a white officer. Across the country in Staten Island, New York, Garner lost his life after being subjected to an illegal and prolonged chokehold by a white officer—a moment captured on video by a bystander. Public outrage grew when prosecutors declined to press charges against the officers involved, sparking widespread protests under the banner of Black Lives Matter. The movement subsequently became a central force in campaigns against police violence and systemic racism. BLM activists also highlighted other cases of Black individuals who died due to police actions or while in custody, including Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, and Laquan McDonald.
BLM advocated for Black lives in the face of police and systemic racism. It expanded to advocate for Black trans women, who face the largest threats to life. This movement defined much of the political landscape in the 2010s and into the 2020s. The movement was known for large protests, but behind the scenes was a sophisticated machine of advocacy, proposed and endorsed policy changes, fundraisers, and consciousness raising efforts.
Many of the victims in these crimes were Black men which highlights the long and continued history of gendered assaults on the Black community, where Black men were falsely painted as predators and Black women victimized. Black mothers became a strong force in the face of horrific crimes against young Black people.
In 2014, the BLM movement gained momentum following the deaths of two unarmed Black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, at the hands of police. In Ferguson, Missouri, Brown, a teenager, was fatally shot by a white officer. Across the country in Staten Island, New York, Garner lost his life after being subjected to an illegal and prolonged chokehold by a white officer—a moment captured on video by a bystander. Public outrage grew when prosecutors declined to press charges against the officers involved, sparking widespread protests under the banner of Black Lives Matter. The movement subsequently became a central force in campaigns against police violence and systemic racism. BLM activists also highlighted other cases of Black individuals who died due to police actions or while in custody, including Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, and Laquan McDonald.
BLM advocated for Black lives in the face of police and systemic racism. It expanded to advocate for Black trans women, who face the largest threats to life. This movement defined much of the political landscape in the 2010s and into the 2020s. The movement was known for large protests, but behind the scenes was a sophisticated machine of advocacy, proposed and endorsed policy changes, fundraisers, and consciousness raising efforts.
Many of the victims in these crimes were Black men which highlights the long and continued history of gendered assaults on the Black community, where Black men were falsely painted as predators and Black women victimized. Black mothers became a strong force in the face of horrific crimes against young Black people.

Women and Work in the 21st Century:
The 21st century has witnessed a significant surge in women’s economic power, with groundbreaking achievements across various sectors. Women continued to join the workforce in large numbers, as a result of economic necessity and continuing agitation for opportunity by feminist organizers. One significant change was the increased pursuit of higher education by women. Between 1970 and 2019, the percentage of women aged 25 to 64 in the workforce holding a college degree increased fourfold, whereas the percentage of men with a college degree only slightly more than doubled during the same period. Female enrollment in law, business, and medical schools met or exceeded the number of men who are preparing for these careers, and women were also among the generation of start-up entrepreneurs who have introduced new ideas and new technologies into our world.
Another major change in the 21st century era was the number of women in top positions of economic power. Many women have been named to head major corporations. A few have become self-made billionaires, the first being Martha Stewart in 2000. In 2013, Mary Barra made history by becoming the first woman to lead one of the Big Three automakers when she was appointed CEO of General Motors. This marked a major milestone in an industry traditionally dominated by men. Just two years later, Cathy Engelbert became the CEO of Deloitte, while KPMG followed suit in 2015 by appointing Lynne Doughtie to the same role. With these appointments, women now lead half of the Big Four accounting firms, a notable shift in the corporate landscape.
The rise of women in positions of power extends beyond the corporate world. In the realm of finance, President Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve was confirmed by the Senate in 2014, making her the first woman to ever hold this top position in the U.S. central bank’s century-long history. Yellen's appointment also broke new ground as she became the first Democrat to chair the Fed since Paul Volcker's tenure under President Jimmy Carter.
In the world of entrepreneurship, Oprah Winfrey's achievements stand out as an exemplary case of women's increasing wealth and influence. She became the first African-American female billionaire, with a diverse media empire that includes the OWN cable network and a 10% stake in Weight Watchers. Oprah’s success has made her America’s highest-paid female celebrity, with a fortune estimated at $3 billion, underscoring the growing economic influence of women in various industries. Together, these milestones demonstrate the growing role of women in shaping the global economy.
Still, it was becoming more and more difficult for a family to maintain a middle-class lifestyle on only one salary, so women went to work to support their families, as they always have.. Although President Kennedy had signed the Equal Pay act into law in June of 1963, companies found ways to circumvent the intent of the law, which was to provide pay equity for women who do the same or equivalent jobs as men. The social norm of not openly discussing salaries was harmful to women, who accepted lower salaries without knowing their male peers made more. This happened to Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter was a former employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company,who discovered after years of service that she was earning significantly less than her male colleagues doing the same job. Her lawsuit against the company went to the Supreme Court, which ruled against her, citing the statute of limitations. In 2009, the Obama Administration and Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act. The act extends the time frame for filing pay discrimination claims. It resets the statute of limitations with each paycheck affected by the discriminatory action, allowing employees to bring forward a complaint within 180 days of receiving a discriminatory paycheck. Ms. Ledbetter was not personally helped by this law, but she was proud to have been its inspiration and advocate.
The 21st century has witnessed a significant surge in women’s economic power, with groundbreaking achievements across various sectors. Women continued to join the workforce in large numbers, as a result of economic necessity and continuing agitation for opportunity by feminist organizers. One significant change was the increased pursuit of higher education by women. Between 1970 and 2019, the percentage of women aged 25 to 64 in the workforce holding a college degree increased fourfold, whereas the percentage of men with a college degree only slightly more than doubled during the same period. Female enrollment in law, business, and medical schools met or exceeded the number of men who are preparing for these careers, and women were also among the generation of start-up entrepreneurs who have introduced new ideas and new technologies into our world.
Another major change in the 21st century era was the number of women in top positions of economic power. Many women have been named to head major corporations. A few have become self-made billionaires, the first being Martha Stewart in 2000. In 2013, Mary Barra made history by becoming the first woman to lead one of the Big Three automakers when she was appointed CEO of General Motors. This marked a major milestone in an industry traditionally dominated by men. Just two years later, Cathy Engelbert became the CEO of Deloitte, while KPMG followed suit in 2015 by appointing Lynne Doughtie to the same role. With these appointments, women now lead half of the Big Four accounting firms, a notable shift in the corporate landscape.
The rise of women in positions of power extends beyond the corporate world. In the realm of finance, President Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve was confirmed by the Senate in 2014, making her the first woman to ever hold this top position in the U.S. central bank’s century-long history. Yellen's appointment also broke new ground as she became the first Democrat to chair the Fed since Paul Volcker's tenure under President Jimmy Carter.
In the world of entrepreneurship, Oprah Winfrey's achievements stand out as an exemplary case of women's increasing wealth and influence. She became the first African-American female billionaire, with a diverse media empire that includes the OWN cable network and a 10% stake in Weight Watchers. Oprah’s success has made her America’s highest-paid female celebrity, with a fortune estimated at $3 billion, underscoring the growing economic influence of women in various industries. Together, these milestones demonstrate the growing role of women in shaping the global economy.
Still, it was becoming more and more difficult for a family to maintain a middle-class lifestyle on only one salary, so women went to work to support their families, as they always have.. Although President Kennedy had signed the Equal Pay act into law in June of 1963, companies found ways to circumvent the intent of the law, which was to provide pay equity for women who do the same or equivalent jobs as men. The social norm of not openly discussing salaries was harmful to women, who accepted lower salaries without knowing their male peers made more. This happened to Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter was a former employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company,who discovered after years of service that she was earning significantly less than her male colleagues doing the same job. Her lawsuit against the company went to the Supreme Court, which ruled against her, citing the statute of limitations. In 2009, the Obama Administration and Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act. The act extends the time frame for filing pay discrimination claims. It resets the statute of limitations with each paycheck affected by the discriminatory action, allowing employees to bring forward a complaint within 180 days of receiving a discriminatory paycheck. Ms. Ledbetter was not personally helped by this law, but she was proud to have been its inspiration and advocate.

Windsor v. United States:
As gender norms shifted, so did public perception of homosexuality. Vermont became the first state to allow civil unions for gay couples in 2000, following a ruling from the Supreme Court in Baker v. Vermont that the Constitution of Vermont entitles same-sex couples to equal protections. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to establish marriage equality in their state constitution and other states began to follow suit. By 2013, 10 states had legalized same sex marriage creating a complicated legal landscape. Gay couples could travel to other states to get married and return home to states that didn’t recognize their marriage equally to heterosexual ones.
Real change happened with the landmark Supreme Court case, Windsor v United States. After more than 40 years together, Thea Spyer died leaving her wife, Edith Windsor, to inherit her entire estate. Of course, as a result of DOMA, Windsor’s marriage was not recognized by the federal government and she was taxed. Their marriage was officially recognized in New York. Windsor was charged a $363,000 estate tax bill, something heterosexuals would not have faced. Robbie Kaplan successfully argued her case in the Supreme Court, and the court struck down DOMA.
Windsor’s case lay the groundwork to legalize same sex marriage nationwide. In 2013, the court legalized gay marriage in California, and in 2015 the court extended that to the whole nation. In Obergefell v. Hodges, many plaintiff couples came forward. The sweeping ruling declared all bans on marriage equality to be unconstitutional and that the right to marriage was fundamental. The decisions in Windsor and Obergefell were grounded in the same argument used to legalize abortion in Roe v. Wade, that the 14th Amendment guaranteed a right to privacy.
The right to marry was huge progress, but it largely benefited middle-class gay and lesbians in long term relationships, and did not accomplish some of the things that the first leaders at Stonewall wanted, especially STAR. These issues remained unresolved.
As gender norms shifted, so did public perception of homosexuality. Vermont became the first state to allow civil unions for gay couples in 2000, following a ruling from the Supreme Court in Baker v. Vermont that the Constitution of Vermont entitles same-sex couples to equal protections. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to establish marriage equality in their state constitution and other states began to follow suit. By 2013, 10 states had legalized same sex marriage creating a complicated legal landscape. Gay couples could travel to other states to get married and return home to states that didn’t recognize their marriage equally to heterosexual ones.
Real change happened with the landmark Supreme Court case, Windsor v United States. After more than 40 years together, Thea Spyer died leaving her wife, Edith Windsor, to inherit her entire estate. Of course, as a result of DOMA, Windsor’s marriage was not recognized by the federal government and she was taxed. Their marriage was officially recognized in New York. Windsor was charged a $363,000 estate tax bill, something heterosexuals would not have faced. Robbie Kaplan successfully argued her case in the Supreme Court, and the court struck down DOMA.
Windsor’s case lay the groundwork to legalize same sex marriage nationwide. In 2013, the court legalized gay marriage in California, and in 2015 the court extended that to the whole nation. In Obergefell v. Hodges, many plaintiff couples came forward. The sweeping ruling declared all bans on marriage equality to be unconstitutional and that the right to marriage was fundamental. The decisions in Windsor and Obergefell were grounded in the same argument used to legalize abortion in Roe v. Wade, that the 14th Amendment guaranteed a right to privacy.
The right to marry was huge progress, but it largely benefited middle-class gay and lesbians in long term relationships, and did not accomplish some of the things that the first leaders at Stonewall wanted, especially STAR. These issues remained unresolved.

Shifting Gender Norms:
In the late 1990s the Supreme Court decided that schools could be held liable for knowing someone was being sexually harassed and not taking action to end the behavior. This was a particularly low bar that allowed schools to turn blind eyes to victims and did little to force schools to create cultures that were anti-harassment and safe spaces for learners. Title IX expanded to have implications for sexual assault and harassment, as well as protections for trans youth. The challenge with sexual assault on college campuses is that assault is a crime, and should be managed by the courts. Schools are also tasked, under Title IX with protecting victims from their harassers. Typically this is resolved by separating students into different classes and dorms. This gets complicated when courts have failed to convict someone, often due to a high burden of proof in the court systems. Someone should be innocent until proven guilty, but what should schools do while the legal process runs its course? Sexual harassment and assault are challenging from a legal perspective due to limited evidence and a lot of he said she said allegations.
Emma Sulkowicz at Columbia University raised the issue to national attention with her mattress protest, in which she carried around the mattress she was allegedly raped on in 2012. She received institutional credit for the protest as part of her senior performance art project, yet Columbia failed to find her accused rapist at fault and took no institutional steps such as suspension or expulsion to penalize him. Despite conservatives suggesting that women frequently subject men to false claims of rape and assault, studies suggest that only 8 percent of rape accusations are false. All of this does little to resolve the issues. If the courts and the campus didn’t have enough evidence to convict him, was her protest harassment of an innocent man? Or, is the system designed to protect perpetrators of sexual violence over victims?
Tensions related to gender were about to hit a fever pitch. As the Obama years were coming to a close, tensions over the role of women and LGBTQ+ in the military, Title IX’s application in schools, sexual harassment prevention in the work place, shifting cultural norms related to gender and sexuality were about to explode. Hilary Clinton stepped down as Secretary of State to mount a campaign to follow Obama as the next president. Her opponent, a known womanizer, used her unpopularity, history in politics, and overt sexism on the campaign trail. The girls versus boys vibes of the 2016 election polarized Americans and highlighted key challenges of uniting Americans moving forward.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How would the world handle a female presidential candidate? Could a woman actually win? Could a womanizer actually win? What effect would the gender discussions have on the everyday lives of citizens in the country?
In the late 1990s the Supreme Court decided that schools could be held liable for knowing someone was being sexually harassed and not taking action to end the behavior. This was a particularly low bar that allowed schools to turn blind eyes to victims and did little to force schools to create cultures that were anti-harassment and safe spaces for learners. Title IX expanded to have implications for sexual assault and harassment, as well as protections for trans youth. The challenge with sexual assault on college campuses is that assault is a crime, and should be managed by the courts. Schools are also tasked, under Title IX with protecting victims from their harassers. Typically this is resolved by separating students into different classes and dorms. This gets complicated when courts have failed to convict someone, often due to a high burden of proof in the court systems. Someone should be innocent until proven guilty, but what should schools do while the legal process runs its course? Sexual harassment and assault are challenging from a legal perspective due to limited evidence and a lot of he said she said allegations.
