I am a sixteen year old junior attending high school in California. For U.S. History I chose to do a report on women's rights. My topic question is, "How have the goals of women changed over the past one-hundred years". I would appreciate any information available about these topics. Even search words would help.

If you look back a hundred years to 1897, the status of women was very different. This was the midst of the suffragist and abolitionist era. What these women fought for and eventually won, however not until the early 1900's--were basic rights for women. Their goals--I would assume--were to secure basic human rights for women--the right to vote, to own property and to inheritance. These rights were eventually secured by the 1920's. The next phase of feminist activity focused on labor organizing--better conditions for women; better choices and better wages--and also access to birth control, which was illegal until the 1960's. During this time we also saw the emergence of women in the political field--so I would assume that that was a goal of this time, too. From this wave of feminism, we moved into the current wave of feminism, which began in the 1970s. At this time women were fighting for laws to protect them and to have an equal place in all levels of society.

Most of the above has been accomplished--however, women still have too few choices available to them and they continue to be at an unequal place in society. I think a current goal for feminism--besides working on all of the above--is that by now we have proved that women can do what men can do--now we need to have men doing what women can do. Hopefully, this combination will bring us to a more equal place.

—Amy