The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude."

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation's premier civil rights legislation. The Act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote. It did not end discrimination, but it did open the door to further progress.

The Equal Pay Act, signed in to law by President John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963, was one of the first federal anti-discrimination laws that addressed wage differences based on gender. The Act made it illegal to pay men and women working in the same place different salaries for similar work.

COMPARABLE WORTH

Comparable worth, also called sex equity or pay equity, in economics, the principle that men and women should be compensated equally for work requiring comparable skills, responsibilities, and effort. 

In the United States the concept of comparable worth was introduced in the 1970s by reformers seeking to correct inequities in pay for occupations traditionally held by men and women. Following Congressional passage of the Equal Pay Act (1963), which required that men and women receive “equal pay for equal work,” wages for occupations dominated by women continued to lag behind those for predominantly male occupations. Skeptics say that the concept of comparable worth interferes with the operation of a free market and that the worth of an occupation is not absolute and cannot be compared.

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