Referring strictly to women's suffrage, the amendment stipulated that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any States on account of sex." It was one of the 16 amendments made to the original ten amendments that formed the Bill of Rights. The right to vote was the first and fundamental civil right that women gained in the United States. On the other hand, as many were keen to point out, "45 years later, they are still struggling to secure their right to privacy and reproductive freedom." This is quite true, if we consider the fact that, until the 60s, abortion was still illegal. Given the fact that only the discovery of the pill gave way to a whole new category of rights for women, most notably the right to "reproductive freedom," we may consider that the bill of rights may have needed subsequent adjustments after the 19th amendment.

In the present, we need to consider the fact that more and more ultra-conservative, ultra-Christian societies are appearing and are freely developing within the United States. We will not be referring to some of the most radical of them, which pledge towards the reduction of all social assistance and whose theories sometimes resemble racist and xenophobic ideas, as it is not the thesis of this essay. We may however refer to those ultra-conservative societies that argument against abortion, even in extreme cases such as rape or incest. For such Christian and ultra-religious societies, the child's right to be born, equivalent with a person's right to live, cannot be contested in any circumstance.

If we consider the modern world, the variables and the...

Unfortunately, in the beginning, these rights applied only to white males. Nevertheless, the subsequent history of the Bill of Rights saw the appearance of different amendments, amendments that brought forth the initial ideas and reflected more accurately the changed conditions. One of the most important was the 19th Amendment, a necessary adjustment that conceived the fact that all citizens of the United States are born equal, in the sense that they share a common set of rights and obligations to the State.
Bibliography

1. The History of Women's Suffrage. 2004. World Book Inc. On the Internet at http://www2.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm010.html

2. History of the vote - the Right to Vote. A timeline of Events. 1999, 2000 by EdGate.com, Inc. All rights reserved. On the Internet at http://www2.edgate.com/elections/inactive/history_of_the_vote/

3. Bill of Rights and Later Amendments. Copyright © 1995-2005 by the Independence Hall Association. On the Internet at http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm

4. A History of the Bill of Rights. Copyright 1996, the American Civil Liberties Union. On the Internet at http://www.aclu-or.org/legislature/national/briefbillofrights.htm

5. Blackwell, Alice Stone. Why Women Should Vote. On the Internet at http://www2.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm029b.html

The History of Women's Suffrage. 2004. World Book Inc. On the Internet at http://www2.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm010.html

History of the vote - the Right to Vote. A timeline of Events. 1999, 2000 by EdGate.com, Inc. All rights reserved. On the Internet at http://www2.edgate.com/elections/inactive/history_of_the_vote/

The History of Women's Suffrage. 2004. World Book Inc. On the Internet at http://www2.worldbook.com/features/whm/html/whm010.html

Bill of Rights and Later Amendments. Copyright © 1995-2005 by the Independence Hall Association. On the Internet at http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm

History of the Bill of Rights. Copyright 1996, the American Civil Liberties Union. On the Internet at http://www.aclu-or.org/legislature/national/briefbillofrights.htm