The Women’s MovementThe Women’s Movement

Focus Task• Look at the following two

quotes and answer the following questions:– What are “traditional” roles of

women?– What are the quotes saying

about those roles?– The quotes represent the two

sides to feminism, what are your thoughts concerning women’s rights today vs. the early 1900’s?

“Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.”

-Phyllis Schlafly

A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex but neither should she adjust to prejudice and discrimination.

-Betty Friedan

The Women’s Movement• CRM inspires other movements

– Perhaps US’s faults could be fixed if people banded together & worked for change

• Women’s Movement very important– Sought equal rights for women– Since WWII women’s roles changing– Conservative America wanted traditional

roles (women = mothers & housewives, men = work)

– View didn’t fit real world of 1960s so well

• Two trends fed movement …

Chain of Fools from The Commitments soundtrack

Trend 1: More Women Workers• WWII started trend

– 1940: women 19% of workforce– 1950: women 28.8% of workforce– 1960: women almost half of workforce

• 1960: Still far to go– Eleanor Roosevelt pressured JFK to

investigate status of women at work in USA

– 95% managers = men– 88% technical workers = men– 96% lawyers = men– 93% doctors = men– Women paid 50-60% of men for same job– Most work for women was part time a/o

low level a/o low paid– Women could be fired when they married

Rosie the Riveter

Trend 2: Changed Expectations• > WWII mass rush from work to home =

babies (called the ‘Baby Boom’)• By 1960s women were disillusioned• Betty Friedan’s ‘Feminine Mystique’

– 1963: Friedan wrote best-seller– ‘Feminine Mystique’ her term for illusion that

women’s happiness defined solely by roles as mother & wife, not as independent human beings

– Friedan called for women to work outside home to avoid boredom, frustration & loss of skills

• Friedan’s survey– Interviewed 100s of college educated women– They felt undervalued & depressed– Sought more to life that simply wife & mother– Friedan termed this dissatisfaction ‘the

problem that had no name’

Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The Women’s Movement• Not a single organization

– 1000s of different groups w/ different angles

– All had similar aim: raise status of women & end discrimination in all areas of life

• Fed Gov’t gets active– 1963: Status Commission’s Report– 1963: Equal Pay Act– 1964: Civil Rights Act (outlawed

discrimination based on sex)

• 1966: Friedan founds National Organization of Women (NOW)– Many women saw federal acts not being

enforced– Organized & protested for implementation

Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman

NOW• By 1970s NOW was major org

– 40,000 members

– Worked w/ many other women’s groups

– Learned from tactics of CRM

– Organized street protests

– Used courts

• Results NOW!– 1966-71: $30 million in back-pay secured

for women who weren’t paid equal w/ men

– 1972: SC ruled Constitution gave women equal rights (same rights) as men

Processing History• Discuss with a partner how each of

the following factors helped create the Women’s Movement– WWII– CRM– Individuals– Education & work for women

• Discuss with your partner which factors were more or less important

• Individually, rank the factors’ importance from most important to least

• Individually, write at least three sentences (30 words) for each factor explaining why you believe it deserves the rank that you gave it

Fin

PSDs on Women’s Movement• You are asking that a stewardess be young, attractive and single.

What are you running, an airline or a whorehouse?– Congresswoman Martha Giffiths asked the directors of National Airlines

about its policy on air stewardesses, who were fired when they married or reached the age of 32

• As the American woman made beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night, she was afraid to ask even of herself the question: ‘Is this all?’– From The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, 1963