More groups win legal rights: women, farmworkers, Native nations, people with disabilities

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card B, the Equal Pay Act, section 3 (a federal law approved June 10, 1963; Statutes at Large, vol. 77, 77 Stat. 56): "No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate … between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex …" A summary in our words: the rule took effect one year after the law was approved.

2. 1.

   At a bakery, a man and a woman do the same oven job. The man earns more under a written seniority system. Does card B, Ari asks, forbid that gap?

   • No, because card B lets an employer set pay by any written rule, and a seniority system is one such rule
   • No, because a seniority system is among the exceptions card B lists to equal pay
   • Yes, because card B bans a pay gap between a man and a woman in the same job, and a seniority system is no excuse
   • Yes, because the seniority exception applies just if the system also measures skill, effort and responsibility

3. Use this

   Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card C, Title IX of the Education Amendments, section 901(a) (a federal law approved June 23, 1972; 86 Stat. 373): "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance …" A summary in our words: the law's separate rule on admissions applies only to vocational, professional and graduate schools and to public colleges.

4. 2.

   Bo tests card C on two cases that shut out students because of sex: a tutoring company with no federal money, and a school club funded by federal grants. Which does the sentence reach?

   • Both cases, because tutoring is an education activity and the sentence protects 'no person in the United States'
   • Neither case, because a club is an activity rather than an education program, and the sentence names programs
   • Only the school club, because it is an education activity receiving federal financial assistance
   • The school club, but just its admissions, because card C's separate rule limits the ban to admissions

5. Use this

   Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card A, the 24th Amendment in brief (Summary in our words, not a quotation): A poll tax was a fee a person had to pay before voting. Congress passed the amendment on August 27, 1962, and it was ratified on January 23, 1964. The Administrator of General Services certified that the legislatures of 38 states, among them West Virginia, had ratified it. It says no citizen may be kept from voting in a federal election for failing to pay a poll tax or any other tax.

6. 3.

   An amendment needs ratification by three-fourths of the 50 states. Kira reads card A's count of 38 states. Which conclusion is fair?

   • The amendment had 12 states to spare, since 38 of 50 states is far above a simple majority of 26
   • The amendment had just enough states, since 38 is the next whole number above 37.5
   • The amendment had a comfortable margin, since 38 states is well above the two-thirds that Congress needs to propose a change to the Constitution
   • The count shows broad regional support, because West Virginia is among the 38 states that ratified
7. 4.

   In 1964 a state charges a poll tax to vote for governor. Using card A alone, can Luz say the 24th Amendment bans that tax?

   • No, because a state may keep a law that existed before the amendment was ratified in 1964
   • Yes, because card A bars any tax as a condition of voting, and a state poll tax is such a tax
   • Yes, because an amendment overrides state law, so the state tax is void once the amendment is ratified
   • No, because card A bars poll taxes just in federal elections, and a governor's race is a state one

8. Women's median earnings as a percent of men's

   Columns Year | Percent. Row 1: 1960 | 60.7. Row 2: 1963 | 58.9. Row 3: 1970 | 59.4. Row 4: 1980 | 60.2. Row 5: 1990 | 71.6. The ratio compares full-time, year-round workers; before 1989 it counts civilian workers only. Data: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, table P-40.

9. 5.

   The Equal Pay Act was approved in 1963. What does the table show about women's earnings ratio from 1963 to 1970, Milo asks?

   • The ratio rose 0.5 point, from 58.9 to 59.4, so the gap barely narrowed in the first years
   • The ratio rose, which shows that the Act began to close the gap, though slowly
   • The ratio fell 1.3 points from 1960 to 1970, so the gap grew once the Act passed
   • The ratio hardly changed, so the Act had no effect on the pay of the women it covered
10. 6.

    Which statement about 1980 to 1990 does the table support, Noah asks?

    • The ratio rose 11.4 percent, so women's pay rose 11.4 percent between 1980 and 1990
    • The ratio rose 11.4 points, so the pay gap between women and men in the same jobs fell by that much
    • The ratio rose 11.4 points, the largest change between rows, with no reason given in the table
    • The ratio rose 11.4 points, which shows the Equal Pay Act finally took full effect in the 1980s

11. Use this

    Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card B, the Equal Pay Act, section 3 (a federal law approved June 10, 1963; Statutes at Large, vol. 77, 77 Stat. 56): "No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate … between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex …" A summary in our words: the rule took effect one year after the law was approved. Table "Women's median earnings as a percent of men's", columns Year | Percent. Row 1: 1960 | 60.7. Row 2: 1963 | 58.9. Row 3: 1970 | 59.4. Row 4: 1980 | 60.2. Row 5: 1990 | 71.6. The ratio compares full-time, year-round workers; before 1989 it counts civilian workers only. Data: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, table P-40.

12. 7.

    What does the ratio leave out that matters when judging the Equal Pay Act in card B, Pia asks?

    • It stops in 1990, so it cannot show whether the pay gap narrowed after the Act
    • It compares typical pay of all full-time women and men, not women and men in the same jobs
    • It leaves out the cost to employers of paying equal wages, so the Act's success cannot be judged
    • It counts just workers covered by the Act, so it cannot show the pay of women in other jobs

13. Use this

    Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card A, the 24th Amendment in brief (Summary in our words, not a quotation): A poll tax was a fee a person had to pay before voting. Congress passed the amendment on August 27, 1962, and it was ratified on January 23, 1964. The Administrator of General Services certified that the legislatures of 38 states, among them West Virginia, had ratified it. It says no citizen may be kept from voting in a federal election for failing to pay a poll tax or any other tax. Card B, the Equal Pay Act, section 3 (a federal law approved June 10, 1963; Statutes at Large, vol. 77, 77 Stat. 56): "No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate … between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex …" A summary in our words: the rule took effect one year after the law was approved.

14. 8.

    Card A is a summary written today; card B is the 1963 law itself. What is card B better evidence for, Ren asks?

    • Why Congress passed the rule, since a law's text states the lawmakers' reasons
    • How courts read the rule in later cases, since a law's text includes its later interpretation
    • Whether the pay gap came from sex discrimination, since the rule bans discrimination
    • The exact words and exceptions Congress wrote into the rule, not how employers acted

15. Use this

    Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card D, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (a federal law approved September 26, 1973; 87 Stat. 394): "No otherwise qualified handicapped individual [the 1973 law's term for a person with a disability] in the United States … shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance …"

16. 9.

    Card D says 'handicapped individual', and a bracket explains the term. Why did Tala's textbook keep the old word inside the quotation?

    • A quotation may be updated to today's term, but the textbook left the word as an oversight
    • The term shows that Congress in 1973 did not see equal rights as the aim of the law
    • The words are the 1973 law's own, so the quotation keeps its term and a bracketed gloss explains it
    • The card's author chose the term today as a clear way to describe the group that the law covered then

17. Use this

    Rights won by amendment and by statute, 1962 to 1973 (cards A to D and a table). Card B, the Equal Pay Act, section 3 (a federal law approved June 10, 1963; Statutes at Large, vol. 77, 77 Stat. 56): "No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate … between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex …" A summary in our words: the rule took effect one year after the law was approved.

18. 10.

    A woman with no union contract was paid less than a man for equal work on March 1, 1964. Could Zee's cousin use card B's rule then?

    • Yes, because the law was approved in June 1963 and nine months had passed by March 1964
    • No, because for workers with no union contract the rule took effect two years after approval
    • Yes, because the one-year wait applied just to workers under union contracts, and she had no such contract
    • No, because the rule took effect one year after June 10, 1963, which came after that date