Network for Good

Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign broke new ground for women hoping to crash the ultimate glass ceiling - securing the office of the President of the United States. While Clinton's campaign showed that a woman could run for President (and be taken seriously), the race also highlighted the continued struggles within a women's movement that began over 200 years ago with the work and activism of proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. From Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman published in 1792, to the passage of the 19th Amendment, to the January 20, 2007 announcement of Clinton's bid for the Presidency - there exists a deep historical struggle for women trying to voice their concerns for equality and be considered more than "second-class citizens."

Historically, women's rights can be defined as legal equality for women in the realms of voting, property, relationship and economic status, education and employment opportunities, reproductive rights and access to political positions. Most women's rights activists agree that, despite significant gains throughout the 20th century, women have yet to achieve full parity with men in all of these arenas.

The expansive list of issues housed under the umbrella of feminism in recent decades has made it difficult for women's organizations and feminists to call upon a unified agenda. Compounding this problem of expansion is that many modern-day women do not self-identify as feminists, even if they espouse some of the beliefs of the movement.

Archetypal issues, however, remain at the crux of the women's rights movement, such as the protection of reproductive rights, equal pay for equal work, the lack of female elected officials, challenging harmful beauty stereotypes, and challenging societal roles of men and women.