Emma Sulkowicz at Columbia University raised the issue to national attention with her mattress protest, in which she carried around the mattress she was allegedly raped on in 2012. She received institutional credit for the protest as part of her senior performance art project, yet Columbia failed to find her accused rapist at fault and took no institutional steps such as suspension or expulsion to penalize him. Despite conservatives suggesting that women frequently subject men to false claims of rape and assault, studies suggest that only 8 percent of rape accusations are false. All of this does little to resolve the issues. If the courts and the campus didn’t have enough evidence to convict him, was her protest harassment of an innocent man? Or, is the system designed to protect perpetrators of sexual violence over victims?
Tensions related to gender were about to hit a fever pitch. As the Obama years were coming to a close, tensions over the role of women and LGBTQ+ in the military, Title IX’s application in schools, sexual harassment prevention in the work place, shifting cultural norms related to gender and sexuality were about to explode. Hilary Clinton stepped down as Secretary of State to mount a campaign to follow Obama as the next president. Her opponent, a known womanizer, used her unpopularity, history in politics, and overt sexism on the campaign trail. The girls versus boys vibes of the 2016 election polarized Americans and highlighted key challenges of uniting Americans moving forward.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How would the world handle a female presidential candidate? Could a woman actually win? Could a womanizer actually win? What effect would the gender discussions have on the everyday lives of citizens in the country?
Women and Climate Change:
Climate change is defined as long-term, large-scale changes in temperature and weather patterns. Scientists have shown that today our planet is around 1.1°C (1.8°F) warmer than it was in the late 19th Century, and that warming has been caused by human activities. A changing climate is already impacting agriculture, economic productivity, health, and migration across the world. These changes are likely to negatively impact women, who are less able to migrate to new opportunities or safer environments, have access to less money to adjust to a changing climate and who are expected to see increases in their care labor as health and social services are impacted. One major contributor to global climate change is what is called the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect describes the way in which gasses in our atmosphere – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor – trap heat from the sun and increase global temperatures. The greenhouse effect was discovered in 1856 by Eunice Newton Foote, an amateur meteorologist who had the opportunity to study a diverse range of scientific topics at Troy Female Seminary in New York. She also received hands-on chemistry lab experience in a time when women were not expected to study science at all. She was very aware of the struggles of women in the sciences and was an attendee of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on the rights of women.
Then, in advance of the 1856 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Foote conducted a simple experiment. She filled a glass cylinder with a variety of the components of air: water vapor, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. What she discovered was that carbon dioxide was most effective at trapping heat, meaning that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes the planet warmer. Today we call this the greenhouse effect.
Thanks in part to her husband’s connections to Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian Institute, this paper was presented for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. However, few took major note of it. It was not until 2011 that it was uncovered that the original discovery of the greenhouse effect was made by Eunice Newton Foote and not by John Tyndall, who discovered the same mechanism three years later.
Today we understand that increased greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere have been caused primarily by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for energy or transportation. Just as we have known about the greenhouse effect for over 150 years, so we have also had some of the solutions for decades. In the 1930s-1950s, Mária Telkes was a prominent inventor, known as the Sun Queen by her colleagues due to her incredible work on solar energy. In addition to her foundational work on solar thermal storage, she and architect Eleanor Raymond teamed up with philanthropist Amelia Peabody to build the Dover Sun House, one of the first houses heated by solar in the world. These types of energy technologies produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
In the past decades, women all over the world have worked to address climate change – from Swedish activist Greta Thunberg to Costa Rican United Nations Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres to Kenyan Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai. In the United States, a great deal of activism and policy discussion came to a head in 2019 when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey proposed a wide-ranging resolution titled “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal,” but commonly referred to as the Green New Deal. This proposal combined the economic focus on infrastructure and jobs of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal with a more contemporary emphasis on sustainability and equity. While the proposal was not passed by the Senate, many of its core ideas on promoting renewables and reaching Net Zero carbon emissions survive in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Conclusion:
#MeToo has had a significant impact on legislation, resulting in notable changes. One noteworthy example is the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, signed into law by President Biden at the federal level. This law makes arbitration agreements (and joint-action waivers) entered into before disputes related to sexual harassment or assault unenforceable.
Today, female governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives represent a variety of political views, both liberal and conservative, suggesting that issues beyond women’s rights contribute to the election of women to serve their states. Women continue to make up only fractions of our political and economic leaders, and remain less visible in the media. Women make up 7 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs, 6 percent of Nobel Prize Winners, 24 percent of “heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio.” Women reported 37 percent of news stories, 31 percent of speaking characters, 23 percent of protagonists in film, 21 percent are filmmakers. In sport, they are paid staggeringly less than men in wages and prize money. In the 2018-midterm elections, women only made up 20 percent of Congress and only 6 out of 50 state governors were women. In 2022, only 12 out of 50 governors were women.
Motherhood complicates these statistics. 12 percent of women in the private sector don’t have any maternity leave. 25 percent of women must return to work within 2-weeks of giving birth. 9 percent of workplaces offer paid paternity leave and 76 percent of fathers return to work within a week of their child’s birth, making mothers the primary caregiver and denying them needed support in recovery from birth. The US has the highest infant mortality for wealthy countries, at 6.1 for every 1,000 births. 1 in 10 women suffer from postpartum depression in the United States. That includes me, if you’d like to put a face to the data. Single-parent households are mostly headed by women and have more than tripled since 1960. 35 percent of children live in single-parent households. Mothers are 40 percent more likely than fathers to report that they had personally felt the negative impact of child care issues on their careers.
Issues related to how to prosecute sexual assault and harassment remain and whether these issues should prevent someone from being president are yet to be determined. It is an empowering and yet strange time to be a woman in America with so many rights and policies in question.
Climate change is defined as long-term, large-scale changes in temperature and weather patterns. Scientists have shown that today our planet is around 1.1°C (1.8°F) warmer than it was in the late 19th Century, and that warming has been caused by human activities. A changing climate is already impacting agriculture, economic productivity, health, and migration across the world. These changes are likely to negatively impact women, who are less able to migrate to new opportunities or safer environments, have access to less money to adjust to a changing climate and who are expected to see increases in their care labor as health and social services are impacted. One major contributor to global climate change is what is called the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect describes the way in which gasses in our atmosphere – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor – trap heat from the sun and increase global temperatures. The greenhouse effect was discovered in 1856 by Eunice Newton Foote, an amateur meteorologist who had the opportunity to study a diverse range of scientific topics at Troy Female Seminary in New York. She also received hands-on chemistry lab experience in a time when women were not expected to study science at all. She was very aware of the struggles of women in the sciences and was an attendee of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on the rights of women.
Then, in advance of the 1856 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Foote conducted a simple experiment. She filled a glass cylinder with a variety of the components of air: water vapor, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. What she discovered was that carbon dioxide was most effective at trapping heat, meaning that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes the planet warmer. Today we call this the greenhouse effect.
Thanks in part to her husband’s connections to Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian Institute, this paper was presented for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. However, few took major note of it. It was not until 2011 that it was uncovered that the original discovery of the greenhouse effect was made by Eunice Newton Foote and not by John Tyndall, who discovered the same mechanism three years later.
Today we understand that increased greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere have been caused primarily by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for energy or transportation. Just as we have known about the greenhouse effect for over 150 years, so we have also had some of the solutions for decades. In the 1930s-1950s, Mária Telkes was a prominent inventor, known as the Sun Queen by her colleagues due to her incredible work on solar energy. In addition to her foundational work on solar thermal storage, she and architect Eleanor Raymond teamed up with philanthropist Amelia Peabody to build the Dover Sun House, one of the first houses heated by solar in the world. These types of energy technologies produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
In the past decades, women all over the world have worked to address climate change – from Swedish activist Greta Thunberg to Costa Rican United Nations Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres to Kenyan Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai. In the United States, a great deal of activism and policy discussion came to a head in 2019 when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey proposed a wide-ranging resolution titled “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal,” but commonly referred to as the Green New Deal. This proposal combined the economic focus on infrastructure and jobs of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal with a more contemporary emphasis on sustainability and equity. While the proposal was not passed by the Senate, many of its core ideas on promoting renewables and reaching Net Zero carbon emissions survive in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Conclusion:
#MeToo has had a significant impact on legislation, resulting in notable changes. One noteworthy example is the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, signed into law by President Biden at the federal level. This law makes arbitration agreements (and joint-action waivers) entered into before disputes related to sexual harassment or assault unenforceable.
Today, female governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives represent a variety of political views, both liberal and conservative, suggesting that issues beyond women’s rights contribute to the election of women to serve their states. Women continue to make up only fractions of our political and economic leaders, and remain less visible in the media. Women make up 7 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs, 6 percent of Nobel Prize Winners, 24 percent of “heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio.” Women reported 37 percent of news stories, 31 percent of speaking characters, 23 percent of protagonists in film, 21 percent are filmmakers. In sport, they are paid staggeringly less than men in wages and prize money. In the 2018-midterm elections, women only made up 20 percent of Congress and only 6 out of 50 state governors were women. In 2022, only 12 out of 50 governors were women.
Motherhood complicates these statistics. 12 percent of women in the private sector don’t have any maternity leave. 25 percent of women must return to work within 2-weeks of giving birth. 9 percent of workplaces offer paid paternity leave and 76 percent of fathers return to work within a week of their child’s birth, making mothers the primary caregiver and denying them needed support in recovery from birth. The US has the highest infant mortality for wealthy countries, at 6.1 for every 1,000 births. 1 in 10 women suffer from postpartum depression in the United States. That includes me, if you’d like to put a face to the data. Single-parent households are mostly headed by women and have more than tripled since 1960. 35 percent of children live in single-parent households. Mothers are 40 percent more likely than fathers to report that they had personally felt the negative impact of child care issues on their careers.
Issues related to how to prosecute sexual assault and harassment remain and whether these issues should prevent someone from being president are yet to be determined. It is an empowering and yet strange time to be a woman in America with so many rights and policies in question.
Draw your own conclusions
Learn how to teach with inquiry.
Many of these lesson plans were sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University, the History and Social Studies Education Faculty at Plymouth State University, and the Patrons of the Remedial Herstory Project. |
Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
- The Guilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
- The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
- Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in US History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- C3 Teachers: This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the LGBTQ+ movement, primarily driven by the history of the movement through various accounts and perspectives. The compelling question—What makes a movement successful?—does not address whether or not the movement was successful, but instead assesses the components of a movement and whether the movement is in a period of growth or has already peaked. Although the focus of this inquiry is on the LGBTQ+ movement, parallels can be drawn to other social movements in history with respect to organization, activism, and overall execution, including the Civil Rights Movement or the women’s suffrage and rights movements. Specifically, this inquiry looks at four different aspects that can potentially shape a movement in its foundation as well as its rise, namely public reaction, government leaders and policies, Supreme Court cases, and personal experiences. Throughout the inquiry, students will examine each individual aspect independently, evaluating the merits, strengths, and significance of each provided source in the “Movement Analysis Organization Chart,” but the summative task will require a compilation and synthesis of the sources in this investigation in order to form an argument to address the compelling question.
- Voices of Democracy: In the speech Clinton positioned the United States as the moral authority in monitoring and enforcing sanctions for global human trafficking, while at the same time reiterating the importance of international cooperation and partnerships.
- Clio: In 1972, feminists in Washington, D.C. founded the nation’s first rape crisis center. Other centers were soon established across the country. In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act was created in response to the nation-wide, grassroots work of activists concerned with domestic violence, sexual assault, date rape, and stalking. This lesson introduces students to the history of efforts to stop violence against women.
- National Women’s History Museum: How has the Supreme Court shaped the lives of American women between 1908-2005? Students will analyze one of four Supreme Court cases that relate to the constitutional rights of women decided between 1908-2005. Students will become mini-experts on one Supreme Court cases and they will be exposed to the content, themes, and questions from the other three cases via peer to peer instruction of their classmates. The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to a broad range of Supreme Court cases that have impacted American women and to have them develop a working knowledge and expertise of at least one case by using primary sources such as the case ruling and secondary sources that will help students to understand the context.
- National History Day: Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002) was born in Hawaii. She studied in Pennsylvania and Nebraska before moving back to Hawaii to earn her undergraduate degree and eventually received her J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1951. She moved back to Hawaii with her husband, John Francis Mink, and founded the Oahu Young Democrats in 1954. In the 1950s, Mink served as both a member of the territorial house of representatives and Hawaii Senate. After Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Mink unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. Mink campaigned for the second representative seat in 1964 and won, making her the first woman of color and first Asian American woman to be elected to Congress. Mink is best known for her support of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society legislation, as well as her advocacy for women’s issues and equal rights. Mink worked tirelessly to earn support for the critical Title IX Amendment from her comprehensive education bill called Women’s Education Equity Act. Mink took a break from Congress after an unsuccessful bid for the Senate, but returned to Congress in 1990 and served until her death in September 2002.
- C3 Teachers: This twelfth grade annotated inquiry leads students through an investigation of a hotly debated issue in the United States: the gender wage gap. The compelling question “What should we do about the gender wage gap?” asks students to grapple not only with how to quantify and interpret the gap but also to consider ways of addressing the problem. Throughout the inquiry, students consider the degree to which economic inequality reflects social, political, or economic injustices or whether it simply reflects individual choices and the role the government should play in decreasing income inequality. Although this inquiry is rooted in a question about economics, no social issue is fully understood without examining a range of economic, historical, geographic, and political concepts in order to craft a full-bodied, evidence-based argument. This inquiry looks at the complexity of the gender wage gap issue through all four social studies disciplines. Students examine the structural factors that influence women’s choices as well as historical (e.g., Equal Pay Act of 1963) and pending (e.g., Paycheck Fairness Act) legislative efforts. Ultimately, students must find a way to measure the gender wage gap, determine if it is an issue worth addressing, and, if so, how to best address it, including private and public sector solutions.
M.A.D.D.
Vox: Why the US Drinking Age is 21 Video
Partial Transcript:
Prohibition, the 18th amendment to the US Constitution, banned alcohol in 1920. It was repealed by the 21st amendment — and after that, a lot of states settled on a drinking age of 21 and older… In the 70s, the 26th amendment changed the dynamic again. “That amendment, as you know, provides for the right to vote of all of our young people between 18 and 21, 11 million new voters as a result of this amendment” (Ronald Reagan). 18 year olds could be drafted to Vietnam and vote, so a lot of states decided they could drink.
