Women Fight for Equality

Read Chapter 31-2 in your The Americans online textbook. (begins on page 982). As you read about the rise of a new women’s movement, take notes to explain how each of the following helped to create or advance the movement.

1. Experiences in the workplace
Women weren't offered the same job opportunities as men were. President Kennedy appointed the Presidential commission on the status of Women in 1961. They reported that women were paid less than men, even when doing the same jobs. Women weren't promoted to management positions, regardless of their education, experience and ability.

2. Experiences in social activism
When women started supporting equality for races and antiwar campaigns, they realized that there was even inequality between men and women. Women weren't given large roles in these movements.

3. "Consciousness raising"
Some women organized small discussion groups about their concerns. Women shared their lives with each other and discovered that their was sexism, discrimination based on gender.

4. Feminism
"The belief that women should have economic, political, and social equality with men." Women were realizing that they weren't being treated the same way as men.

5. Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan was not happy with her life despite the fact that she was "living the American dream," with a husband, children and a house in the suburbs. She asked other women if they felt the same way and they were, so she wrote a book called The Feminine Mystique which discussed sexism. This book sparked women's motivation and they started working together all over the country for change.

6. Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and gender. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to handle discrimination claims.

7. National Organization for Women (NOW)-1966
Some women argued that the EEOC didn't adequately address women's grievances. 28 women created the NOW to pursue women's goals. They pushed for the creation of child care to take care of their children while they pursued jobs and education. They wanted to declare sex segregated job ads illegal, and tell employers that they couldn't refuse to hire women for traditionally male jobs.

8. Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine
Gloria Steinem, a journalist, political activist, and supporter of the women's liberation movement, showed the world her view on the issue. She created Ms. Magazine, designed to treat contemporary issues from a feminist perspective.

9. Congress
In 1972, congress passed a band on gender discrimination in any education program that got federal financial help, part of the Higher Education Act. Congress also expanded the powers of the EOCC and gave working parents a tax break for child care expenses.

10. Supreme Court
Roe v. Wade 1973-The supreme court ruled that women do have the right to choose an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy.

11. The Equal rights Amendment would have guaranteed equal rights under the law, regardless of gender. Who opposed this amendment? Why?
Some people opposed this amendment because they said that it would lead to drafting of women, the end of laws protecting homemakers, the end of a husband's responsibility to provide for his family, and same-sex marriages.