Women as Human Beings" pamphlet.
Barney, Nora Stanton. Pamphlet: “Women as Human Beings.” [Greenwich, Conn.]: [Self-published], (1946).
Pamphlet, 4 x 9,” 11pp; printed self-wrappers (stapled); front cover is tanned at upper and lower margins; else very good.
Nora Stanton Barney, the granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, continues her grandmother’s fight for equality for women by writing “A Plea for Equal Opportunity” for women who work. She notes that one of the resolutions passed at Seneca Falls declared:
all laws that prevent a woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precepts of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.
While the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the vote, it failed to give women equal protection under the law (as the 14th Amendment did African Americans). Many women such as Florence Kelley opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, fearing that the hard-won laws protecting women would be disallowed. Barney carefully reviews the areas in dispute, suggesting that these laws should be amended to apply to men as well as women. The role of women during World War II underscored how fruitful it is for women to work: “The best guarantee for women’s health and the health of children is good wages and a consequent high standard of living...” She concludes by pointing to a “Bill of Essential Human Rights” developed by the United Nations which states “Everyone has the right to protection against arbitrary discrimination...because of race, religion, sex, or any other reason.” Opposition to the ERA results from “the dead hand of the past...as symbolized by the old English Common Law and old superstitions.” With the ERA, Barney sees women gaining “their birthright as free human beings...” An uncommon ERA item in which a third-generation Stanton continues the women’s rights struggle. Nora Stanton Barney, a civil engineer and architect, published just two other pieces: “World Peace through a Peoples Parliament” (1944) and “Life Sketch of Elizabeth Cady Stanton” (1948, also self-published. Barney, in fact, was the first woman graduate civil engineer in the United States. One copy of this pamphlet is at the Library of Congress; OCLC records no copies.
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