Although women have come a considerably long way since 1848, they still have a long way to go.
Work equity is a serious problem concerning women; it has been for the longest time. Women have faced problems that, to some, may seem insurmountable; discrimination, unequal pay, inflexible working conditions, and limited access to training are just a few. In 1903 two women, Mary Kenney O'Sullivan and Leonora O'Reilly, founded the National Women's Trade Union whose purpose was to improve wages and work conditions for women. It was a good effort, still more needed to be done to stop the discrimination against women in the work force. On June 10th, 1963 the Equal Pay Act was signed, it became effective on June 11th, 1964. This act stated that it is now illegal to pay women less than men for the same job because of their gender. Then in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed which prohibited companies with over twenty-five employees to discriminate against women. In 1977 the Anti-discrimination Act was signed stating that no one, man or woman, could be discriminated against based on race, color, ethnic background, disability or disease (HIV/AIDS etc.) It seemed that things may have been getting better for women in the workplace but still something more needed to be done, so in 1979 a "Women's Convention" was held. One hundred and sixty-eight countries attended this conference, 165 signed a treaty to "eliminate all forms of discrimination against women". Three countries failed to sign this treaty, the United States, Iran, and Afghanistan. Although President Carter did actually sign the treaty himself, he still need 2/3 of his senate to back him on it, they never did. Although there have been many issues involving women in the workplace, perhaps one of the biggest problems, then and now, is the wage gap. Women have always earned less than men have, which was expected to improve enormously after the Equal Pay Act was signed.