WOMEN:
Silent Subordinate Minority or
Unconstitutionally Oppressed Majority?
Were Women Subordinate?
Readily accepted their status through marriage?
Subjected to the authority or control of men?
Considered lower in rank or importance to men?
Considered subservient to their husband or boss?
Considered to be less valued in the workplace?
Considered weaker physically or mentally to men?
Unable to stand alone without men to support them?
Were Women Minorities?
Numerically smaller than the male population?
Suffering discrimination by and subordination to men?
Being physically and/or Socially set apart from men?
Sharing a sense of common identity and burdens?
Sharing rules about who belongs and who does not?
Struggling to redefine their status in society?
Having a sense of solidarity about their situation?
Subordinate Minority Status
 Meant confinement of women to subordinate
roles not justified by a person’s abilities
Subordinate Minority Status
 Focused on the Biological differences
between males and females
Subordinate Minority Status
 Differences of gender capitalized by popular
advertisement produced sexist attitudes
Changing Gender Roles
 Gender Roles: Society’s expectations of the proper
behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females
 Socialization had a powerful impact on the basic
development of male and female gender roles
 Acceptable behavior for men and women change
over time as a society’s viewpoints change
Sociological Perspective
 Gender differentiation in US culture has been
embedded in our social institutions:
The Family
Sociological Perspective
 Gender differentiation in US culture has been
embedded in our social institutions:
Schools
Sociological Perspective
 Gender differentiation in US culture has been
embedded in our social institutions:
Hospitals
Sociological Perspective
 Gender differentiation in US culture has been
embedded in our social institutions:
Traditional Differences in Sports
Women’s Rights Movement Beginnings
1848: Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention
1869 - 1920
Suffrage
Movement
Famous Suffragettes:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
reads the
Declaration of Rights
and Sentiments
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Susan B. Anthony,
Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone
Margaret Sanger, Alice Paul
1920: Nineteenth Amendment grants Voting Rights
Women’s Rights Movement Eclipsed
Greater Concerns
occupied the
minds of
Americans
Depression of the 1930’s
Euphoria of the Roaring 20’s
Predominant
focus on the
rights of
African-Americans
World War II in the 1940’s
The Cold War of the 1950’s
Women’s Rights Movement Derailed
1940’s – 1950’s
World War II
Generation altered
the Women’s Rights
Movement
• Married Women left the
workplace and returned
home to their husbands
• Many single Women
became War Brides
• Widows remarried to returning veterans to help take care of their young children
The Baby Boom Generation was born as Women
returned to being supportive Mothers & Housewives
Women’s Rights Movement
Eclipsed and Inspired
Leaders of the Civil Rights
Movement were slow to
endorse Women Rights
Anti-War Protestors
Sexist attitudes still existed
rejected Women Leaders
among the new
among their ranks
Counter-Cultural Revolution
However, In each movement Women spoke up
and inspired others to speak out for Women
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
What prompted the new wave of activism?
1961
1963
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
What prompted the new wave of activism?
1961: Eleanor Roosevelt
1963: Betty Friedan
Represented many of the
older ideals of the earlier
Women’s Rights movement
Depicted the modern attitudes
of trapped housewives and
frustrated single women
“A woman is like a tea bag – You
can’t tell how strong she is until
you put her in hot water”
“The feminist revolution has to be
fought because women quite
simply were stopped at a state of
evolution far short of their human
capacity.”
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
What prompted the new wave of activism?
1963-Present: Jo Freeman
Activists, Writer, and Attorney
1963-64: Student member of the Young
Democrats “Free Speech” Movement at
University of California (Berkeley)
1964-66: Joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and
supported Civil Rights in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
1967: Helped form the Chicago
Women’s Liberation Union
while attending the University
of Chicago
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
What prompted the new wave of activism?
