Did the overturning of Griswold v. Connecticut help accelerate the decision to Roe v. Wade.

In 1965, the Supreme Court overturned a Connecticut law that banned the use of contraceptives and established penalties for couples who were caught using them. The penalties faced by couples involved a $50 fine and not less than 60 days in prison. After constant attempts to appeal the law the case finally reached the U.S Supreme Court who over turned the contraceptive policy in a seven to two vote. The Supreme Court ruled that marriages were a zone of privacy and the law had no right to interfere. However, constant court cases followed. For example the case of Eisenhadt v Baird made it illegal for unmarried couples to use contraceptives. The reproductive rights campaign began to fiercely fight back. Fast forwarding to 1975 when the Roe v. Wade decisions was announced. The Supreme Court ruled that abortions were to be legal for all women. I believe that since Griswold v Connecticut was overturned by the Supreme Court the United States was starting to move into a less conservative era in regards to reproductive rights. The Supreme Court's decision aided those in favor of more reproductive rights and more available means of contraceptives. Since the the reproductive rights campaign was fueled by the overturning of Griswold v Connecticut the fight for legal abortion was already in favor of the pro- choice. So yes, I believe that the overturning of Griswold v. Connecticut helped accelerate the Supreme Court's decision to legalize abortion, and they did so fully knowing that the majority would soon be pro-choice.

Is there a correlation between women growing up poor and neglected (their economic status) and wanting to become flappers, or change the way they look and are? Was becoming a flapper their way of creating positive change for themselves and giving them a higher economic status?

In the article on Clara Bow by ABC-CLIO it discussed her life before she became a famous movie star, usually playing the role odf a flapper. She grew up in a family with very little money and old and ratty clothing. I believe that women who grew up in poor/low economic statuses wanted to become flappers because they led glamorous life styles and got to wear fancy clothes and a lot of jewelry, something people who had little money growing up never got to experience. I think having low economic statuses is what gave many women the yearning to become flappers and movie stars who played the role of flappers,  because flappers were the opposite of how women who were poor grew up. This is because flappers got to wear fancy revealing clothing, something they never got the chance to own, lots of jewelry, something they could have only dreamed of owning, and all the attention was on them and how beautiful they looked. Becoming famous as a result of becoming a movie star of flapper girl gave women the chance to be exposed to a life they had never been exposed to before, a life that they only would have been able to picture as theirs when they were little. Clara Bow love being the center of attention and being rich so much that when her career came to an end she became suicidal and needed mental help. I think the reason made such drastic changes to the ways the looked and acted was because they wanted to get as far away from the past as they could, they didn't want to return to lives that they had been living before they got the rigth to vote, which in return entitled them to more rights, freedoms, and privileges. If flaunting their, women's, bodies off was a way that could open up a new life, and life style, they were willing to do that because they wanted to know what it would be like to have everything they never had when they were growing up. This is why i believe having low economic statuses is directly related to women wanting to become flappers and movie stars that showed off their bodies because it was a way for them to get and become what they could only have dreamed of as children.

How did we forget about the advancement of the women in the 20th century?

When I began the topic of women suffrage I had what I believed to be a solid idea of the advancement of women in the 20th century was like. As it turns out I knew so little it truly scared me. Women were oppressed. That is the truth. The way that they overcame that through peaceful methods, and with much success should be marveled at. In the speech Learning From our Successes by Carol Hanisch she asserts that "We need to always remember that every inch of freedom that we enjoy today was fought for and won by women united in struggle. By women, who, like ourselves, wanted liberation above all else because it was the only way to get what we wanted and needed—to fulfill our dreams." Carol lived in the 1960's and she lived through the struggles that all women of the time had to go through. The oppression, the inequality  She lived through it all, and is able to acknowledge how far we have truly come, and all the great strides made. What is important to note is why? Why did these women do what they do and what goals did they hope to achieve this takes more synthesis. In her article Carol says " We did not see ourselves as—or aspire to be—superwomen, but to create conditions where no woman had to be superwoman to have what she needed, to have respect, to have both a family and contribute in the public labor force outside the home." So from me reading this line and her speech i see the struggle for women to be equal in not only the eyes of men, but also their own eyes. It reminded me of Native Son, and Bigger Thomas. Bigger had heard so much about how bad he was at this that and the other he began to believe. Women had after so much oppression began to believe some of the things said about them. The Goal of women like Carol and others in the women liberation movement was to simply create full gender equality between the two races. This concept is such and easy one but yet so powerful. The thing that surprised me the most is how little information i knew before research. Almost 50 of people in this country are women yet we have not learned about the powerful revolution they went through just 50 years ago. 

How did Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton become so involved in Women Suffrage?

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton became so involved in women suffrage when the 15th amendment was being outlined. The 15th amendment was to give voting rights to former slaves who were released by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Anthony and Stanton supported this amendment until they found out it was only the right for males to vote. The two women were mad but not worried because they knew that if they worked hard, they could succeed with a separate constitutional amendment "to grant women the franchise" (Gale Virtual). Anthony tried to vote but was prosecuted because voting was only for men. She refused to pay the $100 fine, but that led to thousands of people supporting her from all over the world because they knew Anthony was trying to stick up for women's rights. All of the information I have read about on the primary sources has been the same information I've read about in previous research. I still think the two women are role models- they definitely showed fine examples of how succeeding is possible if you just believe. 

