Opinion Assignment 2: Women's Rights

I found the reading on the Mormon women against the Equal Rights Movement as an interesting viewpoint in the realm of women’s rights.  Although they were not supportive of maintaining their own rights, they were able to become an incredible force to be reckoned with when trying to pass the ERA.  Women emerged from within the Mormon religion as leaders, which was somewhat ironic due to what they were trying to stop from happening.  I feel as though it would have been obvious that this Mormon representation would try to take over Nevada while Congress was waiting on their answer.  Wasn’t it obvious there was a vast majority of Mormon women at the IWY conference?  The rest of the United States should have come up with the same sort of idea to help ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.  

Now that every United States citizen is given equal rights under the law, women still gave to fight for total equality everywhere.  As cliché sounding as it is, I think if I had the chance to construct the ideal figurehead for the women’s rights movement from 2008 and onward, I would imagine her to look and act something like Oprah Winfrey or Michelle Obama.  I imagine her as a black middle-aged woman who already has a strong following of supporters. She is well put together and already has a background in making differences in other’s lives.  She should also be involved in many organizations regarding her stance.  Although, this woman would have a political stance, in the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t matter as long as she was pushing for women’s rights. 

The entire reading of The Ladies Before Rosa: Let Us Now Praise Unfamous Women, written by Paul Hendrikson, is about how there were many other women who refused to give up their seat on the bus just like Rosa did.  However valiant these women’s actions were, they did not get the recognition for their efforts, and did not really leave big enough of an impression through their actions like Rosa.  Rosa’s actions were greatly highlighted and viewed as a major part of the change in the Civil Rights movement.  The connection between Rosa and my idea of the woman/women in charge of women’s rights today needs to be able to put things in motion, and make change happen sooner rather than later.  Having such a powerful iconic figure, would also be beneficial to achieving greater, more radical goals because they would generally have the support and financial assistance available at hand.  There could be major pitfalls as well.  Say the iconic figurehead was Michelle Obama.  With her life already in the limelight of her husband, she could obtain many people who are against her because they may not be happy with what President Obama is trying to do throughout the United States.  Actions might end up regressing in a radical situation.

Rosa Parks was a great candidate to spearhead the Montgomery Bus Boycott because she helped devise the spark of the entire bus boycott.  At age 42, Rosa worked closely with the NAACP and tried to get publicity for all African Americans and their entitled rights, but it was not until she refused to give up her seat that exposure happened. After she was arrested, she was calm and composed; she did not act violently or put up a fight, for her arrest was to prove a point and start a larger protest.  On the other hand, the text states, Claudette was a “highly emotional 15-year-old 11^th-grader about whom there were unsavory stories and who lived in a house that didn’t have an indoor toilet” (288).  Stuck in between old enough to have opinions, yet too young to be taken seriously, Claudette’s “no,” at that age, only looked like an act of teenage deviance. Also, her response to the consequence her actions brought upon her was categorized as assault and battery, even though she was just kicking and screaming in protest.  This, however, was opposite of the anti-violent deviance Martin Luther King Jr. was going for.

Claudette Colvin and all the other women who stood up and said no, deserve just as much credit as Rosa Parks.  These virtually looked-over women acted in this way because saying no was their natural reaction.  There was no planning in their efforts; they were sick and tired of being treated unfairly just because they were of a different skin color than the majority of the United States.  Their actions were noble and fearless, and won’t soon be forgotten.