“The Women’s Movement”

Jo Freeman

History of Women’s Movement

1970: Most scholars dismissed the Complaints WomenFerris (1971), for example, suggested there was no identifiable socio-

economic reasons why women would be discontent in the 1970s.

Scholars were asking the wrong questions.

History of Women’s Movement

Structural Preconditions for the Development of SMStudy of Women’s movement must be concerned with structural

preconditions for the development of SM.

Key Questions: Where did the people who made up the original organizing cadre come from?

How did they come together? How did they come to share a similar view of the world?

Development of the Women’s Movement

Three Propositions:

Proposition 1: Need an Pre-existing Communication Networks

Proposition 2: This network must be Co-optable to the ideas of the emerging SM

Proposition 3: With a Co-optable comm. network, two other conditions must be meet:

a. A crisis galvanizes the network into

action.b. One or more persons begin organizing a

new organization or disseminating a new idea.

Origins of Women’s Movement

Origins of Women’s Movement:Freeman identifies the Origins and Structure of the Women’s Movement in

the following two traditions:

1) Reform: Women Rights2) Radical: Women’s Liberation

Generational and Organization DifferencesEach Tradition (or Branch) had its own style of organization.

Origins of Women’s Movement

Older and Younger Branches of Women’s Movement

Older Branch: OB

Core Organization: NOW: National Org of WomenPrograms: focus on legal and economic issues

Organization: traditional, formal: elected officers, board of directors, bylaws, etc.

Structure: top-down lacked a mass base.

Origins of Women’s Movement

Older and Younger Branches of Women’s Movement

Younger Branch: YBCore Organization: no real centralized national

organization.Programs: more confrontationalOrganization: prides itself on the lack of organization, “communication was haphazard”

Structure: saw structure as inherently conservative, and leaders as

Elitist endorsed a “policy of ‘structurelessness.”

Origins of Women’s Movement

Origin of Branches: Older Branch

OB: 1961 President’s Commission on the Status of Women, and resulting 50 state commissions.

State CommissionsState comms. did three things to promote WM:

1) Brought women together2) Highlighted gender discrimination3) Promoted a sense that change was

possible

Origins of Women’s Movement

Origin of Branches: Older BranchOther factors that helped organize the OB of WM:

1) 1963 publication of Feminine Mystique 2) Inclusion if “sex” provision to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Origins of Women’s Movement

Origin of Branches: Older BranchYB: originated in politics and tactics of the Civil Rights, New Left and Anti-

War movements.

Radical Left Community and YB: Radical community provided communication network, and ideas/analysis for women’s inequality.

Origins of Women’s Movement

Four Elements Helped WLM Form

1) Preexisting Communication Network:OB: Presidential comms, state comms, YB: radical community (Black power, Civil Rights, New Left, Anti-

War)

2) Co-OptablityOB: Presidential Comm and State Comms were a co-optable comm. Network for NOW since it immersed women in the

details of women’s inequality…

YB: “The atmosphere of questioning, confrontation” and freedom

that defined the “radical community” exposed the contradictions of male authority.

Origins of Women’s Movement

Four Elements Helped WLM Form

3) CrisisOB: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) failure

to enforce Title VII, and state comms would not push for it either provoked the creation of NOW.

YB: Explicit hostility of New Left men to women attempts to organize.

4) Role of the Organizer