1. Women Fight for Equality Chapter 23, Section 2
Era of Social Change
Women Fight for Equality
Chapter 23, Section 2

2. The Feminine Mystique
All a woman needed to be happy was a husband, healthy children and a house in the suburbs…right?
Betty Friedan: conducted a survey of Smith graduates 15 years after graduation that found women were NOT happy.
Feminine Mystique: addressed this problem

3. The Women’s Movement Arises
Feminism: the belief that women should have economic, political and social equality with men.
Gained momentum in mid-1800s through 1920 with suffrage
Workplace
40% of women worked as of 1960
Women shut out of “men’s” jobs
Clerical, domestic, teaching, nursing, retail and social work
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
Women paid far less
Seldom promoted to management

4. Women in the Workplace

5. Women and Activism
Felt discrimination in the civil rights and antiwar movements; men led most activities and women assigned lesser roles
Men brushed women aside
Women organized consciousness raising sessions
Shared their lives
Discovered their experiences were not unique
Pattern of sexism and gender discrimination

6. The Women’s Movement Emerges
The Feminine Mystique became a best seller
By the late 1960s, women were working together for change
NOW: National Organization for Women
Formed to pursue women’s goals
Gained strength through EEOC and CRA 1964
Creation of child care facilities, ban discrimination in hiring, sex-segregated ads illegal

7. The Women’s Movement Emerges

8. A Diverse Movement New York Radical Women Gloria Steinem
Demonstration at Miss America pageant
Threw bras, girdles, wigs and other “women’s garbage”
Crowned a sheep Miss America
Gloria Steinem
Journalist, political activist, granddaughter of a suffragist
Ms. Magazine to treat contemporary issues from a feminist perspective

9. Steinem and Friedan

10. Legal and Social Gains
Sports, appearance, “Ms.”, adoption of husband’s last name
Congress passed legislation in 1972 that banned gender discrimination in any education program or receiving federal financial assistance
Tax break for child-care expenses for working parents

11. Roe vs. Wade Controversial position of NOW
Women’s right to have an abortion within the first three months of their pregnancy
Issue still divides Americans today

12. Equal Rights Amendment
1972, Congress passed the ERA
Guaranteed both men and women would enjoy the same rights and protections under the law
Needed 38 states to ratify and become part of the Constitution
Phyllis Schlaffly: conservative who believed radical feminists hated men, marriage and children
Conservative opposition to ERA
Drafting of women
End laws protecting homemakers
Husband’s responsibility to provide for family
Same sex marriages

13. Phyllis Schlafly

14. The New Right Emerges In order to combat abortion rights and the ERA
“Pro-family” movement
Focused on social, cultural and moral problems of the nation
Debated family-centered issues
Defeated the ERA

15. Legacy of the Feminist Movement
Transformed conventional “women’s roles”
Working women
Expansion of career opportunities
By % of law school graduates and 42% of medical school graduates
Congress
“Glass Ceiling”

16. Women’s College Graduation Rate

17. Women’s Income Today

18. Women’s Issues Today Title IX What is it? Has it Helped?
In Education
In Athletics
Problems with Title IX and reverse discrimination

19. Women’s Issues Today Roe v. Wade Is it in danger?
Why do women want it?
Life endangerment
Financial reasons
Criminal victims
Immaturity
Key Issues
How do we separate church and state in this case?
Who has the right to tell a women what to do with her body?
Do men have any rights?

20. Women’s Issues Today Working Women and Maternity Laws
US (0 days paid)
Sweden (up to 16 months paid)
Mexico (12 weeks paid)
China (90 days paid)
Article, “More Options for Mom”
What should we do?

21. Women’s Issues Today Gloria Steinem Discusses the 2008 Election