That map was short lived for one reason… “Nearly 50,000 people were killed on our highways last year. Now out of that statistic comes an even more chilling one. Drunk drivers were involved in 25,000 of those fatalities, in addition to 750,000 injuries a year” (Ronald Reagan). Drinking age reform advocates quickly attributed drunk driving fatalities in the blue states, or 18 and older states, to earlier drinking ages. People argued that teens driving across state lines to drink or purchase alcohol increased drunk driving. This 1983 map was still a hodgepodge, but see how more states turned green — for 19— and yellow — for 20 years old? That was driven partly by an awareness campaign… Michael Jackson? He was being honored for letting his music be used in anti-drunk driving PSAs.
President Reagan is famous for saying: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” That made his strategy kind of surprising. “For even though drunk driving is a problem nation-wide, it can only be solved at the state and local level. Yet the Federal Government also has a role to play.” His thinking was influenced by two main groups. “Much of the credit for focusing public attention goes to the grassroots campaign of organizations like MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and RID, Remove Intoxicated Drivers” (Ronald Reagan).
Candace “Candy” Lightner founded MADD in 1980 after her daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver. MADD’s goals at the time included making it easier to obtain DUI convictions... and raising the drinking age. This direction was clear at River Dell High School in Oradell, New Jersey, where President Reagan explained his unpredictable political evolution. The problem: “I appointed a Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving. They told us that alcohol related automobile accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths in this country.”
The theory: “In states in which the drinking age has been raised, teenage drinking fatalities have gone down significantly. Here in New Jersey, you raised the drinking age to 21 in 1983, and you know what happened: you had a 26% reduction in nighttime single vehicle fatalities among 19 and 20 year olds in the first year alone” (Ronald Reagan).
The dilemma: “I was delighted again because I hoped that the states would, as they should, take this action themselves without federal orders or interference.” “It’s led to a kind of crazy quilt of different state drinking laws, and that’s led to what’s been called blood borders, with teenagers leaving their home to go the nearest state with a lower drinking age.”
And here? This is where the roads come in. The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 created a network of roads largely funded by Federal dollars. Those roads quickly became crucial to state economies. That money also became a way to bend the states to Federal priorities, even if it meant Reagan had to change his typical political positions. “I’ve decided to support legislation to withhold 5% of a state’s highway funds if it does not enact the 21-year-old drinking age. Some may feel that my decision is at odds with my philosophical viewpoint that state problems should involve state solutions, and it isn’t up to a big and overwhelming government in Washington to tell the states what to do. And you’re partly right. Beyond that, there are some special cases in which overwhelming need can be dealt with by prudent and limited federal action” (Ronald Reagan). The law passed.
That’s Candy Lightner, celebrating. “I’d like to make you an honorary mother against drunk drivers.” It wasn’t technically a nationwide drinking age law, but in effect — it was. “We have no misgiving about this judicious use of Federal power.” States quickly adopted the 21-year-old drinking age. Most couldn't afford to lose federal funding for their highways. Louisiana was the only state that held out at age 18 (due to a loophole, which it closed in the mid 90s). South Dakota challenged the law to preserve sale of low alcohol beer for 19 year olds and up, and it reached the Supreme Court. “Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the court, the issue in this case is whether or not Congress may condition the receipt of highway funds upon a state having in effect 21-year-old drinking age.” The court ruled 7-2, stating it was within Congress’s powers to control spending that promoted “general welfare,” argued as the reduction of youth drinking and driving via the 21-year-old drinking age. Did it work?
Most studies of studies declare “case closed” — that the higher drinking age saves lives, and “reduces alcohol consumption.” Skeptics, like people from the libertarian Cato Institute, claim a broader cultural change, not a law, should be credited with saving lives. Reagan himself kind of argued both sides, saying that, “the new minimum drinking age is working,” but that “my friends, there’s so much more to do, and it’s not government that can do it.”
Politically, Ronald Reagan using Federal purse strings to strong arm states is…a strange pairing. But beyond the politics, there’s a bigger message. The Federal government has used other levers to push states, but to change the drinking age there was one big tool. The thing that changed the country wasn’t just the lines on states’ edges. It was the ones that run through them.
Vox.com. “Why the US Drinking Age Is 21.” YouTube. YouTube, August 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aWYJugVTs4.
Guiding Questions:
Prohibition, the 18th amendment to the US Constitution, banned alcohol in 1920. It was repealed by the 21st amendment — and after that, a lot of states settled on a drinking age of 21 and older… In the 70s, the 26th amendment changed the dynamic again. “That amendment, as you know, provides for the right to vote of all of our young people between 18 and 21, 11 million new voters as a result of this amendment” (Ronald Reagan). 18 year olds could be drafted to Vietnam and vote, so a lot of states decided they could drink.
That map was short lived for one reason… “Nearly 50,000 people were killed on our highways last year. Now out of that statistic comes an even more chilling one. Drunk drivers were involved in 25,000 of those fatalities, in addition to 750,000 injuries a year” (Ronald Reagan). Drinking age reform advocates quickly attributed drunk driving fatalities in the blue states, or 18 and older states, to earlier drinking ages. People argued that teens driving across state lines to drink or purchase alcohol increased drunk driving. This 1983 map was still a hodgepodge, but see how more states turned green — for 19— and yellow — for 20 years old? That was driven partly by an awareness campaign… Michael Jackson? He was being honored for letting his music be used in anti-drunk driving PSAs.
President Reagan is famous for saying: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” That made his strategy kind of surprising. “For even though drunk driving is a problem nation-wide, it can only be solved at the state and local level. Yet the Federal Government also has a role to play.” His thinking was influenced by two main groups. “Much of the credit for focusing public attention goes to the grassroots campaign of organizations like MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and RID, Remove Intoxicated Drivers” (Ronald Reagan).
Candace “Candy” Lightner founded MADD in 1980 after her daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver. MADD’s goals at the time included making it easier to obtain DUI convictions... and raising the drinking age. This direction was clear at River Dell High School in Oradell, New Jersey, where President Reagan explained his unpredictable political evolution. The problem: “I appointed a Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving. They told us that alcohol related automobile accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths in this country.”
The theory: “In states in which the drinking age has been raised, teenage drinking fatalities have gone down significantly. Here in New Jersey, you raised the drinking age to 21 in 1983, and you know what happened: you had a 26% reduction in nighttime single vehicle fatalities among 19 and 20 year olds in the first year alone” (Ronald Reagan).
The dilemma: “I was delighted again because I hoped that the states would, as they should, take this action themselves without federal orders or interference.” “It’s led to a kind of crazy quilt of different state drinking laws, and that’s led to what’s been called blood borders, with teenagers leaving their home to go the nearest state with a lower drinking age.”
And here? This is where the roads come in. The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 created a network of roads largely funded by Federal dollars. Those roads quickly became crucial to state economies. That money also became a way to bend the states to Federal priorities, even if it meant Reagan had to change his typical political positions. “I’ve decided to support legislation to withhold 5% of a state’s highway funds if it does not enact the 21-year-old drinking age. Some may feel that my decision is at odds with my philosophical viewpoint that state problems should involve state solutions, and it isn’t up to a big and overwhelming government in Washington to tell the states what to do. And you’re partly right. Beyond that, there are some special cases in which overwhelming need can be dealt with by prudent and limited federal action” (Ronald Reagan). The law passed.
That’s Candy Lightner, celebrating. “I’d like to make you an honorary mother against drunk drivers.” It wasn’t technically a nationwide drinking age law, but in effect — it was. “We have no misgiving about this judicious use of Federal power.” States quickly adopted the 21-year-old drinking age. Most couldn't afford to lose federal funding for their highways. Louisiana was the only state that held out at age 18 (due to a loophole, which it closed in the mid 90s). South Dakota challenged the law to preserve sale of low alcohol beer for 19 year olds and up, and it reached the Supreme Court. “Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the court, the issue in this case is whether or not Congress may condition the receipt of highway funds upon a state having in effect 21-year-old drinking age.” The court ruled 7-2, stating it was within Congress’s powers to control spending that promoted “general welfare,” argued as the reduction of youth drinking and driving via the 21-year-old drinking age. Did it work?
Most studies of studies declare “case closed” — that the higher drinking age saves lives, and “reduces alcohol consumption.” Skeptics, like people from the libertarian Cato Institute, claim a broader cultural change, not a law, should be credited with saving lives. Reagan himself kind of argued both sides, saying that, “the new minimum drinking age is working,” but that “my friends, there’s so much more to do, and it’s not government that can do it.”
Politically, Ronald Reagan using Federal purse strings to strong arm states is…a strange pairing. But beyond the politics, there’s a bigger message. The Federal government has used other levers to push states, but to change the drinking age there was one big tool. The thing that changed the country wasn’t just the lines on states’ edges. It was the ones that run through them.
Vox.com. “Why the US Drinking Age Is 21.” YouTube. YouTube, August 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aWYJugVTs4.
Guiding Questions:
- Based on this video, did MADD impact federal policy related to drunk driving?
- According to this video, did legislation alone help change drunk driving?
American Addiction Centers: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
Every single day in the United States, 28 people die in a car crash that involves a driver who is under the influence of and impaired by alcohol, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes. This equates to just more than one death every hour of every day in America.
After the senseless death of her 13-year-old daughter Cari, who was killed by a drunk driver, Candace Lightner began feverishly working in her home state of California to raise awareness about drunk driving and to attempt to illicit change in drunk driving laws. Together with another mother, Cindi Lamb, whose child was a victim of a crash with an alcohol-impaired driver, the grassroots nonprofit organization Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or MADD, was founded and incorporated in Sacramento, California on September 5th of 1980…
Since 1980, MADD reports that they have helped to cut drunk driving deaths in half, saved around 350,000 lives, and helped more than 850,000 victims. Today, there are several hundred local MADD chapters spread throughout the US and Canada. The journal World Psychiatry publishes that the MADD campaign has helped to get over 1,000 new laws involving alcohol passed on both a local and national level, including laws regarding server liability, the setting up of sobriety checkpoints, and raising the minimum drinking age. MADD has also influenced public perception of drunk driving, putting faces to the victims to highlight that these are not “accidents” but rather instances of avoidable violence and that the crime is not “victimless.”
… Arguably, MADD has been extremely influential, not only in affecting public policy and legislation, but also in changing public perception and social policy. As a grassroots organization, MADD has brought the crimes and tragedy of drunk driving consequences into the light, offering hope and encouragement for survivors, victims, and their families while also advocating for preventative efforts and positive change.
Editors of American Addiction Centers. “Effectiveness of Mothers Against Drunk Driving: Over the years, MADD has worked tirelessly to influence DUI laws, increase public awareness about underage drinking and impaired driving.” American Addiction Centers. December 13, 2022. https://alcohol.org/teens/mothers-against-drunk-driving/.
Guiding Questions
After the senseless death of her 13-year-old daughter Cari, who was killed by a drunk driver, Candace Lightner began feverishly working in her home state of California to raise awareness about drunk driving and to attempt to illicit change in drunk driving laws. Together with another mother, Cindi Lamb, whose child was a victim of a crash with an alcohol-impaired driver, the grassroots nonprofit organization Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or MADD, was founded and incorporated in Sacramento, California on September 5th of 1980…
Since 1980, MADD reports that they have helped to cut drunk driving deaths in half, saved around 350,000 lives, and helped more than 850,000 victims. Today, there are several hundred local MADD chapters spread throughout the US and Canada. The journal World Psychiatry publishes that the MADD campaign has helped to get over 1,000 new laws involving alcohol passed on both a local and national level, including laws regarding server liability, the setting up of sobriety checkpoints, and raising the minimum drinking age. MADD has also influenced public perception of drunk driving, putting faces to the victims to highlight that these are not “accidents” but rather instances of avoidable violence and that the crime is not “victimless.”
… Arguably, MADD has been extremely influential, not only in affecting public policy and legislation, but also in changing public perception and social policy. As a grassroots organization, MADD has brought the crimes and tragedy of drunk driving consequences into the light, offering hope and encouragement for survivors, victims, and their families while also advocating for preventative efforts and positive change.
Editors of American Addiction Centers. “Effectiveness of Mothers Against Drunk Driving: Over the years, MADD has worked tirelessly to influence DUI laws, increase public awareness about underage drinking and impaired driving.” American Addiction Centers. December 13, 2022. https://alcohol.org/teens/mothers-against-drunk-driving/.
Guiding Questions
- Why is the name “Mothers” Against Drunk driving a powerful title to the organization?
- Why did Candy Lightner found MADD?
- Based on this article, did MADD impact federal policy related to drunk driving?
- According to this article, did legislation alone help change drunk driving?
Glasses: Video
Guiding Questions:
Maddcanada. “Glasses - Public Television Campaign.” YouTube. YouTube, November 20, 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrhV3QTkNyw.
- What did it feel like watching this clip?
- Why might this public awareness campaign have been effective?
Maddcanada. “Glasses - Public Television Campaign.” YouTube. YouTube, November 20, 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrhV3QTkNyw.
Drunk Driving Video
Guiding Questions:
Casskane007. “Best Madd Anti Dui Commercial Ever.” YouTube. YouTube, November 18, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b69J_bMoYk.
- What did it feel like watching this clip?
- Why might this public awareness campaign have been effective?
- Was the purpose of MADD’s early advertising campaign to support stricter laws relating to drinking and driving or to encourage individuals to make a personal choice to stop drinking and driving?
Casskane007. “Best Madd Anti Dui Commercial Ever.” YouTube. YouTube, November 18, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b69J_bMoYk.
John J Miller: The Case Against 21
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says on its website that setting the legal drinking age at 21, rather than 18, has saved “more than 21,000 lives” from alcohol-related traffic fatalities. It certainly sounds like a success story. But is it really so simple?
The former president of Middlebury College says that the picture is in fact far more complicated. “It’s just not true,” says John M. McCardell Jr. of MADD’s assertion. “I’m not going to claim that legal-age 21 has saved no lives at all, but it’s just one factor among many and it’s not anywhere near the most important factor.”As his report reveals, alcohol-related driving fatalities have fallen sharply since 1982, when a presidential commission on drunk driving urged states to raise their drinking ages to 21. That year, there were 1.64 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel; in 2001, there were 0.63 deaths. That’s a drop of 62 percent.
This is an important achievement. Yet the drinking age probably played only a small role. The dramatic increase in seat-belt use almost certainly accounts for most of the improvement. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that the proper use of seat belts reduces the odds of death for front-seat passengers involved in a car crashes by 45 percent. In 1984, when President Reagan linked federal highway funds to the 21-year drinking age, about 14 percent of motorists used seat belts. By 2004, this figure had shot up to 80 percent. Also during this period, life-saving airbags became a standard feature on cars.