Even before women were allowed to fight as soldiers in battle, in what ways were women still able to directly contribute to the war?

Despite the fact that until very recently, women have been denied the opportunity to fight in battle by law, even before the Civil War, women found many different, and sneaky ways to participate and contribute to the war effort. During both the Revolutionary and Civil War, some women dressed as men, or in their husband's/brother's/father's uniform to enlist and got away with fighting in combat disguised as men. Many women, however, found ways to contribute to the war efforts behind the scenes. During the Civil War, it was more common for women to serve as spies on both sides during the conflict. Some women even helped guard prisoners and rebellious slaves. One famous example of one of these women is Harriet Tubman who acted as a scout, spy, and conductor of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was the system of houses used to host runaway slaves who were escaping from the south to the north. Harriet Tubman made a total of 19 trips, and rescued more than 300 slaves using this Underground Railroad. Other women served as doctors and ran hospitals for those soldiers who were injured in battle. In February of 1901, The Army Nurse Corps was created and because a permanent corps of the Medical Department under the Army Reorganization Act passed by Congress. Since the Army Nurse Corps was created women were allowed to enter the military in armed forces, although they were still not allowed to fight in combat. During World War I, the jobs open for women in the army became more broad. Women began to serve as occupational and physical therapists, and clerks in the U.S. Navy, and in the U.S. Marine Corps. Women were also allowed to be pilots who would fly dangerous missions for the Women's Army Corps. Although women were frequently killed during World War II, many women served as spies during that war too. It was common for a woman who was serving as a spy to use sex to gain information from men. The feminist movement in the early 1970s was successful in opening up many jobs to women in the military that had been formerly denied to them. More than 13,000 women now served as officers. Lots of specialties and activities opened up for women to take part in. These included serving as pilots, military police, special weapon training, and other combat-support roles. During the Grenada Invasion in 1983, and the Panama Invasion in 1989, women served as helicopter pilots, air transport pilots, refueling tanker pilots, mechanics, and officers commanding supply and repair ships for the navy. I learned that most female officers actually wanted females to serve as pilots and sailors instead of infantry soldiers, however most women felt that if they truly wanted to achieve full equality in the military they would also have to serve as infantry. Currently, American women comprise approximately 15 percent of American armed forces and 6 percent of veterans.

What were women trying to accomplish, or prove, by becoming flapper girls and wearing revealing clothing?

During the 1920s a type of women known as flappers emerged. Flappers wore bright red lipstick, facial makeup, tight fitting hats, high heels, a loose and very short dress, and lots of jewelry. They sang and danced and acted, they were performers. They showed a lot of skin and wore revealing clothing. They did this for multiple reasons. Women had just gotten the right to right and other rights and freedoms they previously did not have, and as a result they wanted to think of way to exercise these new freedoms and privileges and dressing and acting in ways in which women never had before, because it wasn't accepted, was one of the ways they decided to use their new freedoms. Since a lot of positive change had been happening to women, a lot of traditional roles and rules had been broken and women thought that they should change the way women dressed and acted to go along with all the other changes that had been occurring, and so they did. It seems that it was a way for women to, in a sense, rebel against the men and show them what they had been missing out on by oppressing women and not treating them as equals. They showed men what they were capable of and that it was a direct result of obtaining equal rights. They wanted to prove that change isn't all bad and that change could be positive for both sides and not just beneficial for the women. Breaking away from past restrictions and dancing and acting in ways that had never really been done before in public was away for women, flappers, to show their independence and not to be disrespectful, although it was construed that way by elder women who were so use to the ways that they had been raise, reserved, quiet, and limited, that it was had for them to accept and understand why women were now showing off their bodies and were happy doing so. That's just it, it made women feel empowered and free being on stage and preforming because for once all the attention was on them and how amazing they looked and were. Flappers wanted to continue the change that was already going on and make new norms for women and erase the oppression and reservation that women felt because being on stage and wearing and acting in ways that flaunted their bodies had never been done before, and they liked being the center of attention and using their new rights and freedoms and that is why some women became flappers.

How did the passing of the 19th amendment change social equality for women?

The 19th amendment gave women the right to vote, and was passed in 1919. For the next 40 years change was slow, and very few women were given equal rights in terms social gain. The 1960's brought change throughout America especially to the american women. Two organizations that led the charge for change were the League of Women voters and the National Organization for Women. The two groups had their similarities and differences. The National Oranization for women was a more conservative group and they had little differences, but overall the two groups fought for the betterment of women. What I found interesting was a women wrote to NOW and said "done nothing.... Your movement is a farce and a travesty to us, because you uphold the forces that make us beg for our existence ... Your silence consents to our misery. How dare you call yourselves Sisters." This was important to me because it is always important to get both sides of the story when researching history. Together NOW and LOWV changed the perception of what it meant to be an american women. What made these groups special in my eyes was they were not focused on one thing and ignored all social problems in the country, but were very involved in things going on in our country. They fought for equality of blacks, they fought for the women who had no money, and a child to have the same freedoms, and opportunities as any other person born in our country. The social revolution of the 60's was because of the 19th amendment. Right after it was passed changes may not have been immediate but clearly was the start of a revolution for social equality.