Feminism In 1970

Everyone can agree that sexism had its talons deep in the flesh of the American mindset during the 1800's and although this is an obvious fact, few people understand just how hostile an environment it was for a woman. Among those few, were the women living in this malicious medium. From corsets to kitchens, housekeeping to health, life was not easy for even the most well-to-do woman. Although not all women decried their situation, a strong-minded minority dropped their oven mits, put their fists in the air, and called out for a change. Equal opportunity, equal right to vote, equal pay, and all around equality is what they demanded. But feminism was not only found at suffrage rallys or Grange meetings, it made its way in to every medium,

With the advancement of suffrage to equal pay, over the last century, women’s rights have progressed immensely. Through historic marches and demonstrations across the United States, women protested for their equal place in politics and social progress. Despite the fear-mongering components used in achieving these rights, women’s rights are still thoroughly debated within society today. Over the last century, incredible and unreachable goals have been fulfilled for women, such as the right to vote and a sense of equal state in the “Free World,” and can only improve in the years to come.

Since the 1920’s, women have been fighting for equal rights. Women’s groups spent decades working to pass laws that would ban gender discrimination. Finally, in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress even though

Women have come a long way ever since the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 and thereafter with the Equal Rights Amendment Act in 1972 to the U.S Constitution. After decades of struggling and protesting, the 19th Amendment was passed and ratified to grant women the right to vote. Fifty-two years later worth of revisions and persistency, the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified in which it declared that everyone had both Human and Civil rights in the States regardless of sex. Not only did these amendments have an immense impact on the lives of women and sequentially with the rest of the citizens of this nation, but on the people of today’s century. Women have done a tremendous job in proving society wrong about the roles women are

Campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment in the early twentieth century, women found it particularly difficult to have their efforts opposed by other women. One of the hovering questions that went along with the proposal of the amendment was whether those supporting equality for women, advocating the equality of opportunity, would also support the enablement of women to be freely different from men without consequence. There were passionate feelings on both sides of the arguments and this debate brought into focus many questions about equality. Despite the magnificent accomplishments of all the movements and efforts of women, complete gender equality had yet to be achieved.

Despite the adversities women faced, such as gender discrimination and the backlash from anti-feminist groups, the perseverance of many strong female figures helped the movement progress and gave women in contemporary America equal opportunities, both in politics and in the workforce. The late 1800s marked the beginnings of many social reform movements for women who advocated equality through both federal and state reforms. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organized the first woman’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. They addressed issues such as “limited women’s rights, including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debate” (“The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920.” US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, ? ).

The roles of women, and the views society have on them have changed dramatically throughout the past century due to the movements and events that have taken place in America’s history. The reason for the change corresponds directly to the Women’s Suffrage movement, the rise of feminism and the Women’s Rights Movement. The transition of women’s roles in the 20th century has encouraged them to fight for their rights but unfortunately the fight has not been finished. Even with successes, like the ratification of the 19th amendment, and various laws protecting women, they still lacking equal rights in America and it wont change with out the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). If the Equal Rights Amendment is passed women will have the same equality as men under the constitution, discrimination will cease to exist, and as a world leader, America cannot afford to see this issue last any

This essay will explore the reasons why the anti-Equal Rights Amendment of the 1970s was successful in keeping the proposed amendment from being added to the Constitution. It starts with a discussion of the process in congress and what it took for the amendment to even reach the states for a vote, and the exact literature of the amendment. It continues by analyzing what caused the movement for the ERA, successes of the feminist movement in the 1970s and leaders in the pro ERA movement. The rest of the essay will discuss the Stop ERA campaign, its arguments against the amendment and how it succeeded in garnering enough support to prevent passage of the amendment. This subject is particularly important to discuss because our society continues to be riddled with gender inequality and sexual discrimination. Though legislative change does not guarantee societal change, it is certainly a necessary step, and the lack of an Equal Rights Amendment has put the issue of sexism in the United States on the backburner. It is necessary to examine the origins of the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment in order to fully understand what is holding the United States back as a country and what can be done to move forward and make meaningful changes in how we perceive gender and sexuality.