What’s more, alcohol-related fatalities were beginning to decline before the movement for a raised drinking age got off the ground, thanks to a cultural shift. “As a society, we’ve become a lot more aware of the problem of drunk driving,” says McCardell. “When I was in school, nobody used the term ‘designated driver.’” Demographic forces helped out, too: In the 1980s, following the Baby Boom, the population of young people actually shrank. Fewer young drivers means fewer high-risk drivers, and so even if attitudes about seat belts and drunk driving hadn’t changed, there almost certainly would have been a reduction in traffic deaths anyway.
McCardell suggests that one effect of raising the drinking age was not to prevent deaths but merely to delay them. “The most common age for drinking-related deaths is now 21, followed by 22 and 23,” he says. “It seems that the minimum drinking age is as likely to have postponed fatalities as to have reduced them.”
Miller, John J. “John J. Miller on Drinking Age on National Review Online.” National Review Online, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070829161232/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzU4NTcwMTQ4NTBmYzVlNWMzZjgwYTRjYjgyMzllMjg%3D.
Guiding Questions
The former president of Middlebury College says that the picture is in fact far more complicated. “It’s just not true,” says John M. McCardell Jr. of MADD’s assertion. “I’m not going to claim that legal-age 21 has saved no lives at all, but it’s just one factor among many and it’s not anywhere near the most important factor.”As his report reveals, alcohol-related driving fatalities have fallen sharply since 1982, when a presidential commission on drunk driving urged states to raise their drinking ages to 21. That year, there were 1.64 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel; in 2001, there were 0.63 deaths. That’s a drop of 62 percent.
This is an important achievement. Yet the drinking age probably played only a small role. The dramatic increase in seat-belt use almost certainly accounts for most of the improvement. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that the proper use of seat belts reduces the odds of death for front-seat passengers involved in a car crashes by 45 percent. In 1984, when President Reagan linked federal highway funds to the 21-year drinking age, about 14 percent of motorists used seat belts. By 2004, this figure had shot up to 80 percent. Also during this period, life-saving airbags became a standard feature on cars.
What’s more, alcohol-related fatalities were beginning to decline before the movement for a raised drinking age got off the ground, thanks to a cultural shift. “As a society, we’ve become a lot more aware of the problem of drunk driving,” says McCardell. “When I was in school, nobody used the term ‘designated driver.’” Demographic forces helped out, too: In the 1980s, following the Baby Boom, the population of young people actually shrank. Fewer young drivers means fewer high-risk drivers, and so even if attitudes about seat belts and drunk driving hadn’t changed, there almost certainly would have been a reduction in traffic deaths anyway.
McCardell suggests that one effect of raising the drinking age was not to prevent deaths but merely to delay them. “The most common age for drinking-related deaths is now 21, followed by 22 and 23,” he says. “It seems that the minimum drinking age is as likely to have postponed fatalities as to have reduced them.”
Miller, John J. “John J. Miller on Drinking Age on National Review Online.” National Review Online, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070829161232/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzU4NTcwMTQ4NTBmYzVlNWMzZjgwYTRjYjgyMzllMjg%3D.
Guiding Questions
- Based on this article, did MADD impact federal policy related to drunk driving?
- According to this article, did legislation alone help change drunk driving?
Rick Sand: DUI Statistics In The United States
An arrest for a DUI can cause your insurance to skyrocket by around 71%. Many drivers find it impossible to get back on the road after their DUI, simply because the costs become too expensive for them to afford. However, drunk driving is on a decline. Between 1991 and 2017, the rate of accidents and fatalities has decreased by 50%. [T]he United States… are the third worst country when it comes to drunk driving—which obviously isn’t great. In 2015, South Africa was ranked number one as the worst country when it comes to drunk driving. With 58% of their fatal accidents involving alcohol in some way, they sit high above the second and third seats. The second seat goes to Canada, at 34% and the third to the United States at 31%. Countries on the lower end of the spectrum include Germany (9%), Russia (9%), India (5%), and China (4%).
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET A DUI IN THE UNITED STATES?
…Some states will allow you to be released when bail is paid, but other states have a one- or two-day minimum sentence for people who are arrested for driving under the influence. Your circumstances may be different depending on the nature of your accident. If anyone else is injured, or even killed, your jail time could be much longer. However, this would normally be determined in court… After this, you’ll lose your license for a period of time. After your license is restored, you may have to deal with a variety of restrictions, like taking a breathalyzer before starting your car.
You may also have to serve probation, even if you don’t serve jail time. This probation will be used to keep someone from repeating an offense. If you were to repeat your offense, you may face greater jail time for breaking your probation.
Before getting your license back, you may have to attend driving school specifically for people convicted of DUIs. You’ll then have to pay your fines in order to get your license back. Your insurance may also go up because of your new DUI.
WHAT ARE DUI PENALTIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES?
Let’s look at South Africa, the country with the highest concentration of alcohol accidents in the world. In South Africa, it’s illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content greater than .05, a little lower than the US’s .08mg/dl. If you’re arrested for drunk driving, you’ll likely be granted bail. However, if you’re convicted a second time, you may be sent to prison for up to six years… In China, the legal limit for alcohol in the blood while driving is .02mg, much lower than both the US and South Africa. They have a zero-tolerance policy for repeat offenders, and may suspend your license for a few months even if you’re a first time offender.
DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE STRICT-ENOUGH DUI LAWS?
When comparing the United States to other countries, it’s easy to see that many other countries have stricter laws than the US, especially when it comes to longer suspension times and higher fines. Other countries generally make it harder to get back on the road after a DUI… In China, their low tolerance policies seem to be working when it comes to keeping drunk drivers off the roads. The United States could experiment with tighter laws and see what happens. However, our percentages seem to be going down over the years.
Sand, Rick. “Comparing DUI Statistics of the U.S. vs. Other Countries.” Sand Law North Dakota, October 5, 2021. https://www.sandlawnd.com/dui-statistics-of-us-vs-other-countries/.
Guiding Questions
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET A DUI IN THE UNITED STATES?
…Some states will allow you to be released when bail is paid, but other states have a one- or two-day minimum sentence for people who are arrested for driving under the influence. Your circumstances may be different depending on the nature of your accident. If anyone else is injured, or even killed, your jail time could be much longer. However, this would normally be determined in court… After this, you’ll lose your license for a period of time. After your license is restored, you may have to deal with a variety of restrictions, like taking a breathalyzer before starting your car.
You may also have to serve probation, even if you don’t serve jail time. This probation will be used to keep someone from repeating an offense. If you were to repeat your offense, you may face greater jail time for breaking your probation.
Before getting your license back, you may have to attend driving school specifically for people convicted of DUIs. You’ll then have to pay your fines in order to get your license back. Your insurance may also go up because of your new DUI.
WHAT ARE DUI PENALTIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES?
Let’s look at South Africa, the country with the highest concentration of alcohol accidents in the world. In South Africa, it’s illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content greater than .05, a little lower than the US’s .08mg/dl. If you’re arrested for drunk driving, you’ll likely be granted bail. However, if you’re convicted a second time, you may be sent to prison for up to six years… In China, the legal limit for alcohol in the blood while driving is .02mg, much lower than both the US and South Africa. They have a zero-tolerance policy for repeat offenders, and may suspend your license for a few months even if you’re a first time offender.
DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE STRICT-ENOUGH DUI LAWS?
When comparing the United States to other countries, it’s easy to see that many other countries have stricter laws than the US, especially when it comes to longer suspension times and higher fines. Other countries generally make it harder to get back on the road after a DUI… In China, their low tolerance policies seem to be working when it comes to keeping drunk drivers off the roads. The United States could experiment with tighter laws and see what happens. However, our percentages seem to be going down over the years.
Sand, Rick. “Comparing DUI Statistics of the U.S. vs. Other Countries.” Sand Law North Dakota, October 5, 2021. https://www.sandlawnd.com/dui-statistics-of-us-vs-other-countries/.
Guiding Questions
- Based on this article, do laws impact the behavior of drunk drivers?
- According to this article, did legislation alone help change drunk driving?
Connie Koenenn: The Company She Keeps
When Candy Lightner went to work at a consulting firm that represents restaurants that serve alcohol, she considered the job compatible with her past as the crusading founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But that hasn’t been the media perception. In a sudden wave of publicity this month, Lightner has found herself portrayed in news stories and on talk shows as having joined the enemy. “MADD Founder Switches Sides” was a typical headline, and “lobbyist for the liquor industry” the typical job description when the media discovered Lightner’s new position.
Lightner, who founded MADD in Fair Oaks, Calif., in 1980 when her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver, says she has not changed sides. “I am a government relations consultant on public policy issues, and it’s something I have wanted to do for a long time,” she says. Lightner accepted the job in November with Rick Berman, whose Washington, D.C.-based Berman and Co.'s clients include the American Beverage Institute, a 4,000-member trade organization representing restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol.
She will lobby state legislatures to reject laws that lower the legal standard for driving under the influence to .08% blood-alcohol level because she agrees with the restaurant industry’s position that these are not the dangerous drivers and it is counterproductive to waste law enforcement resources on them. Only a few states, including California, have .08% laws. Most use .10%. “Lowering the level accomplishes nothing. I think we should target the repeat offenders--they are the real danger on our roads,” says Lightner, recalling that the man who killed her daughter had a long record of DUI arrests and had just been bailed out on a hit-and-run drunk-driving charge.
Berman says Lightner will lobby state legislatures for laws that distinguish among light, moderate and heavy drinkers, and adjust the penalties accordingly. “We think that as a person’s blood-alcohol level goes up, the penalties should get stiffer,” Berman says. “The restaurant industry has never done this before.” “This escalated penalty plan is a new approach in our country and I’m very excited about it,” Lightner says. The American Beverage Institute maintains that the .08% standard makes criminals of social drinkers and weakens law enforcement by stretching it over a wider pool of drivers than is necessary.
With this position, Lightner breaks ranks with MADD and other organizations in the anti-drunk driving movement. MADD’s national president, Rebecca Brown of Tampa, Fla., says she doesn’t criticize Lightner, who to the public personifies MADD’s success. The group has grown to 3 million members and is credited with toughening laws against drunk driving in every state and with reducing alcohol-related deaths on America’s highways. “Candy made a great difference in America and we can only be grateful,” Brown says. “The issue here is not Candy Lightner. It’s .08 and we are on different sides of that issue. We have a great deal of research and evidence that even experienced drivers are impaired at that blood-alcohol level.”
California MADD worked on the campaign to lower the state’s blood alcohol level to .08%. Michelle Payne at the Sacramento office says the group has received only a few calls about Lightner and that all comments on policy come from the national office.
MADD is lobbying for .08 because its leaders think this is an achievable goal, Brown says. “However, we believe that no one should drive after drinking, period.” Lightner says she is surprised at the negative reaction to her new post, since much of her progress with MADD was made in conjunction with the restaurant industry and she was praised for the results. “We got them, in some cases, to eliminate happy hours, and two-for-one drinks, and to initiate mandatory server training for bartenders and things like designated drivers and free taxi service,” she says.
After Lightner left MADD in 1985, she wrote a book about grieving, “Giving Sorrow Words,” published in 1990. Last year, she turned her attention to Americans Against Crime, a citizens’ group aimed at stemming violent crime. “We couldn’t raise the money to keep it going,” she says. “It was partly the economy.”
Lightner, who has two grown children, lives in Alexandria, Va. She says she joined Berman’s firm because she wants to continue to make a difference. “I’ve only been doing this for 2 1/2 months and I’m not discouraged. I believe strongly in what I’m doing and I have no problem about the world knowing.” Of her relationship with MADD, she says, the disagreement is with the blood-alcohol level and nothing more. “I oppose .08 and I advocate escalated penalties. I haven’t switched to the ‘other side.’ The ‘other side’ is being a defense attorney for drunk drivers.”
Koenenn, Connie. “The Company She Keeps : Drunk driving: Candy Lightner says she still wants reforms. But now that the MADD founder works for restaurants, some wonder whose side she’s really on.” Los Angeles Times. January 29, 1994. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-26-vw-15591-story.html.
Guiding Questions
Lightner, who founded MADD in Fair Oaks, Calif., in 1980 when her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver, says she has not changed sides. “I am a government relations consultant on public policy issues, and it’s something I have wanted to do for a long time,” she says. Lightner accepted the job in November with Rick Berman, whose Washington, D.C.-based Berman and Co.'s clients include the American Beverage Institute, a 4,000-member trade organization representing restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol.
She will lobby state legislatures to reject laws that lower the legal standard for driving under the influence to .08% blood-alcohol level because she agrees with the restaurant industry’s position that these are not the dangerous drivers and it is counterproductive to waste law enforcement resources on them. Only a few states, including California, have .08% laws. Most use .10%. “Lowering the level accomplishes nothing. I think we should target the repeat offenders--they are the real danger on our roads,” says Lightner, recalling that the man who killed her daughter had a long record of DUI arrests and had just been bailed out on a hit-and-run drunk-driving charge.
Berman says Lightner will lobby state legislatures for laws that distinguish among light, moderate and heavy drinkers, and adjust the penalties accordingly. “We think that as a person’s blood-alcohol level goes up, the penalties should get stiffer,” Berman says. “The restaurant industry has never done this before.” “This escalated penalty plan is a new approach in our country and I’m very excited about it,” Lightner says. The American Beverage Institute maintains that the .08% standard makes criminals of social drinkers and weakens law enforcement by stretching it over a wider pool of drivers than is necessary.
With this position, Lightner breaks ranks with MADD and other organizations in the anti-drunk driving movement. MADD’s national president, Rebecca Brown of Tampa, Fla., says she doesn’t criticize Lightner, who to the public personifies MADD’s success. The group has grown to 3 million members and is credited with toughening laws against drunk driving in every state and with reducing alcohol-related deaths on America’s highways. “Candy made a great difference in America and we can only be grateful,” Brown says. “The issue here is not Candy Lightner. It’s .08 and we are on different sides of that issue. We have a great deal of research and evidence that even experienced drivers are impaired at that blood-alcohol level.”
California MADD worked on the campaign to lower the state’s blood alcohol level to .08%. Michelle Payne at the Sacramento office says the group has received only a few calls about Lightner and that all comments on policy come from the national office.
