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Final Assignment Report

Almira Decena

Political Science 01
Professor Andrus
May 05, 2015

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In the 1800s, women were regarded as a figure of virtue, grace and elegance. The Cult
of Domesticity or Cult of True Womanhood is an ideology where people believe that women
should stay at home and relieve themselves of the work outside. It was designed for the roles of a
wife and their only job would be to provide a comfortable home for their husband. Also, it was
wrong of them to perform tasks which serve a purpose. This meant that they had to resort to
doing tasks such as knitting or decorating the house. The thing that were necessary would not be
performed b them, but by their helpers. Women were expected to cultivate purity, piety,
submissiveness, and domesticity in all their relations. Before, biological inferiority led to the
belief that women were inept of effectively participating in the certain political territories,
commerce, or public service. The husband would provide the wife and the children security and
protection, which they believe she required as she is not able physically. The true woman would
then be left to perform housekeeping, raising their children, and making her familys home a
place of happiness, health and virtue. Therefore, all society would benefit from her roles.
We can see that this has translated and affected our society on how we view women
today. It is still hard for us to remove these ideologies and expect women to be in professions
where it will not use physical force. Women that are in, whats considered, masculine jobs, are
often looked down by the men in the same field. Moreover, we still have not reached full
equality: women do not earn the same amount as men, even though they have the same job,
doing the same things. Even after the womens suffrage movement, there are still many opinions
that believe women do not derive to be equal.
Reed vs Reed (1971)
In the Supreme Court case, Reed vs Reed, it was the first court case which declared that
sex discrimination was unconstitutional. According to the court, Idaho law of unequal treatment

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of men and women based on sex was a violation of the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.
The Idaho Probate Code automatically gives mandatory preference to males over females when
administering two competing relatives over a deceased person's estate. After the death of their
adopted son, both Sally and Cecil Reed sought to be named the administrator of their son's
estate. At this time, the Reeds were separated and the son left no will. According to the Probate
Code, Cecil (the male) was appointed administrator and Sally (the female) challenged the law in
court. The question it represented was, Did the Idaho probate law violate the Equal Protection
Clause of the 14th Amendment?
This case was argued on October 19, 197. In a 7-0 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the
Idaho probate law is unconstitutional. The Court held that the law's dissimilar treatment of men
and women violates the 14th amendment. And that "[t]o give a mandatory preference to members
of either sex over members of the other, merely to accomplish the elimination of hearings on the
merits, is to make the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. . .[T]he choice in this context may not lawfully be
mandated solely on the basis of sex." Reed v. Reed was an important case for feminism because
it recognized sex discrimination as a violation of the Constitution. Reed v. Reed became the basis
of many more decisions that protected men and women from gender discrimination.
United States vs Virginia (1996)
At the time, The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) was the only single-sexed school in
Virginia. It boasted a long and proud tradition as Virginia's only exclusively male public
undergraduate higher learning institution. The schools goal is to produce citizen soldiers,
(male) leaders of the future. There were wasnt an institution for women that had the same, equal
opportunities. Because of this, the United States argued against Virginia and VMI, claiming that

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the admissions policy of including males only was unconstitutional as it violated the Fourteenth
Amendment's equal protection clause. The District Court ruled in favor of VMI, but the Fourth
Circuit court of appeal reversed the decision, finding the admissions policy unconstitutional. In
response to this, Virgin proposed to create another parallel institution which would grant women
to have the same opportunities as the men. It was named Virginia Women's Institute for
Leadership (VWIL). On appeal from the District Court's affirmation of the plan, the Fourth
Circuit ruled that despite the difference in prestige between the VMI and VWIL, the two
programs would offer "substantively comparable" educational benefits. The United States
appealed to the Supreme Court. The question it presented was, Does Virginia's creation of a
women's-only academy, as a comparable program to a male-only academy, satisfy [sic] the
Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause?
Based on a 7-1 vote, the court ruled that a male-only admissions policy is
unconstitutional. Virginia violated the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause because
it did not present a persuasive justification for their gender-biased admissions policy. Single-sex
education does not contribute to educational diversity. Also, Virginia's VWIL could not offer
women the same benefits as VMI offered men. The VWIL would not provide women with the
same rigorous military training, faculty, courses, facilities, financial opportunities, or alumni
reputation and connections that VMI affords its male cadets.
Conclusion
The court rulings help remove discrimination between the sexes. However, it is hard to
fully remove this topic because opinions of people cannot be changed by the law. For example,
when it comes to hiring a woman against a man, studies have shown the employers tend to select
men over women, even if they had the same qualifications. Some people fail to see this today,

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but countless of studies has surfaced to prove the sexism still exist. Employers usually judge
women harsher, but their reasons are apparently never because of gender. Instead, they claimed
superficially sound reasons to justify why they would not want to a female: she is not competent
enough. Sexism is an ugly word, so many of us are only comfortable identifying it when
explicitly misogynistic language or behavior is exhibited. But this shows that you do not need to
use anti-women language or even harbor conscious anti-women beliefs to behave in ways that
are effectively anti-women. Also, some emplyers are afraid that women would need to take
certain times off for familial reasons. Because of this, the company would be at a loss.
It is very unfortunate that prejudice and discrimination still exist to this day. Women or
men no longer identify themselves as feminitst because they dont understand the term. In my
sociology class, my professor asked the class to raise their hand if they were a feminist. Out of a
possible 60 people (our class was combined with another professor), only 3-5 people raised their
hand. Some reasoned that it was because they didnt know what it was. Some had a specific or
wrong view of what feminism is. After having our lecture on the topic, he asked the class once
more. This time, almost everyone raised their hand. I am hoping that in the future, more women
will fight for their belief and stand up for themselves.

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Bibliography:
REED v. REED. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.oyez.org/cases/19701979/1971/1971_70_4
UNITED STATES v. VIRGINIA. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2015, from
http://www.oyez.org/cases/19901999/1995/1995_94_1941
Major Supreme Court Cases on Women's Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2015, from
https://www.aclu.org/files/interactive/womensrights_scotus_0303a.html
"The Cult of Domesticity." America in Class. Accessed May 6, 2015.
Napikoski, Linda. "Reed v. Reed." About Education. Accessed May 6, 2015.
"United States v. Virginia." Casebriefs. Accessed May 6, 2015.
Yurkiewicz, Ilana. "Study Shows Gender Bias in Science Is Real. Here's Why It Matters."
Scientific American Global RSS. September 23, 2012. Accessed May 6, 2015.