AM ERICAN AS S O C IATION O F S INGAP ORE
Since 1958
www.aasingapore.com
March 2017
American Association..... 1-6 Member Discounts............. 3 CRCE & Business............... 7 Community News......... 8-13 Travel........................ 14-15 Female Focus............. 17-23 Living in Singapore..... 24-26 Health & Wellness........... 27
Travel 14-15
Living in Singapore 24-26
Health & Wellness 27
Female Focus 17-23
Exploring the Land of the Morning Calm
Have You Met the Pirate Queen of the China Sea?
How to Perfect Your Most Confident Smile
Inspirational Women Around the World
MCI (P) 116/04/2016
Suffrage March , New York City 1917
From Voting Rights to Equal Opportunity for All By Camille Dawson EDITOR’S NOTE: This issue of the Singapore American was planned before the far-reaching events of January 21. The content is a nod to Women’s History Month, celebrated in March by the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. (Canada celebrates in October.) It traces its roots to International Women’s Day.
E
ach year on March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. This tradition began when women seeking better pay and working conditions marched on New York City on March 8, 1908. The United States has made tremendous strides since that first march: women not only won the right to vote, but they now hold senior positions throughout the government and private sector; they make up about half of the workforce and they now earn a higher percentage of college degrees than men. As we carry on their legacy of striving for equality and empowerment of women, it’s worth
reviewing the history of how these achievements were reached. Starting in the early 1800s, women organized to gain the right to vote. Advocates argued that denying women the right to vote was not in accord with the founding ideals of our country. As early as 1848, suffrage movement leaders organized protests and acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to their cause. Eventually, their efforts led to the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution that gave women the right to vote throughout the nation. While achieving voting rights for women was a major milestone, it was not the end of the struggle. The growing Civil Rights movement of the 1960s included a drive for women’s rights. Like the earlier suffrage movement, the women’s rights movement was a grassroots effort through which citizens challenged the government and society to obtain greater freedom and equality. The enormous legal,
social and political advances that women made during the 1960s and 70s focused on applying the fundamental rights laid out in the Constitution to all people. In particular, proponents advocated for ensuring that men and women were treated equally in the workplace according to the law. The first major achievement of the 1960s Civil Rights movement was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited “discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” However, just because this law was on the books, it did not mean that it was enforced or that society’s ideas had changed in regards to what jobs a woman could or should do. Civil society groups took on the job of changing social attitudes and ensuring that the government and courts were enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Continues on page 17
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