From Fruit to Freedom: The Brutal History of Women’s Rights in America

Women make up half the population, but their rights have always been treated like a special request. In this episode we dive into the real history of women’s rights in America: from forced sterilizations and credit card restrictions to the myth of the 19th Amendment being a universal win. We exposes how progress has always come with an asterisk and why women’s rights are the ultimate test of any democracy.The Original Setup: Eve, the Apple, and the Birth of BlameVotes for Some: The Long Road to Women’s SuffrageRights on Paper, Fights in Practice: A Tour Through Women’s HistoryThe Mother of Gynecology - and the Daughters Who Paid the PriceSterilized and Silenced: When Reproductive Rights Were’t Yours’Til Regret Do us Part: Marriage, Divorce and the Trap of ForeverMusic by Loghan LongoriaFollow us on instagram: Sergio Novoa My Limited View PodResources & ReferencesThe Bible & Eve• Augustine, On the Good of Marriage — Early church writings framing women as morally weaker.• Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women — One of the first texts blaming Eve for humanity’s downfall.Women’s Suffrage• National Archives: 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution• Library of Congress: Frederick Douglass’s support at Seneca Falls, 1848.• Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States.Voting Rights & Racial Exclusion• U.S. Department of Justice: Voting Rights Act of 1965• Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (National Archives).• Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.Workplace & Economic Rights• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Equal Pay Act of 1963• U.S. Department of Labor: Civil Rights Act Title VII• U.S. Department of Education: Title IX Overview• Federal Reserve: History of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act• Congressional Research Service: Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988.Reproductive Rights• Supreme Court: Roe v. Wade (1973).• Congressional Record: The Hyde Amendment (1976).• Supreme Court: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022).Medicine & Exploitation• Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid.• Journal of Medical Ethics: Reproductive Surgery and the Enslaved Body: The Case of J. Marion Sims.Forced Sterilization• Supreme Court: Buck v. Bell (1927).• Paul Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles.• Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body.• Alexandra Minna Stern, Eugenic Nation.• Madrigal v. Quilligan case (Los Angeles, 1978).• Jane Lawrence, “The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women,” American Indian Quarterly (2000).Marriage, Divorce & Domestic Rights• California Family Law Act of 1969 — first no-fault divorce law.• Andrew Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage.• U.S. Department of Justice: Violence Against Women Act of 1994.