In order for the amendment to pass, at least two-thirds of the House and Senate and the ratification of the three-fourths of the States will need to agree with the idea of an amendment being added to the constitution. Advocates argue and fight for equality without thinking of what the results of such equality could actually bring upon them. If there was to be equality not only men would be drafted into war but also women. John R. Vile’s article sets forth the idea of some women opposing such amendment such as the moderate organization called the League of Women Voters. These women opposed the ERA because according to John “they had been working for such protective legislation as minimum wage and maximum hour legislation for women and feared that an equal rights amendment might be used to undermine such gains”. The results of such amendment are unpredictable. Women may even lose certain benefits given specially to them such as maternity leave. Like Jennifer a deputy director of the National Woman’s Party said in the article On Women’s equality Day, a look back at the early fight for equal rights, “ If you have an amendment that says men and women are completely equal under they eyes of the law, what does that do to those protections that have been instilled specially based on

Decades after the National Women’s Party pushed for the passage of their proposed Equal Rights Amendment, feminists of the 1960s and 70s rallied once again for this change in the Constitution. The amendment, simply stating that, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex,” quickly gained popularity among activists in the 1970s. This support was not surprising, as this decade was a time of great change and protest. Feminist felt that just as African Americans were gaining civil rights, women, too, should be considered as equals to their counterparts. Women Right’s leaders such as Alice Paul and Gloria Steinem pushed for the passage of such major legislation. With support from Women’s Right’s groups such as the National Organization of Women, the amendment quickly made its’ way to Congress.

During the feminist movement of the 1960s, women’s rights activists concentrated largely on equality in the workplace and female domesticity. Anti-discrimination efforts like, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commision, and laws like, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employee discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, proved to be ineffective because of the government’s lack of enforcement. Even though acts of discrimination were against the law and were considered illegal, women were still not hired nearly as often as men were and were also not paid nearly as much as men were. In fact, our textbook, America, states, “Women who were 51 percent of the nation’s population and held 37 percent of the jobs, were paid 42 percent less than men” (Shi 1129). This prompted the founding of the National Organization of Women in June 30 1966, which chose the acronym NOW to emphasize their want and need for the end of gender discrimination in the workplace and other female efforts, like abortion and child-care centers. The Statement of Purpose was given at NOW’s first national conference in Washington, D.C. on October 29, 1966. Friedan said, “The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and

Throughout the U.S history, women have fought a long journey in order to be treated fairly and equally. When women arrived to this country, they were seen as housewives who only served their families, nothing less and nothing more. As time progressed, many women started to disagree with the idea of being just housewives and believed they were capable of many great things such as having the right to vote, and being able to work outside of home. Eventually, it started to create inequalities of the legal statuses of men and women. Around the mid-nineteenth century, the women’s right movement started bringing controversial

The Broadening of the Feminist Movement in the 1960s and 1970s The second wave of the feminist movement became mainstream around 1960s and the 1970s when a lot more women were able to identify and acknowledge the issues in the country that they didn’t realize was an issue before. Activists such Pat Mainardi, a women’s health collective, and Johnnie Tillmon worked to broaden the feminist movement with the other issues in their daily lives, such as the division of housework, the mistreatment of consumers and workers in the healthcare profession and strict rules and negative connotation of welfare. Pat Mainardi was an activist in the early 1970s that worked to include the unfair share of housework in the current feminist movement. Mainardi explained that women’s liberation

The feminist’s movement in the 1970’s not only broke down barriers for women’s rights in salary inequity and anti-discrimination laws, it opened the door for dialogues on women as artist and feminist art education. I have written a reading response to Renee Sandell’s original 1979 article, Feminist Art Education: An Analysis of the Women Art’s Movement As an Educational Force and its introduction by Sandra Packard, in the current collection from Looking Back: Editor’s Selection from 50 Years of Studies in Art Education. In my analysis of both readings I will describe how women’s art movement became important to art education and to women as artist. In addition, I will identify both writers’ theoretical focus and the foundation their theory

In 1776, the then First Lady of the United States was the first to raise her about women’s rights, telling her husband to “remember the ladies” in his drafting of new laws, yet it took more than 100 years for men like John Adams to actually do so. With the help of half a dozen determined, and in this case white upper-middle-class, women the first-wave feminism, which spans from the 19th century to the early 20th century, finally led to their goal after 72 years of protesting. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the rights for women to vote finally passed in 1920. This grand victory brought other reforms along, including reforms in the educational system,