They chose the best and the most obvious way to do so: challenging discriminatory laws in the courts using the Equal Protection Clause.
The Fourteenth Amendment reaffirmed the iniquity of race discrimination and declared discrimination against all US Citizens, except for criminals or traitors, unconstitutional. Many within the Women’s Rights Movement saw this as a victory for women as well; they soon learned, however, that the Equal Protection Clause would not apply equally to women. Though they were instrumental in the fight for emancipation and the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment, lawmakers not only excluded women from the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment in practice but went as far as to introduce the word “male” into the Constitution for the first time with its passage. The Fifteenth Amendment also notably