MADD is lobbying for .08 because its leaders think this is an achievable goal, Brown says. “However, we believe that no one should drive after drinking, period.” Lightner says she is surprised at the negative reaction to her new post, since much of her progress with MADD was made in conjunction with the restaurant industry and she was praised for the results. “We got them, in some cases, to eliminate happy hours, and two-for-one drinks, and to initiate mandatory server training for bartenders and things like designated drivers and free taxi service,” she says.
After Lightner left MADD in 1985, she wrote a book about grieving, “Giving Sorrow Words,” published in 1990. Last year, she turned her attention to Americans Against Crime, a citizens’ group aimed at stemming violent crime. “We couldn’t raise the money to keep it going,” she says. “It was partly the economy.”
Lightner, who has two grown children, lives in Alexandria, Va. She says she joined Berman’s firm because she wants to continue to make a difference. “I’ve only been doing this for 2 1/2 months and I’m not discouraged. I believe strongly in what I’m doing and I have no problem about the world knowing.” Of her relationship with MADD, she says, the disagreement is with the blood-alcohol level and nothing more. “I oppose .08 and I advocate escalated penalties. I haven’t switched to the ‘other side.’ The ‘other side’ is being a defense attorney for drunk drivers.”
Koenenn, Connie. “The Company She Keeps : Drunk driving: Candy Lightner says she still wants reforms. But now that the MADD founder works for restaurants, some wonder whose side she’s really on.” Los Angeles Times. January 29, 1994. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-26-vw-15591-story.html.
Guiding Questions
- Based on this article, what is the disagreement over 0.08?
- According to this article, do laws alone help change drunk driving?
Title IX
Title IX Timeline
Title IX Timeline:
1928: Betty Robinson becomes the first woman to win Gold in the 100 meter dash after women are allowed to compete in non-aesthetic events.
1936: A federal appeals court effectively says doctors can prescribe women birth control.
1947: The first Truman Commission report pushes for more equal access to higher education, including ending race and religious discrimination.
1953: Toni Stone becomes the first woman to regularly play professional baseball (Negro Leagues).
1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” in landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision.
1960: Wilma Rudolph becomes the first American woman to win three gold medals in an Olympics. The star Black sprinter becomes a prominent advocate for civil rights.
1963: The Commission on the Status of Women, headed by Eleanor Roosevelt, finds widespread discrimination against women in the U.S.. Congress passes the Equal Pay Act.
1964: The Civil Rights Act prevents sex discrimination and establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Patsy Mink becomes the first woman of color in the U.S. House.
1966: Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon violating a rule preventing women’s participation.
1967: Katherine Switzer registered for the Boston Marathon as K.V. Switzer and was forcibly attacked by the race director.
1971: The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) is founded to govern collegiate women’s athletics and administer national championships.
1972: Congress passes Title IX co-authored by Mink. Women are allowed to run in the Boston Marathon.
1973: The Supreme Court issues its Roe v. Wade opinion establishing the right to an abortion. Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis exhibition match.
1974: The Women’s Educational Equity Act provides grants and contracts to help with “nonsexist curricula,” as well as to help institutions meet Title IX requirements.
1976: NCAA challenges the legality of Title IX regarding athletics in a lawsuit that is dismissed.
1977: Three female students at Yale, two graduates and a male faculty member become the first to sue over sexual harassment under Title IX (Alexander v. Yale). It would fail on appeal.
1979: U.S. officials put into effect the important three-prong test for Title IX compliance when it comes to athletics.
1984: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro becomes first woman to earn a vice presidential nomination from a major political party. The U.S. wins its first Olympic gold medal in basketball.
1991: Anita Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.
1994: The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act is passed requiring schools with federal financial aid programs to provide annual information regarding gender equity.
1996: Female athletes win a lawsuit and force Brown to restore funding for women’s sports. The NBA clears the way for the WNBA.
1999: Brandi Chastain scores winning goal of World Cup final in a shootout. This image is one of the most iconic images in sports history.
2005: In Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that individuals, including coaches and teachers, have a “right of action” under Title IX if they’re retaliated against for protesting sex discrimination.
2015: The United States’ 5-2 win over Japan in the World Cup final becomes the most viewed soccer game in the history of American television.
2016: The Obama administration says transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, rescinded by the Trump administration.
2017: Serena Williams wins her 23rd Grand Slam title, second-most of all time.
2020: New Title IX amendments take effect, largely regarding sexual harassment.
2021: Report rips NCAA for failing to uphold its commitment to gender equity.
2022: The U.S. women’s national soccer team reaches a milestone agreement to be paid equally to the men’s national team. U.S. Gymnastics athletes win 1 billion dollar lawsuit against the FBI mishandling of sexual assault by former coach.
Guiding Questions
1928: Betty Robinson becomes the first woman to win Gold in the 100 meter dash after women are allowed to compete in non-aesthetic events.
1936: A federal appeals court effectively says doctors can prescribe women birth control.
1947: The first Truman Commission report pushes for more equal access to higher education, including ending race and religious discrimination.
1953: Toni Stone becomes the first woman to regularly play professional baseball (Negro Leagues).
1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” in landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision.
1960: Wilma Rudolph becomes the first American woman to win three gold medals in an Olympics. The star Black sprinter becomes a prominent advocate for civil rights.
1963: The Commission on the Status of Women, headed by Eleanor Roosevelt, finds widespread discrimination against women in the U.S.. Congress passes the Equal Pay Act.
1964: The Civil Rights Act prevents sex discrimination and establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Patsy Mink becomes the first woman of color in the U.S. House.
1966: Bobbi Gibb becomes the first woman to run the Boston Marathon violating a rule preventing women’s participation.
1967: Katherine Switzer registered for the Boston Marathon as K.V. Switzer and was forcibly attacked by the race director.
1971: The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) is founded to govern collegiate women’s athletics and administer national championships.
1972: Congress passes Title IX co-authored by Mink. Women are allowed to run in the Boston Marathon.
1973: The Supreme Court issues its Roe v. Wade opinion establishing the right to an abortion. Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis exhibition match.
1974: The Women’s Educational Equity Act provides grants and contracts to help with “nonsexist curricula,” as well as to help institutions meet Title IX requirements.
1976: NCAA challenges the legality of Title IX regarding athletics in a lawsuit that is dismissed.
1977: Three female students at Yale, two graduates and a male faculty member become the first to sue over sexual harassment under Title IX (Alexander v. Yale). It would fail on appeal.
1979: U.S. officials put into effect the important three-prong test for Title IX compliance when it comes to athletics.
1984: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro becomes first woman to earn a vice presidential nomination from a major political party. The U.S. wins its first Olympic gold medal in basketball.
1991: Anita Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.
1994: The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act is passed requiring schools with federal financial aid programs to provide annual information regarding gender equity.
1996: Female athletes win a lawsuit and force Brown to restore funding for women’s sports. The NBA clears the way for the WNBA.
1999: Brandi Chastain scores winning goal of World Cup final in a shootout. This image is one of the most iconic images in sports history.
2005: In Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that individuals, including coaches and teachers, have a “right of action” under Title IX if they’re retaliated against for protesting sex discrimination.
2015: The United States’ 5-2 win over Japan in the World Cup final becomes the most viewed soccer game in the history of American television.
2016: The Obama administration says transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, rescinded by the Trump administration.
2017: Serena Williams wins her 23rd Grand Slam title, second-most of all time.
2020: New Title IX amendments take effect, largely regarding sexual harassment.
2021: Report rips NCAA for failing to uphold its commitment to gender equity.
2022: The U.S. women’s national soccer team reaches a milestone agreement to be paid equally to the men’s national team. U.S. Gymnastics athletes win 1 billion dollar lawsuit against the FBI mishandling of sexual assault by former coach.
Guiding Questions
- Based the timeline, why might this law have been necessary in 1972?
- Are there any events in this timeline that surprise you? Why or why not?
Ray Levy-Uyeda: Yale Women Crew Protest
In the spring of 1976, four years after the signing of Title IX, the landmark equity-in-education legislation, and eight years after Yale University voted to admit women applicants, 19 college-athletes marched into the office of the director of physical education and peeled away their Yale training uniforms to reveal their bare bodies. Across their chests and backs they had written, “Title IX.” A photo of the day’s protest taken by a Yale Daily News photographer shows Joni Barnett, physical education director, gawping at captain Chris Ernst as she read a prepared statement decrying the conditions of the women’s rowing program. They protested because the women’s rowing team, newly formed and already better than the men’s, could barely qualify as a program: the team had no locker rooms, no bathrooms, no equipment manager, and no one to wash their uniforms. Either because of a supposed lack of money or because they were women, the university didn’t think the team was worth the investment. "I think women were theoretical to them, but not real,” Ernst told me recently, reflecting on the women's treatment as athletes. After practice, the women athletes would wait on the bus that they shared with the men’s team, still soaked with cold river water, while the men athletes showered away any evidence of their training. Their conditions were a violation of Title IX, and the athletes wanted to do something about it.
The protest was successful by a number of measures: the Yale women’s rowing program got the showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms they demanded; the university hired a faculty member to oversee Title IX compliance; nationwide, universities hurried away to engender Title IX equitability within their own athletic programming. “They found, magically, the money,” Ernst told me. “The university finally had to realize they're gonna have to have a program for women; they're gonna have to actually acknowledge and obey Title IX.” Revealing themselves had worked, and the Yale women produced a kind of public-facing vulnerability that’s often needed to create broader social change.
Levy-Uyeda, Ray. “Yale Rowers Broke Barries Thanks to Title IX.” Global Sport Matters, June 21, 2022. https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2020/09/24/women-broke-barriers-bodies-title-ix/.
Questions:
The protest was successful by a number of measures: the Yale women’s rowing program got the showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms they demanded; the university hired a faculty member to oversee Title IX compliance; nationwide, universities hurried away to engender Title IX equitability within their own athletic programming. “They found, magically, the money,” Ernst told me. “The university finally had to realize they're gonna have to have a program for women; they're gonna have to actually acknowledge and obey Title IX.” Revealing themselves had worked, and the Yale women produced a kind of public-facing vulnerability that’s often needed to create broader social change.
Levy-Uyeda, Ray. “Yale Rowers Broke Barries Thanks to Title IX.” Global Sport Matters, June 21, 2022. https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2020/09/24/women-broke-barriers-bodies-title-ix/.
Questions:
- Based on this explanation of events, how was Title IX used?
Julie Johnson: Grove City Bill
[E]ven with popular legislation, benefiting women, minorities, older Americans and people with physical disabilities, many lawmakers, particularly Republicans up for re-election, face a tough choice: A vote to override places them squarely against a still-popular President, and against other interest groups that are also powerful.
The bill passed Congress overwhelmingly… Mr. Reagan, who has introduced an alternative civil rights package, acknowledges that the Supreme Court ruling went too far in limiting Federal antidiscrimination laws, but he contends that the Congressional remedy goes too far in the other direction. The Supreme Court ruled that antidiscrimination provisions on the use of Federal aid apply only to specific programs, not to an entire institution. It held that discrimination in a Grove City College sports program did not justify the denial of Federal aid outside that program.
Although the four-year liberal arts institution did not receive any direct Federal funds, it did enroll students who received federally-backed stipends or grants. The college became entangled in a legal battle with the Government when it separated boys and girls in the school's intramural sports program and refused to file a statement of compliance with Title IX.. The High Court stipulated that it was only the school's financial aid program that was covered by discrimination statutes.
That logic, critics feared, would leave huge loopholes for institutions, and not only schools, to discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race or physical handicaps. The debate has only intensified since 1984…
The conservative Christian groups offer two main objections. For one, they say provisions of the law that bar discrimination against the handicapped are unclear, and some evangelicals assert that the definition could be interpreted to include homosexuals and other groups without physical or mental disabilities. They are also worried about exemptions for religious schools… A widely distributed lobbying letter mailed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell states: “Because of the pressure brought on by the homosexual movement in this country, Congress has caved in to this pressure and passed a law that, combined with present court cases, would qualify drug addicts, alcoholics, active homosexuals, transvestites, among others, for Federal protection as handicapped.”
Johnson, Julie. “Washington Talk: Congress; Foes of Civil Rights Bill Mount 11th-Hour Drive.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 22, 1988. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/22/us/washington-talk-congress-foes-of-civil-rights-bill-mount-11th-hour-drive.html?searchResultPosition=7.
Questions:
The bill passed Congress overwhelmingly… Mr. Reagan, who has introduced an alternative civil rights package, acknowledges that the Supreme Court ruling went too far in limiting Federal antidiscrimination laws, but he contends that the Congressional remedy goes too far in the other direction. The Supreme Court ruled that antidiscrimination provisions on the use of Federal aid apply only to specific programs, not to an entire institution. It held that discrimination in a Grove City College sports program did not justify the denial of Federal aid outside that program.
Although the four-year liberal arts institution did not receive any direct Federal funds, it did enroll students who received federally-backed stipends or grants. The college became entangled in a legal battle with the Government when it separated boys and girls in the school's intramural sports program and refused to file a statement of compliance with Title IX.. The High Court stipulated that it was only the school's financial aid program that was covered by discrimination statutes.
That logic, critics feared, would leave huge loopholes for institutions, and not only schools, to discriminate on the basis of sex, age, race or physical handicaps. The debate has only intensified since 1984…
The conservative Christian groups offer two main objections. For one, they say provisions of the law that bar discrimination against the handicapped are unclear, and some evangelicals assert that the definition could be interpreted to include homosexuals and other groups without physical or mental disabilities. They are also worried about exemptions for religious schools… A widely distributed lobbying letter mailed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell states: “Because of the pressure brought on by the homosexual movement in this country, Congress has caved in to this pressure and passed a law that, combined with present court cases, would qualify drug addicts, alcoholics, active homosexuals, transvestites, among others, for Federal protection as handicapped.”
Johnson, Julie. “Washington Talk: Congress; Foes of Civil Rights Bill Mount 11th-Hour Drive.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 22, 1988. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/22/us/washington-talk-congress-foes-of-civil-rights-bill-mount-11th-hour-drive.html?searchResultPosition=7.
Questions:
- Based on this document, how did this event change the way Title IX was handled?
Linda Greenhouse: Court Opens A Path For Students in Sex-Bias cases
The Supreme Court ruled today that the Federal law barring sex discrimination in schools and colleges permits students to sue for damages for sexual harassment and other forms of sex discrimination. In a surprisingly broad 9-to-0 decision, the Court rejected the Bush Administration's argument that the law, Title IX of a 1972 education law, did not authorize monetary damages as a remedy for illegal discrimination.
