Women Fight for Equality

1
Women Fight for Equality

• Chapter 23, Section 2 Notes

2
Objectives

• Identify factors that led to the rise of the
  womens movement in the 1960s
• Describe some of the early gains and losses of
  the womens movement
• Summarize the legacy of the womens movement in
  employment, education, and politics

3
Main Idea and Terms/Names

• Through protests and marches, women confronted
  social and economic barriers in American society.

• Betty Friedan
• Feminism
• NOW
• Gloria Steinem
• ERA
• Phyllis Schlafly

4
Is this all?

• In 1957, Betty Friedan wrote the Feminine
  Mystique
• Described a sense of dissatisfaction with being a
  housewife
• Ignited second wave of feminism
• Feminism belief that women should have
  economic, political, and social equality with men

5
Womens Movement

• The workplace women were shut out of mens
  work
• Took clerical jobs, domestic service, social
  work, teaching, and nursing
• Did not pay well
• JFK appointed a Commission to study the status of
  women in 1961
• Women paid less for same work
• Women seldom promoted

6
Movements Gains and Losses

• Womens movement gained strength after civil
  rights movement
• Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Prohibited
  discrimination
• NOW National Organization for Women
• Pursue womens goals including child-care and
  ending discrimination in hiring

7
Movements Gains and Losses

• New York Radical Women
• Staged a demonstration at the Miss America
  Pagaent tossed bras, wigs, etc.
• Gloria Steinem journalist and political
  activist
• Helped found National Womens Political Caucus
  encourage women to run for political office
• Created Ms. Magazine treated issues
• with a feminist perspective

8
Movements Gains and Losses

• Legal Changes
• 1972 Higher Education Act banned gender
  discrimination in education
• Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision
• Women have the right to choose an abortion
• Supported by NOW

9
Movements Gains and Losses

• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) called for equal
  protection under law
• Passed Congress in 1972
• Needed to pass 38 states too
• A stop-ERA campaign was launched
• Phyllis Schlafly and conservative religious
  groups opposed the ERA
• New Right emerges to combat the ERA and abortion
  supporters
• Pro-family coalition

10
Movements Gains and Losses

• ERA only passed 35 of 38 states before the
  deadline
• Defeated!
• Glass Ceiling women still cant reach highest
  positions
• Despite the defeat of the ERA, womens attitudes
  towards careers and family were changed
• Expanded career opportunities for women