The cultural value of equality means that, in the abstract, Americans believe no person is better than anyone else. This applies especially to legal equality , where every citizen is supposed to have equal rights before the law, such as right to a speedy trial. Political equality trailed the development of legal equality, with constitutional amendments not guaranteeing the vote for ex-slaves until 1868 and for women until 1920 and with the need for voting rights acts even in modern times. To the extent race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or other factors make equality of opportunity different for different classes of citizens, Americans feel the value of equality of opportunity is violated. Affirmative action , which are efforts to remedy the effects of past bias, is a value which is in dispute and cannot be said to be part of American political culture, though many Americans support it.
Equality of results is another value which is in dispute.
Americans differ strongly on whether the government should take action to reduce income and other material inequalities, which are larger in this country than some other Western democracies, and larger than in the past in terms of our own history. That Americans do not agree on equality of results reflects the fact that in this country, as most others, inequality of income and wealth is a source of political conflict. However, while these figures show slightly more equality of income, in absolute terms the difference remains very great. Moreover, the equalization occurred prior to 1970. Since then, the trend has been back toward greater inequality of income.