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3 - Women's Civic Inclusion and the Bill of Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Gretchen Ritter
Edited by
Linda C. McClain  and
Joanna L. Grossman
Linda C. McClain
Affiliation:
Boston University
Joanna L. Grossman
Affiliation:
Hofstra University, New York
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Summary

The Bill of Rights is often treated as the foundation of America's rights-conscious culture. Prior to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, it was the Bill that most clearly delineated the relationship between “the People” of the Constitution and the federal government. Before the terms of citizenship were defined by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, it was the Bill that provided a vision of democratic community and liberty for those governed by the American constitutional order. Since the conclusion of the Civil War, the terms of U.S. citizenship have been anchored in both the Bill and the Reconstruction Amendments. The Bill continues to play a vital role in shaping the terms of American citizenship today.

Given this account and this history, it seems odd that women's rights advocates have largely avoided the Bill in their efforts to advance rights and civic inclusion for women. Civic inclusion here refers to democratic engagement and the political recognition of the rights and interests of citizens as individuals and members of groups under the Constitution. Instead, women's rights advocates have turned primarily to the Fourteenth Amendment in their efforts to bolster women's individual rights and civic standing under the American constitution. This chapter reconsiders the problematic relationship of women's rights advocates to the Bill and contends that the Bill has historically served as both an instrument for preserving gender hierarchy and as a foundation for claims of public voice for women.

Type
Chapter
Information
Gender Equality
Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship
 , pp. 60 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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