The Feminine Refusal Backlash against 2nd Wave Feminisms

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The Feminine RefusalBacklash against 2nd Wave
Feminisms
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• I. The Equal Rights Amendment, Index of Feminism,
  Rising Conservatism, Carter
• A. The Amendment Whose Time Had Come
• 1. Proposed 27th Amendment Equal rights
  under the law shall not be denied or abridged
  by the United States or by any State on account
  of sex.
• Alice Paul 1923 organized labor Eleanor
  Roosevelt opposed
• Republican Party 40 Democratic Party 44

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B. Feminism Mainstream 1967 NOW House
Rep. Martha Griffith (MI-D) 1970
House (350-15) 1972 Senate (84-8) Need ¾
states ratify (38) 1974 74 of American
favored

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• C. Phyllis Schlaflys STOP ERA Campaign
• Background b. 1924 Education and work
• 1949 Marriage ? 6 children political career
• 1964 A Choice Not an Echo (Barry Goldwater)
• Concerns about feminism ERA
• Phyllis Schlafly Report 1975 Eagle Forum
  Newsletter

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• D. Fears about Change and Unrest
• Unrest of 1960s racial power, student anti-war
  protest, assassinations Democratic National
  Convention in Chicago, hippies, sexual
  revolution, feminist critiques of
  heterosexuality, Gay Liberation
• Society and crime
• Economic stagflation
• Political corruptionWatergate 1972-4

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• ERA as Symbolic Target
• Sen. Sam Ervin The Amendment would convert
  Annapolis, West Point, and other service
  academies into coeducational war colleges.If
  it is added to the Constitution, substantial
  numbers of women will be enrolled in the Armed
  Forces to serve in combat.These women will
  suffer the loss of their privacy and sometimes
  become pregnant and bear illegitimate children
  the Amendment will prohibit the discharge from
  the armed services of any single woman for
  pregnancy or child bearing no matter how often
  she becomes pregnant or how many bastards she
  bears.
• Q What was he REALLY worried about?
• Cf. Working-class womens worries

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• E. Feminists Divided
• 1970 Betty Friedan
• 1975 16 states defeated 1977 9 rejected
• 1982 extension
• Multi-front attack
• Ellie Smeals 1979 slate
• F. Carter Playing into the Hands of the Right
• G. We dont want to be men
• Please dont send my Mommy to war!
• Housewives brigade

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• 1. Who was Phyllis Schafly? What identities did
  she hold, what did she do?
• 2. In what ways does she seem feminist?
• 3. Why is she labeled anti-feminist?
• 4. What kinds of women would embrace the term
  "feminist" compared to Schafly and why?

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• DISCUSSION
• on the Need to Legislate Gender Equality
• Groups Representing
• 1) Pauli Murray
• 2) Title VII Equal Employment in Civil Rights
  Act of1964
• 3) Dem. Rep. Patsy Minks Title IX of the
  Education Amendments of 1972
• Equal Rights Amendment
• 4) Betty Friedan, 5) Howard Cosell, 6) Alan
  Alda,
• 7) MANforERA
• 8) Phyllis Schafly some union women w-c
  women

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• III. The Need for Civil Rights Second Wave
  Feminism Legislative and Activist Gains
• 1960 1980
• Most African Americans denied vote in
  S. Enfranchised 1964
• Segregated schools (Brown v. Board 1954) Some
  (less) public school segregation
• Segregated transportation lunch
  counters Desegregation 1961
• Interracial marriage illegal in some of
  South USSC deemed unconstitutional 1967
• No required equal pay for comparable work Equal
  Pay Act 1963 Exec. Order 11246
• OR laws to prevent discrimination
  Affirmative action for businesses
• in employment contracting w govt 1965
• Civil Rights Act Title VII 1964
• Affirm. Action 1967
• All job ads gender segregated USSC Job ads
  desegregated 1973
• Pregnant women routinely fired Pregnancy
  Discrimination Act 1978
• Avr. age married ?20.3, ?22.8 Avr. age ?22,
  ?24.7 (2003 25.327.1)
• US birth rate 23.7/1000 US birth rate
  15.9/1000 (continues down)
• Women cannot be head of household IRS lets
  single, divorced, widowed 1968
• Married women take husbands last name ACLU first
  challenged 1977

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• 1960 1980
• Marital rape not even a concept Diana Russell,
  The Politics of Rape 1975
• Marital rape will become a crime in all
  states by 1997
• No shelters for battered women 1st battered
  womens shelter Phoenix 1973
• wife beating a private custom
• Child support, alimony not enforced Federal
  employees wages can be garnished 1975
• Birth control pill not yet available USSC Married
  right to birth control 1965
• 1961 Only for some married Marital status
  qualification illegal 1973
• Women could not be on some juries Overruled 1975
• No women clergy e.g. Lutheran Church of America
  ordains women 1970
• 12 ? in House, 2 ? in Senate 16 ? in House 1 ?
  Senate (2009 74, 17)
• First female pages 1973 (Still not 50)