Topic > Abigail Adams: Founding of the American Feminist Revolution

Women continued to be excluded from politics. Women were limited to the household, discouraged from pursuing higher education or professional careers, could not legally own property, and could not vote. As Abigail had foreshadowed, injustices against women continued to grow and eventually fueled feminist revolutions in two great waves: from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and from the 1970s onward. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony and women's organizations worked to gain the right to vote, as well as economic and political equality and social reform. During this time, the number of women in the workforce has skyrocketed to approximately 19% (Weiss). At the turn of the century, women gained the right to retain their earnings and care for their children. In 1919, women gained the long-denied right to vote. In the decades following the 1970s, women in the United States gained additional legal and reproductive rights, dismantled outdated beliefs about their role in society, entered new professions, and pursued higher education. Reed v. Reed ruled that a law discriminatory against women is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment; Roe v. Wade claimed that abortion was legal; Workers at United Auto v. Johnson Controls ensured that employers could not discriminate against women who had the potential to become pregnant ("Higher Supreme Court