The position of each gender in a given society can be gauged socially and legally. The progress in one sphere can typically be seen reflected in the other. Consider three factors of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s: the activists who fought for social and legal equality between the races, the new legislation that enforced it, and the everyday people whose attitude regarding race relations gradually changed. In the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, the federal law mandated integration in schools. We need look no further than the Little Rock Nine to see that this legal step forward was not immediately reflected in the social sphere. However, the ruling in Brown would not have been in favor of integration unless one part of society was already in favor of it.
This project aims to examine the reflected patterns of gender equality in the legal and social spheres. By comparing the history of women’s rights legislation with the national census records of income by gender, I hope to demonstrate this pattern of one sphere following the other.