In 1964, Republicans – led by Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill. – were responsible for the Civil Rights Act, which overturned 80 years of Democratic opposition to ending race-based and gender-based inequality. It was intended to provide all peoples, regardless of race and/or, sex, the right to service in all public facilities, and banned the unequal application of voter requirements insuring all the right to vote. Sexual consideration pursuant to employment could only be considered where sex is a bona fide occupational qualification for the job.
The Act should have ended there – allowing society to advance the conditions on its own – but it didn't. Reducing the requirements for positions that had been male-dominated circumvented the sexual component of the Act. The end result was/is that we now have women performing certain jobs for which they may have passed an exam only because of relaxed employment qualifications – making it a job for which they are not qualified.
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