women's+rights+(EW)

Women's Rights Under the Kennedy Administration
While Kennedy was in office, he focused on the rights of women in America. The issue of women's rights became apparent before Kennedy took office but he took immediate action in changing the norm of the time. He created the Presidential Commision on the Status of Women in 1961 to work against gender discrimination in the workforce. The main objective of this committee was to create equality among the payroll of women as opposed to men. Including the commision for women's rights. He appointed many women to positions in government to further prove his resolve, including: Eleanor Roosevelt, Edith Green, and Esther Peterson. This created a postivive view on women in society and soon changed people's views on women's rights. Soon after this Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. This act outlawed paying men more than women for working the same job. But the Civil Rights Act was the biggest victory for women; the Civil Rights Act outlawed not only the discrimination of race, color, religion, or ethnicity, but also the discrimination of gender. Although segregation still existed through job opportunities, discrimination in the workforce became less Draconian.