In several recent cases, the Supreme Court has taken a narrow view of Federal civil rights laws, so lawyers for women's groups expressed relief about today's decision and praised it. They predicted that it would convert the little-used 20-year-old law into a powerful new weapon against sex discrimination on campus. "Having a real remedy will give an enormous push for equity," Marcia Greenberger, director of the National Women's Law Center, said in an interview. She saw the decision as a victory "that opens up Title IX dramatically" and will promote more fairness in schools and colleges.
Until now, there have been few lawsuits under Title IX. Although it is impossible to predict whether today's ruling will increase the number significantly, there is no doubt that it offers a specific new remedy to students -- men as well as women -- who feel they have been the victims of sex bias. But it was not immediately clear whether the ruling can be applied retroactively.
The new civil rights law that was passed in the last session of Congress made damages for sex discrimination available for the first time. But that law applies only in the context of employment discrimination and so does not apply to students.
The decision today overturned a ruling by a Federal appeals court in Atlanta. That court had dismissed a Title IX suit against a Georgia school district brought by a high school student who charged that school officials had failed to stop a teacher from forcing unwanted sexual attention on her for more than a year.
Greenhouse, Linda. “Court Opens Path for Student Suits in Sex-Bias Cases.” The New York Times. The New York Times, February 27, 1992. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/27/us/court-opens-path-for-student-suits-in-sex-bias-cases.html#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20ruled%20today,other%20forms%20of%20sex%20discrimination.
Questions:
In several recent cases, the Supreme Court has taken a narrow view of Federal civil rights laws, so lawyers for women's groups expressed relief about today's decision and praised it. They predicted that it would convert the little-used 20-year-old law into a powerful new weapon against sex discrimination on campus. "Having a real remedy will give an enormous push for equity," Marcia Greenberger, director of the National Women's Law Center, said in an interview. She saw the decision as a victory "that opens up Title IX dramatically" and will promote more fairness in schools and colleges.
Until now, there have been few lawsuits under Title IX. Although it is impossible to predict whether today's ruling will increase the number significantly, there is no doubt that it offers a specific new remedy to students -- men as well as women -- who feel they have been the victims of sex bias. But it was not immediately clear whether the ruling can be applied retroactively.
The new civil rights law that was passed in the last session of Congress made damages for sex discrimination available for the first time. But that law applies only in the context of employment discrimination and so does not apply to students.
The decision today overturned a ruling by a Federal appeals court in Atlanta. That court had dismissed a Title IX suit against a Georgia school district brought by a high school student who charged that school officials had failed to stop a teacher from forcing unwanted sexual attention on her for more than a year.
Greenhouse, Linda. “Court Opens Path for Student Suits in Sex-Bias Cases.” The New York Times. The New York Times, February 27, 1992. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/27/us/court-opens-path-for-student-suits-in-sex-bias-cases.html#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20ruled%20today,other%20forms%20of%20sex%20discrimination.
Questions:
- Based on this document, how did this event change the way Title IX was handled?
Alan Blinder and Erik Eckholm: Federal Judge Blocks Transgender Bathroom Access
A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from enforcing new guidelines that were intended to expand restroom access for transgender students across the country.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas said in a 38-page ruling, which he said should apply nationwide, that the government had not complied with federal law when it issued “directives which contradict the existing legislative and regulatory text.”
The judge’s order on Sunday, in a case brought by officials from more than a dozen states, was a victory for social conservatives in the continuing legal battles over the restroom guidelines, which the federal government issued this year. The culture war over the rights of transgender people, and especially their right to use public bathrooms consistent with their gender identities, has emerged as an emotional cause among social conservatives.
The Obama administration’s assertion that the rights of transgender people in public schools and workplaces are protected under existing laws against sex discrimination has been condemned by social conservatives, who said the administration was illegally intruding into local affairs and promoting a policy that would jeopardize the privacy and safety of schoolchildren.
Eckholm, Erik, and Alan Blinder. “Federal Transgender Bathroom Access Guidelines Blocked by Judge.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/us/transgender-bathroom-access-guidelines-blocked-by-judge.html.
Questions:
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas said in a 38-page ruling, which he said should apply nationwide, that the government had not complied with federal law when it issued “directives which contradict the existing legislative and regulatory text.”
The judge’s order on Sunday, in a case brought by officials from more than a dozen states, was a victory for social conservatives in the continuing legal battles over the restroom guidelines, which the federal government issued this year. The culture war over the rights of transgender people, and especially their right to use public bathrooms consistent with their gender identities, has emerged as an emotional cause among social conservatives.
The Obama administration’s assertion that the rights of transgender people in public schools and workplaces are protected under existing laws against sex discrimination has been condemned by social conservatives, who said the administration was illegally intruding into local affairs and promoting a policy that would jeopardize the privacy and safety of schoolchildren.
Eckholm, Erik, and Alan Blinder. “Federal Transgender Bathroom Access Guidelines Blocked by Judge.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/us/transgender-bathroom-access-guidelines-blocked-by-judge.html.
Questions:
- Based on this document, how did this event change the way Title IX was handled?
Bianca Quilantan: Devos Reveals Rules That Boost Rights For Students Accused Of Sexual-Misconduct
Schools and colleges face a major overhaul in how they handle sexual misconduct allegations after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday rebuffed calls to delay the sweeping regulation until the conclusion of the national coronavirus emergency. The Title IX rule will offer new rights to accused assailants, and require colleges to respond to formal complaints with courtroom-like hearings. The hearings, which will allow representatives for alleged offenders and victims to call witnesses and challenge their credibility, can occur live or virtually. Students and staff would also have a right to appeal a school’s decisions.
President Donald Trump, conservatives and some civil liberties groups praised the changes as a boon to due process. But the new rule prompted hostile rebukes from Democrats, prominent higher education leaders and advocacy groups who promised a fight, including in the courts.
To investigate and make decisions on complaints, schools will have to use trained personnel to evaluate evidence, though they could offer “informal resolution” options to involved individuals. Schools will also have their choice of using two standards of evidence to make decisions: a “clear and convincing” standard or a less-restrictive standard that relies on the “preponderance of evidence.”
DeVos said that the rule came after years of research and input, and will ensure a process for deciding claims that is fair to all students. “We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues,” DeVos said.
The Obama administration had laid out guidance pushing schools to resolve an epidemic of complaints of sexual assault and harassment. But DeVos scrapped the Obama-era policies, saying they were unfair to everyone involved, and she now wants to balance the scales of justice with clear, formal rules.
The White House described the policy change as a way to"restore fairness and due process to our campuses,” arguing that colleges and universities “have often stacked the deck against the accused, failing to offer protections such as a presumption of innocence or adequate ability to rebut allegations.” “With today’s action and every action to come, the Trump administration will fight for America’s students,” Trump said in a statement. The regulations are effective Aug. 14, 2020.
Quilantan , Bianca. “Devos Unveils Rule That Boosts Rights for Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct.” POLITICO, May 6, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/betsy-devos-sexual-misconduct-rule-schools-240131.
Questions:
President Donald Trump, conservatives and some civil liberties groups praised the changes as a boon to due process. But the new rule prompted hostile rebukes from Democrats, prominent higher education leaders and advocacy groups who promised a fight, including in the courts.
To investigate and make decisions on complaints, schools will have to use trained personnel to evaluate evidence, though they could offer “informal resolution” options to involved individuals. Schools will also have their choice of using two standards of evidence to make decisions: a “clear and convincing” standard or a less-restrictive standard that relies on the “preponderance of evidence.”
DeVos said that the rule came after years of research and input, and will ensure a process for deciding claims that is fair to all students. “We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues,” DeVos said.
The Obama administration had laid out guidance pushing schools to resolve an epidemic of complaints of sexual assault and harassment. But DeVos scrapped the Obama-era policies, saying they were unfair to everyone involved, and she now wants to balance the scales of justice with clear, formal rules.
The White House described the policy change as a way to"restore fairness and due process to our campuses,” arguing that colleges and universities “have often stacked the deck against the accused, failing to offer protections such as a presumption of innocence or adequate ability to rebut allegations.” “With today’s action and every action to come, the Trump administration will fight for America’s students,” Trump said in a statement. The regulations are effective Aug. 14, 2020.
Quilantan , Bianca. “Devos Unveils Rule That Boosts Rights for Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct.” POLITICO, May 6, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/betsy-devos-sexual-misconduct-rule-schools-240131.
Questions:
- Based on this document, how did this event change the way Title IX was handled?
Dustin Jones: Biden's Title IX Reforms Would Roll Back Trump-Era Rules, Expand Victim Protections
President Biden and the Department of Education announced proposed amendments to the legislation that would reinstate victim protections that were rolled back by President Donald Trump. The Department of Education said the amendments will include clarifying text to include protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to strengthen the rights of LGBTQI+ students. "They would make clear that preventing someone from participating in school programs and activities consistent with their gender identity would cause harm in violation of Title IX, except in some limited areas set out in the statute or regulations," the department said.
The department also said it plans to issue a separate notice of proposed rulemaking to address whether and how the agency should amend the Title IX regulations to address students' eligibility to participate on a particular male or female athletics team. Amendments will also include language to prevent discrimination base on sex stereotypes and pregnancy, the department said. It would require schools to provide reasonable modifications for pregnant students and reasonable break time for pregnant employees as well as lactation spaces.
And parents, guardians and a student's authorized legal representative would have greater protections to act on a student's behalf. That would allow these parties to seek assistance under Title IX and participate in grievance procedures, the department said…
Under the Trump-era regulations, some forms of sex-based harassment weren't considered to be Title IX violations. But the proposed changes, which will undergo a public comment period before being finalized, will include all "unwelcome sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment by denying or limiting a person's ability to participate in or benefit from a school's education program or activity."
The Trump administration's version of Title IX, which remains in place until the amendments are approved, only requires educational institutions to investigate formal sexual harassment complaints. The Department of Education said it would keep as much of the current regulation as possible to ensure consistency, but Biden's changes would require schools to investigate all complaints.
Jones, Dustin. “Biden's Title IX Reforms Would Roll Back Trump-Era Rules, Expand Victim Protections.” NPR. NPR, June 23, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107045291/title-ix-9-biden-expand-victim-protections-discrimination.
Questions:
The department also said it plans to issue a separate notice of proposed rulemaking to address whether and how the agency should amend the Title IX regulations to address students' eligibility to participate on a particular male or female athletics team. Amendments will also include language to prevent discrimination base on sex stereotypes and pregnancy, the department said. It would require schools to provide reasonable modifications for pregnant students and reasonable break time for pregnant employees as well as lactation spaces.
And parents, guardians and a student's authorized legal representative would have greater protections to act on a student's behalf. That would allow these parties to seek assistance under Title IX and participate in grievance procedures, the department said…
Under the Trump-era regulations, some forms of sex-based harassment weren't considered to be Title IX violations. But the proposed changes, which will undergo a public comment period before being finalized, will include all "unwelcome sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment by denying or limiting a person's ability to participate in or benefit from a school's education program or activity."
The Trump administration's version of Title IX, which remains in place until the amendments are approved, only requires educational institutions to investigate formal sexual harassment complaints. The Department of Education said it would keep as much of the current regulation as possible to ensure consistency, but Biden's changes would require schools to investigate all complaints.
Jones, Dustin. “Biden's Title IX Reforms Would Roll Back Trump-Era Rules, Expand Victim Protections.” NPR. NPR, June 23, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107045291/title-ix-9-biden-expand-victim-protections-discrimination.
Questions:
- Based on this document, how did this event change the way Title IX was handled?
Remy Tumin: Title IX Gave Women Greater Access to Education
On June 23, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed an omnibus education bill that would change the paths of millions of women and girls in the United States. At first glance, the sweep conveyed by the words themselves can be hard to recognize. Title IX was part of a long list of education amendments in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, buried amid antibusing policies and outlines of federal financial aid funding. In just 37 words, the statute guaranteed a means to ensure equal access for women to education…
Lawmakers used the Civil Rights Act for framing but intentionally downplayed the policy’s significance to assure its passage through Congress. Fifty years later, Title IX continues to reverberate around the country, ushering in a new era of women’s sports and a framework for handling sexual misconduct complaints on campus.
“Part of the beauty of Title IX is its breadth and comprehensiveness. It’s a ban without creating an exhaustive list,” said Wendy Mink, whose mother, Rep. Patsy Mink, Democrat of Hawaii, was one of the lawmakers to spearhead the policy. The official name of Title IX was changed to the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act after Mink’s death in 2002. “It’s open to interpretation and application,” Wendy Mink said. “She wanted to make sure each of the interpretations would not only be applied but enforced.”
The most visible changes were seen in gymnasiums, fields and courts across the United States — young women were entitled to the same athletic opportunities as their male counterparts at schools. According to a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation, high school participation rose from 294,015 in the 1971-72 school year to 3.4 million in 2018-19 (participation by boys was 3.67 million in 1971-72 and 4.53 million in 2018-19). At the collegiate level, participation at N.C.A.A. schools rose from 29,977 athletes in women’s sports in 1971-72 to 215,486 in 2020-21. Men’s sports had 275,769 athletes in 2020-21.
What’s missing from Title IX?
While Title IX’s intentions to be broad and encompassing have ensured rights for many women and girls, white women have benefited the most. Title IX does not directly address race, gender identity, disabilities or other characteristics besides sex. The Women’s Sports Foundation found that Asian, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and other girls and women of color participate in sport at lower levels than white women do. The same was true for women with disabilities compared with men who had disabilities. Women of color are also underrepresented in athletic leadership.
A new interpretation of Title IX includes transgender students and new sexual assault guidelines. Title IX falls under the executive branch and therefore is subject to interpretation by each administration. The Biden administration proposed new rules on Thursday that would extend Title IX protections to transgender students by expanding the definition of “sex” to include “stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” The new language, which is still subject to a commentary period, also rolled back a Trump administration policy that narrowed the scope of campus sexual misconduct investigations. The Biden administration maintained that the current rules “weakened protections for survivors of sexual assault and diminished the promise of an education free from discrimination.”
As proposed, the guidance would officially make protecting transgender students a federal legal requirement of Title IX. However, the Education Department said its guidelines for sports would be crafted separately. Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said Thursday that its goal was to create rules for how schools can determine eligibility for sports teams “while upholding Title IX’s nondiscrimination guarantee.” But he declined to give details about how those rules would be determined.
