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What was the role of a husband in the 1950s?
What was the role of a wife in the 1950s?
What are expectations of women today?
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Be able to identify key figures in the women’s
rights movements
Identify laws that have been passed in
women’s favor
Identify a women’s activist group and what it
did
Identify modern issues women face today
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The civil rights struggle of the 1960s
prompted women to examine their roles and
rights in society
Started to reject stereotypes
Became more aware of how they were being
discriminated
Sought for equality in jobs
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http://youtu.be/8zTDbpxT8ZI
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In 1963, a journalist, and housewife, Betty
Friedan, wrote The Feminine Mystique
Helped to launch the feminist movement
Helped to establish NOW, National
Organization for Women
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Attacked stereotypes and identified two main
priorities
◦ Passage of the ERA, equal rights amendment
◦ Protecting women’s reproductive rights
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Key objective was to achieve “true equality for
all women.”
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A proposed Constitutional amendment to
guarantee equality between men and women
Conservative viewpoints
◦ Phyllis Schlafly=hurt families and allow military to
draft housewives
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This amendment did fail
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
◦ Outlawed sexual discrimination in employment
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Educational Amendments Act
◦ Outlawed sexual discrimination in higher education
◦ Title IX “no person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of
sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied
the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
under and educational program or activity…”
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Gloria Steinem
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Journalist
Smith College Grad
Political column
Wrote a feminist column in New York magazine
National Women’s Political Caucus
◦ 1971
◦ Encouraged women to run for political offices
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Steinem also help found the Coalition of
Labor Union Women and Women vs.
Pornography
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Roe v. Wade
◦ 1973
◦ Granted women the right to legal abortions
◦ Before law, most states outlawed or restricted
abortions
◦ Still controversial today
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Lilly Ledbetter Act
◦ Law states that the 180-day statute of limitations
for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay
discrimination resets with each new paycheck
affected by that discriminatory action
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Glass Ceiling effect
◦ Unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps women
and minorities from rising to the top of the
corporate ladder.