1963-Present: Jo Freeman
Activists, Writer, and Attorney
1973: Her dissertation identified and
analyzed two key branches of the
Women’s Movement
The “Older Branch” was founded around members of the President’s
Commission on the Status of Women
The “Younger Branch” was started by activists who
gained experience in the Civil Rights, Anti-War, and
New Leftist Student Rights Movements
Together they would give rise to a new organization
promoting Feminism and Women’s Rights (1966)
The movement focused on changing the idea
that women could only be mothers: that women
could and should be anything they wanted to
be, just like men had the right to.
Women’s Liberation
Movement
African – American women were an especially
ignored faction of society that fought on two
fronts: In the civil rights movement and the
women’s rights movement.
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
Gloria Steinem
One of the most famous
second - wave feminists
of her time.
Journalist and activist for
The New York magazine
in the 1960s
Credited for gaining awareness of the women rights issue
through her magazine articles, public speaking, and liberal
activism
Fought for Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution
alongside Friedan as well as supporting same–sex marriages
Women’s Rights Movement is Reborn
Quotes by Gloria Steinem
“I have yet to hear a man ask for advice
on how to combine marriage and a career.”
“No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a
conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in
any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at
home, or in the office.”
“We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few
have the courage to raise our sons more like our
daughters.”
What Women were Fighting For?
• Women wanted equal rights to men
legally, socially, and economically.
• Prior to the 1960s, young single women
were expected to get married, have
children, and take care of their families.
• Women wanted fair consideration in
employment and professional training.
• Reduction of stereotypical sexist
practices in advertisement and media
What Women were Fighting For?
• Fair and equal wages with men in
the same occupation/profession
• Legislation to
protect women
from gender based job discrimination
• Regulations to eliminate sexist
practices in Education systems
• Laws against sexual
harassment
What Women were Fighting For?
 Efforts to eliminate discrimination against women
 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII)
 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
 Address cases of sex discrimination
 Pay Equity (Comparable worth)
 Calls for equal pay for different types of work that are judged
to be comparable (regardless of gender) by measuring:





Knowledge
Skills
Effort
Responsibility
Working conditions
 Primary goal of feminists-eliminate sex discrimination in
labor force and equalize job opportunities
What Were Women Fighting For?
 Efforts to eliminate discrimination against women
 Education Act of 1972 and Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare guidelines of 1974 and 1975
 Collectively called Title IX provisions
 Regulations designed to eliminate sexist practices from almost
all school systems
 Schools must make changes or lose federal assistance
 Eliminate all sex-segregated classes and extracurricular
activities
 Cannot discriminate by sex in admissions or financial aid; cannot
inquire if applicant is married, pregnant, or parent
 Schools must end sexist hiring and promotion practices among
faculty members
 Although women do not have to be admitted to play on all-men’s
athletic teams, schools must provide more opportunities for
women’s sports, intramural and extramural
What Were Women Fighting For?
 Efforts to eliminate discrimination against women
 1973 Supreme Court Decision: Roe vs Wade
 Gave women greater rights in decisions concerning Abortions
 Limited the power of states to regulate abortions in certain cases
 Applauded by pro-choice groups and condemned by pro-life
 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
 Made it illegal to refuse to hire, layoff, or fire a women based solely
on their pregnancy
 1986 Supreme Court Decision: Meritor vs Vinson
 Established guidelines and training requirements for professional
conduct in the workplace between genders
 Recognized any unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances that
interfere with a person’s ability to perform a job and enjoy the
benefits of a job to be illegal
• How is women’s subordinate position different from
and similar to that of oppressed racial/ethnic groups?
• What is meant by the “Double-Jeopardy” status of
minority women in America?
• What are the special challenges facing women of
subordinate racial and ethnic groups?
• How has the focus of the feminist movement changed
from the suffragist movement to the present?
• How did the patterns of women in the workplace
change between the late 1800’s and the present?
• How has the changing role of women in the United
States affected the stability and unity of the family?
Think…
 Can men be feminists also or is the
movement limited to women only?
 Does the term “feminist” still apply
today?
 Is the women’s liberation movement still
active in today’s America?