The proposed changes come amid highly contentious debate throughout the sports world about whether transgender women should be allowed to compete in women’s divisions. Some major sports federations have heavily restricted transgender women from competing in women’s divisions. FINA, the world governing body for swimming, voted to prohibit transgender women from competing unless they began medical treatments to suppress production of testosterone before going through one of the early stages of puberty, or by age 12, whichever occurred later. It established one of the strictest rules against transgender participation in international sports.
Nearly 20 states have enacted laws or issued statewide rules that bar or limit transgender sports participation. Title IX, for now, is unlikely to be used specifically by lawmakers either to push for more inclusion or exclusion of transgender women in women’s divisions. The law, an education policy at its core, enjoys broad support by the public and both Republican and Democrat lawmakers.
Tumin, Remy. “Title IX Gave Women Greater Access to Education. Here’s What It Says and Does. The law has grown participation for women and girls in sports and has had other significant ramifications, too.” New York Times. June 22, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/sports/what-is-title-ix.html.
Questions:
Lawmakers used the Civil Rights Act for framing but intentionally downplayed the policy’s significance to assure its passage through Congress. Fifty years later, Title IX continues to reverberate around the country, ushering in a new era of women’s sports and a framework for handling sexual misconduct complaints on campus.
“Part of the beauty of Title IX is its breadth and comprehensiveness. It’s a ban without creating an exhaustive list,” said Wendy Mink, whose mother, Rep. Patsy Mink, Democrat of Hawaii, was one of the lawmakers to spearhead the policy. The official name of Title IX was changed to the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act after Mink’s death in 2002. “It’s open to interpretation and application,” Wendy Mink said. “She wanted to make sure each of the interpretations would not only be applied but enforced.”
The most visible changes were seen in gymnasiums, fields and courts across the United States — young women were entitled to the same athletic opportunities as their male counterparts at schools. According to a study by the Women’s Sports Foundation, high school participation rose from 294,015 in the 1971-72 school year to 3.4 million in 2018-19 (participation by boys was 3.67 million in 1971-72 and 4.53 million in 2018-19). At the collegiate level, participation at N.C.A.A. schools rose from 29,977 athletes in women’s sports in 1971-72 to 215,486 in 2020-21. Men’s sports had 275,769 athletes in 2020-21.
What’s missing from Title IX?
While Title IX’s intentions to be broad and encompassing have ensured rights for many women and girls, white women have benefited the most. Title IX does not directly address race, gender identity, disabilities or other characteristics besides sex. The Women’s Sports Foundation found that Asian, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and other girls and women of color participate in sport at lower levels than white women do. The same was true for women with disabilities compared with men who had disabilities. Women of color are also underrepresented in athletic leadership.
A new interpretation of Title IX includes transgender students and new sexual assault guidelines. Title IX falls under the executive branch and therefore is subject to interpretation by each administration. The Biden administration proposed new rules on Thursday that would extend Title IX protections to transgender students by expanding the definition of “sex” to include “stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” The new language, which is still subject to a commentary period, also rolled back a Trump administration policy that narrowed the scope of campus sexual misconduct investigations. The Biden administration maintained that the current rules “weakened protections for survivors of sexual assault and diminished the promise of an education free from discrimination.”
As proposed, the guidance would officially make protecting transgender students a federal legal requirement of Title IX. However, the Education Department said its guidelines for sports would be crafted separately. Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said Thursday that its goal was to create rules for how schools can determine eligibility for sports teams “while upholding Title IX’s nondiscrimination guarantee.” But he declined to give details about how those rules would be determined.
The proposed changes come amid highly contentious debate throughout the sports world about whether transgender women should be allowed to compete in women’s divisions. Some major sports federations have heavily restricted transgender women from competing in women’s divisions. FINA, the world governing body for swimming, voted to prohibit transgender women from competing unless they began medical treatments to suppress production of testosterone before going through one of the early stages of puberty, or by age 12, whichever occurred later. It established one of the strictest rules against transgender participation in international sports.
Nearly 20 states have enacted laws or issued statewide rules that bar or limit transgender sports participation. Title IX, for now, is unlikely to be used specifically by lawmakers either to push for more inclusion or exclusion of transgender women in women’s divisions. The law, an education policy at its core, enjoys broad support by the public and both Republican and Democrat lawmakers.
Tumin, Remy. “Title IX Gave Women Greater Access to Education. Here’s What It Says and Does. The law has grown participation for women and girls in sports and has had other significant ramifications, too.” New York Times. June 22, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/sports/what-is-title-ix.html.
Questions:
- Based on the primary and secondary material, how has TITLE IX changed overtime?
DOMA
Defense of Marriage Act
Andrea Bernstein: Hilary Clinton’s Gay Marriage Evolution
In the midst of her senate campaign in 2000, Hilary Clinton’s position on DOMA, a law her husband signed into effect, came under fire. In this document, a reporter who interviewed her then and over the course of her career as a Senator, Secretary of State, and presidential candidate described her early position.
I found myself covering Hillary Clinton’s run for U.S. Senate in New York, the birthplace of the gay rights movement. And her views on DOMA were a lingering mystery.
Hillary… held her first extended question-and-answer session with reporters in a cold January day. The first question was about a custody dispute involving a Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez. The second was mine: If she were a senator, would she vote for DOMA?
"The Defense of Marriage Act has already been before the Senate," Clinton pushed back. "What I’m concerned about is what’s going to happen at the state level." She went on to express her support for partnership benefits, not marriage. I pressed. Did you agree with Mr. Clinton on DOMA or not?
"He was against it, yeah, I agree with that. But it's moot. It’s already been through the Senate." Then The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and I shot back. "But he signed it. He signed it."
"He signed it," Clinton agreed. "But he signed it because it was something the Congress said, 'Take it or leave it. You’re going to have to do it.' They would have passed it over his veto."
Listening back to that tape — recorded on a long-gone cassette recorder — it's hard to believe how many questions Clinton took on the issue, until she eventually cried uncle. "I would have voted for it at that time but I think to go back and talk about DOMA now especially...is something that is divisive."
So then, why was she against gay marriage? Here's the part of her answer that later became famous. "Because I believe marriage means something different. Marriage is about a historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been between a man and a woman."
To be fair, at the time, not one major elected official in either party supported gay marriage, including Bernie Sanders.
Bernstein, Andrea. “The Tale of the Tape: Hillary Clinton's Gay Marriage Evolution.” WNYC News. November 3, 2015. https://www.wnyc.org/story/tale-tape-hillary-clintons-gay-evolution/.
I found myself covering Hillary Clinton’s run for U.S. Senate in New York, the birthplace of the gay rights movement. And her views on DOMA were a lingering mystery.
Hillary… held her first extended question-and-answer session with reporters in a cold January day. The first question was about a custody dispute involving a Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez. The second was mine: If she were a senator, would she vote for DOMA?
"The Defense of Marriage Act has already been before the Senate," Clinton pushed back. "What I’m concerned about is what’s going to happen at the state level." She went on to express her support for partnership benefits, not marriage. I pressed. Did you agree with Mr. Clinton on DOMA or not?
"He was against it, yeah, I agree with that. But it's moot. It’s already been through the Senate." Then The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and I shot back. "But he signed it. He signed it."
"He signed it," Clinton agreed. "But he signed it because it was something the Congress said, 'Take it or leave it. You’re going to have to do it.' They would have passed it over his veto."
Listening back to that tape — recorded on a long-gone cassette recorder — it's hard to believe how many questions Clinton took on the issue, until she eventually cried uncle. "I would have voted for it at that time but I think to go back and talk about DOMA now especially...is something that is divisive."
So then, why was she against gay marriage? Here's the part of her answer that later became famous. "Because I believe marriage means something different. Marriage is about a historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been between a man and a woman."
To be fair, at the time, not one major elected official in either party supported gay marriage, including Bernie Sanders.
Bernstein, Andrea. “The Tale of the Tape: Hillary Clinton's Gay Marriage Evolution.” WNYC News. November 3, 2015. https://www.wnyc.org/story/tale-tape-hillary-clintons-gay-evolution/.
Anthony Kennedy: Excerpt From The Majority Opinion in US vs Windsor
In 2013, in a Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor, the Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition of same-sex marriages, was a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
DOMA’s principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal. The principal purpose is to impose inequality, not for other reasons like governmental efficiency. Responsibilities, as well as rights, enhance the dignity and integrity of the person. And DOMA contrives to deprive some couples married under the laws of their State, but not other couples, of both rights and responsibilities. By creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State, DOMA forces same-sex couples to live as married for the purpose of state law but unmarried for the purpose of federal law, thus diminishing the stability and predictability of basic personal relations the State has found it proper to acknowledge and protect. By this dynamic DOMA undermines both the public and private significance of state-sanctioned same-sex marriages; for it tells those couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition. This places same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage. The differentiation demeans the couple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects, see Lawrence, 539 U. S. 558, and whose relationship the State has sought to dignify. And it humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives. Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways.
The power the Constitution grants it also restrains. And though Congress has great authority to design laws to fit its own conception of sound national policy, it cannot deny the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. What has been explained to this point should more than suffice to establish that the principal purpose and the necessary effect of this law are to demean those persons who are in a lawful same-sex marriage. This requires the Court to hold, as it now does, that DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
Kennedy , Anthony. “United States vs Windsor .” Supreme Court of the United States, June 26, 2013. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_6j37.pdf.
Question: What is Kennedy’s main argument?
DOMA’s principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal. The principal purpose is to impose inequality, not for other reasons like governmental efficiency. Responsibilities, as well as rights, enhance the dignity and integrity of the person. And DOMA contrives to deprive some couples married under the laws of their State, but not other couples, of both rights and responsibilities. By creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State, DOMA forces same-sex couples to live as married for the purpose of state law but unmarried for the purpose of federal law, thus diminishing the stability and predictability of basic personal relations the State has found it proper to acknowledge and protect. By this dynamic DOMA undermines both the public and private significance of state-sanctioned same-sex marriages; for it tells those couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition. This places same-sex couples in an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage. The differentiation demeans the couple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects, see Lawrence, 539 U. S. 558, and whose relationship the State has sought to dignify. And it humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives. Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways.
The power the Constitution grants it also restrains. And though Congress has great authority to design laws to fit its own conception of sound national policy, it cannot deny the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. What has been explained to this point should more than suffice to establish that the principal purpose and the necessary effect of this law are to demean those persons who are in a lawful same-sex marriage. This requires the Court to hold, as it now does, that DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
Kennedy , Anthony. “United States vs Windsor .” Supreme Court of the United States, June 26, 2013. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_6j37.pdf.
Question: What is Kennedy’s main argument?
Antonin Scalia: Dissenting Opinion of Justice Scalia US vs Windsor
The Court is eager—hungry—to tell everyone its view of the legal question at the heart of this case. Standing in the way is an obstacle, a technicality of little interest to anyone but the people of We the People, who created it as a barrier against judges’ intrusion into their lives. They gave judges, in Article III, only the “Judicial Power,” a power to decide not abstract questions but real, concrete “Cases” and “Controversies”… What, then, are we doing here? The answer lies at the heart of the jurisdictional portion of today’s opinion, where a single sentence lays bare the majority’s vision of our role. The Court says that we have the power to decide this case because if we did not, then our “primary role in determining the constitutionality of a law” … would “become only secondary to the President’s.” But wait, the reader wonders—Windsor won below, and so cured her injury, and the President was glad to see it. True, says the majority, but the judicial review must march on regardless, lest we “undermine the clear dictate of the separation-of-powers principle that when an Act of Congress is alleged to conflict with the Constitution, it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”
Neither party sought to undo the judgment for Windsor, and so that court should have dismissed the appeal (just as we should dismiss) for lack of jurisdiction. Since both parties agreed with the judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, the suit should have ended there.
Scalia , Antonin. “United States vs Windsor .” Supreme Court of the United States, June 26, 2013. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_6j37.pdf.
Question:
Neither party sought to undo the judgment for Windsor, and so that court should have dismissed the appeal (just as we should dismiss) for lack of jurisdiction. Since both parties agreed with the judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York, the suit should have ended there.
Scalia , Antonin. “United States vs Windsor .” Supreme Court of the United States, June 26, 2013. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-307_6j37.pdf.
Question:
- What is Scalia’s main argument?
Edith Windsor: LGBTQ Advocate Who Fought The Defense Of Marriage Act, Dies At 88
Emmanuelle Levine: On Edith Windsor, SCOTUS, and the Joys of Becoming a Person
It was that fairly unromantic, upper-middle class issue that led Edie to sue. In 2013, she won, and DOMA was overturned. In 2015, “Obergefell v. Hodges” cracked open the marriage piñata for the 37 states plus the territories that were left. That was the end of the story as I heard it in high school Gay-Straight Alliance meetings. Edie helped us win marriage, end of discussion. But of course, marriage wasn’t and isn’t the Final Boss of queer civil rights.
Edie wasn’t a perfect icon — she wasn’t especially intersectional in her approach to the movement. You’ll notice I said “gay rights” and not “LGBT rights” or even “queer justice.” A lot of people will argue that the marriage fight wasn’t the best use of our resources as a queer community, that we should have focused on employment and housing discrimination, hate crimes against transgender people of color, Title IX protections, mass incarceration and homelessness. The particular privilege of marriage that Edie sued for benefited a lot of middle-and upper-class people — estate tax exemptions are regressive; that is, they benefit rich people more than everyone else…
It is a great privilege to have marked my childhood by civil rights battles won. A privilege of being born in the right place at the right time, sure, but mostly a privilege in that a lot of people poured a lot of resources into fighting for rights that would affect me… I’m grateful to Edie for Doing the Work on my behalf. She gave me the great joy and privilege of feeling like a person. Her death is a blow, but it also opens a vacancy for me — there’s an open spot to fill in the phalanx of those who defend civil rights. In gratitude to Edie, and in the hope that more of us get to experience the exhilaration of being seen as people, I recommit to trying to fill in the battle line.
Levine , Emmanuelle. “On Edith Windsor, Scotus, and the Joys of Becoming a Person .” Yale Daily News, September 29, 2017. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/09/29/142220/.
Questions:
Edie wasn’t a perfect icon — she wasn’t especially intersectional in her approach to the movement. You’ll notice I said “gay rights” and not “LGBT rights” or even “queer justice.” A lot of people will argue that the marriage fight wasn’t the best use of our resources as a queer community, that we should have focused on employment and housing discrimination, hate crimes against transgender people of color, Title IX protections, mass incarceration and homelessness. The particular privilege of marriage that Edie sued for benefited a lot of middle-and upper-class people — estate tax exemptions are regressive; that is, they benefit rich people more than everyone else…
It is a great privilege to have marked my childhood by civil rights battles won. A privilege of being born in the right place at the right time, sure, but mostly a privilege in that a lot of people poured a lot of resources into fighting for rights that would affect me… I’m grateful to Edie for Doing the Work on my behalf. She gave me the great joy and privilege of feeling like a person. Her death is a blow, but it also opens a vacancy for me — there’s an open spot to fill in the phalanx of those who defend civil rights. In gratitude to Edie, and in the hope that more of us get to experience the exhilaration of being seen as people, I recommit to trying to fill in the battle line.
Levine , Emmanuelle. “On Edith Windsor, Scotus, and the Joys of Becoming a Person .” Yale Daily News, September 29, 2017. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/09/29/142220/.
Questions:
- Why did Levine NOT consider Windsor a LGBTQ+ advocate and instead described her as a “gay rights” advocate?
- What other concerns did she have about Windsor’s limited advocacy?
- How long did Windsor live a rather closeted life?
- What impact did Windsor have on Levine’s life?
Remedial Herstory Editors. "26. MODERN WOMEN." The Remedial Herstory Project. July 12, 2023. www.remedialherstory.com.
Primary AUTHOR: |
Kelsie Brook Eckert
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Primary ReviewerS: |
Dr. Barbara Tischler
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Consulting TeamKelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Ed at Plymouth State University Dr. Barbara Tischler Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine Associate Professor of History California State University, San Bernardino Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Rachel Perez Independent Historian |
EditorsAlice Stanley, Rachel Perez, Lauren Connolly
Reviewers18th Century
Dr. Margaret Huettl Hannah Dutton Dr. John Krueckeberg Matthew Cerjak 19th Century Dr. Rebecca Noel Michelle Stonis, MA Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA Dr. Cony Marquez Dr. Deanna Beachley 20th Century Dr. Tanya Roth Dr. Jessica Frazier Mary Bezbatchenko, MA Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine Davida Sawissa James |
"No matter how wise a mother's advice is, we listen to our peers." At least that's writer Naomi Wolf's take on the differences between her generation of feminists―the third wave―and the feminists who came before her and developed in the late '60s and '70s―the second wave. In Not My Mother's Sister, Astrid Henry agrees with Wolf that this has been the case with American feminism, but says there are problems inherent in drawing generational lines.
Second Wave feminism collapsed in the early 1980s when a universal definition of women was abandoned. At the same time, as a reaction to the narcissism of white middle class feminism, "intersectionality" led to many different feminisms according to race, sexual preference and class. These ongoing segregations make it impossible for women to unite politically and they have not ended exclusion and discrimination among women, especially in the academy. In Inclusive Feminism, Naomi Zack provides a universal, relational definition of women, critically engages both Anglo and French feminists and shows how women can become a united historical force, with the political goal of ruling in place of men.
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The sexual politics of television culture is the territory covered by this ground-breaking book - the first to demonstrate the ways in which third wave feminist television studies approaches and illuminates mainstream TV. The book offers an exuberant and accessible discussion of what television has to offer today's feminist fan. It also sets a new tone for future debate, turning away from a sober, near-pessimistic trend in much feminist media studies to reconnect with the roots of third wave feminism in riot grrrl culture, sex-radical feminism, and black feminism, tracing too the narratives provided by queer theory in which pleasure has a less contested place.
Why should feminists care about Christianity? Why should Christians care about feminism? In Feminism and Christianity Riswold presents a collection of concise answers to basic questions like these in order to generate discussion about how the two can challenge each other and can even work together in the twenty-first century. Situated firmly in the third wave of feminist activism and scholarship as well as in contemporary Christian theology, Riswold addresses issues such as race, class, gender, and sexuality with an affirmation of tradition alongside a push for change.
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New Blood offers a fresh interdisciplinary look at feminism-in-flux. For over three decades, menstrual activists have questioned the safety and necessity of feminine care products while contesting menstruation as a deeply entrenched taboo. Chris Bobel shows how a little-known yet enduring force in the feminist health, environmental, and consumer rights movements lays bare tensions between second- and third-wave feminisms and reveals a complicated story of continuity and change within the women's movement.
This revised and expanded edition, new in paperback, provides a definitive collection on the current period in feminism known by many as the 'third wave'. Three sections - genealogies and generations, locales and locations, politics and popular culture - interrogate the wave metaphor and, through questioning the generational account of feminism, indicate possible future trajectories for the feminist movement.
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Feminisms in Leisure Studies acknowledges and advances the contribution of feminist theories to leisure knowledge and research. Building upon the strong history of feminist leisure scholarship, the book reviews key feminist theories and offers an overview of a fourth wave of feminism and its relevance to leisure.
Kira Cochrane’s 'All the Rebel Women' is an irrepressible exploration of today’s feminist landscape, asking how far we have come over the past century – and how far there still is to go. Whether engaging with leading feminists, describing the fight against rape culture or bringing immediate, powerful life to vital theories such as intersectionality, 'All the Rebel Women' binds everything together into one unstoppable idea. This is modern feminism. This is the fourth wave.
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This book addresses the current resurgence of interest in feminism–notably within popular culture and media–that has led some to announce the arrival of the fourth wave. Research explores where fourth-wave feminism sits in relation to those that preceded it, and in particular, how fourth-wave feminism intersects with differing understandings of postfeminism(s).
Hip Hop Womanist writer and theologian EbonyJanice’s book of essays center a fourth wave of Womanism, dreaming, the pursuit of softness, ancestral reverence, and radical wholeness as tools of liberation. All The Black Girls Are Activists is a love letter to Black girls and Black women, asking and attempting to offer some answers to “Who would black women get to be if we did not have to create from a place of resistance?” by naming Black women’s wellness, wholeness, and survival as the radical revolution we have been waiting for.
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This book discusses the recent re-emergence of interest in feminism in popular culture and social media which has prompted many to celebrate the events as a new wave of feminism, the fourth wave. The book takes up the debate of postfeminism and /or fourth wave and studies how the new wave intersects with the previous feminist goals. It closely studies the hashtag campaigns to trace how a generation of women are drawn into (sl)activism (slacktivism) thereby surging the resurgence.
Networked Feminism tells the story of how activists have used media to reconfigure what feminist politics and organizing look like in the United States. Drawing on years spent participating in grassroots communities and observing viral campaigns, Rosemary Clark-Parsons argues that feminists engage in a do-it-ourselves feminism characterized by the use of everyday media technologies. Faced with an electoral system and a history of collective organizing that have failed to address complex systems of oppression, do-it-ourselves feminists do not rely on political organizations, institutions, or authorities. Instead, they use digital networks to build movements that reflect their values and meet the challenges of the current moment, all the while juggling the advantages and limitations of their media tools.
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How to teach with Films:
Remember, teachers want the student to be the historian. What do historians do when they watch films?
- Before they watch, ask students to research the director and producers. These are the source of the information. How will their background and experience likely bias this film?
- Also, ask students to consider the context the film was created in. The film may be about history, but it was made recently. What was going on the year the film was made that could bias the film? In particular, how do you think the gains of feminism will impact the portrayal of the female characters?
- As they watch, ask students to research the historical accuracy of the film. What do online sources say about what the film gets right or wrong?
- Afterward, ask students to describe how the female characters were portrayed and what lessons they got from the film.
- Then, ask students to evaluate this film as a learning tool. Was it helpful to better understand this topic? Did the historical inaccuracies make it unhelpful? Make it clear any informed opinion is valid.
I, Tonya shows competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rise among the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the sport is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.
IMDB. |
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011. IMDB |
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She said is the story of the two female reporters at the New York Times who broke the story about Harvey Weinstein's sexual violence and exploitation of young women and the system of Hollywood executives who protected him.
IMDB |
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Black Lives Matter. “About.” Black Lives Matter. https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/.
Bravin, Jess. "Sotomayor Issues Challenge to a Century of Corporate Law." The Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2009. Archived from the original on February 15, 2015.
Bream, Shannon. "Sotomayor Gets Her Judicial Robes." Fox News Channel, September 8, 2009. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Black Lives Matter." Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Lives-Matter.
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Campus Progress. "Five Minutes With: Helen Thomas." Center for American Progress, February 28, 2006. Archived from the original interview on June 13, 2010.
Coyle, Marcia. The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Frosch, Dan, and Joby Warrick. "For CIA Family, a Deadly Suicide Bombing Leads to Painful Divisions." The Washington Post, January 20, 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-cia-family-a-deadly-suicide-bombing-leads-to-painful-divisions/2012/01/20/gIQAyJGVYQ_story.html.
Jabbra, Nancy W. “Women, Words and War: Explaining 9/11 and Justifying U.S. Military Action in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Journal of International Women's Studies, (2006) 8(1), 236-255. https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol8/iss1/18.
Justia. "Elena Kagan." Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://supreme.justia.com/justices/elena-kagan/.
Institute for Women's Policy Research. Women, Disasters, and Hurricane Katrina. IWPR #D492. August 2010. https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/D492.pdf.
Kaplan, Anna. "Britney Spears Opens Up About Justin Timberlake in New Memoir." Today. October 24, 2023, 5:09 PM EDT. Updated October 25, 2023, 9:34 AM EDT. https://www.today.com/popculture/britney-spears-justin-timberlake-memoir-rcna121889.
Mineo, Liz. "Muslim Americans Reflect on the Impact of 9/11." Harvard Gazette, September 2021. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/09/muslim-americans-reflect-on-the-impact-of-9-11/.
Morgan, Marabel. "The Total Woman." University of Oregon. https://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~eherman/teaching/texts/Morgan%20Total%20Woman.pdf.
Murphy, Christine. “Honoring Four Women at Ground Zero.” 9/11 Memorial & Museum. N.D. https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/honoring-four-women-ground-zero.
"J.D.B. v. North Carolina,* 564 U.S. ___ (2011). Archived November 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.
Hart, Robert. "Report: Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor Targeted By Gunman Who Killed Federal Judge's Son." Forbes. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021.
Investigations. "Hunting Osama Bin Laden Was Women's Work." NBC News, November 14, 2013. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hunting-osama-bin-laden-was-womens-work-flna2d11594091.
Kakutani, Michiko. "The Bronx, the Bench and the Life in Between: My Beloved World, a Memoir by Sonia Sotomayor." The New York Times, January 21, 2013. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013.
Knoller, Mark. "When The Press Presses Perino." CBS News, December 6, 2007, 4:16 PM. Archived at the Wayback Machine, November 16, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101116025858/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500803_162-3585995-500803.html.
Kristian, Bonnie. "The Unexpected Alliance of Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch." The Week, January 16, 2019. Archived from the original on January 28, 2019.
Liptak, Adam. "Sotomayor Finds Her Voice Among Justices." The New York Times, May 7, 2014. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017.
Mears, Bill. "Shuttling Justice: Sotomayor Administers Oaths, Sells Books." CNN, January 20, 2013. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013.
Mears, Bill. "Supreme Court Begins New Term with a New Justice." CNN, October 5, 2009. Archived from the original on October 8, 2009.
Padilla, Mariel. "How Women Veterans of the Iraq War Remain Invisible 20 Years Later." The 19th, March 2023. https://19thnews.org/2023/03/iraq-war-women-veterans-invisible-20-years-later/.
Pauley, Jane. “Heroes of Flight 93.” NBC News. July 29, 2002. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3080117.
Pachucki, Jenny. “Remembering 9/11 Hero Flight Attendant Betty Ong.” 9/11 Memorial & Museum. N.D. https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/remembering-911-hero-flight-attendant-betty-ong.
PBS Frontline. "Interview with Condoleezza Rice." Frontline, July 12, 2002. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/campaign/interviews/rice.html.
Perkowitz, Sidney. “How Two Outsider Scientists Saw Inside Climate Change.“ Science History Institute. September 22, 2021. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/how-two-outsider-scientists-saw-inside-climate-change/
Petrusich, Amanda. “Why the Chicks Dropped Their “Dixie.” The New Yorker Magazine. July 13, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/why-the-chicks-dropped-their-dixie.
Rutgers. "History of Woman Governors." Center for American Women and Politic, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. 2023. https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/levels-office/statewide-elective-executive/history-women-governors.
Rice, Condoleeza. “Frontline Interview.” PBS. Campaign Against Terror. July 12, 2002. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/campaign/interviews/rice.html.
Sainato, Michael. "A Lost history: the US women who fought for better working conditions." The Guardian. January 21, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/31/9to5-pbs-documentary-women-working-conditions.
Saxon, Wolfgang. “Maria Telkes, 95, an Innovator Of Varied Uses for Solar Power.” New York Times. August 13, 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/13/us/maria-telkes-95-an-innovator-of-varied-uses-for-solar-power.html
Spaeth, Ryu. "Hillary Clinton's 9 Most Memorable Moments as Secretary of State." The Week, January 8, 2015. https://theweek.com/articles/468265/hillary-clintons-9-most-memorable-moments-secretary-state.
Stern, Mark Joseph. "Sonia Sotomayor Takes a Stand Against Police Brutality." Slate, November 9, 2015. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020.
Utah v. Strieff. The Supreme Court, 2015 Term — Leading Cases. 130 Harv. L. Rev. 337 (2016).
Vogel, Kenneth P. "Sonia Sotomayor Found Friends in Elite Group." The Politico, June 4, 2009. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009.
Vogel, Kenneth P. "Face of the Tea Party Is Female." Politico, March 26, 2010. https://www.politico.com/story/2010/03/face-of-the-tea-party-is-female-035094.
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. "Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military: Costs of War." Costs of War Project, 2024. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/sexualassault.
Yang, Maya. “How women played crucial roles in Iraq – and changed US military forever.” The Guardian. March 21, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/21/iraq-war-us-military-women.
"#Metoo." Move Me: A guide to social movements and social media. https://moveme.berkeley.edu/project/metoo/#ftnt1.
"Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Former Adjunct Professor at NYU Law, Nominated to the Supreme Court." New York University School of Law. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009.
"Justice Sotomayor Gets Over $1 Million for Memoir." San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012.
"Sesame Street: Sonia Sotomayor: 'The Justice Hears a Case.'" YouTube. February 3, 2012. Archived from the original on February 18, 2016.
"Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s Staff Prodded Colleges and Libraries to Buy Her Books." AP News, July 11, 2023.