3.2 Protest and personal freedom

Sexual Revolution and Women's Rights

1955: 250,000 to 1980: 2mil

Change in the amount of couples in cohabitation

1969: 74% believe wrong to 1973 53% believe wrong

Change in attitude to premarital s*x

1963 NYC TV station cancelled a show called

‘A Sexual Revolution’

1968 Show that celebrated sexual freedom

‘Hair’ on broadway featured nudity

1953: Openly sexual content

Playboy

What did the 1953 Kinsey Reports encourage?

Encourage public discussion of sex: reflect growing openness about sex

68% men and 50% of women

Had premarital sex

37% men and 13% women

Atleast one homosexual experience

8% of men and 4% of women

Engaged in beastiality

1960 Pill

Reduced fear of pregnancy

Women claimed sexual autonomy

1965: Girswold v Connecticut

Married couples granted right to contraception

1974 Doctors could no longer…

Deny birthcontrol to unmarried adults on moral grounds

Abortion was illegal until…

1973

Unsafe Abortion methods

Backstreet

Bleach douches

Coat hangers

1950’s it was illegal

Homosexuality

Homosexuality was classified as a mental illness until

1974

1969 Riots mark start of gay rights activism

Stonewall

1971: NOW recognised…

Lesbian rights as feminist issues

Kate Millet and Ti-Grace Atkinson linked feminism and…

Lesbianism

1963: Women had low paid jobs

Waitress

Cleaners

Secretaries

80% of women were

Teachers

3% of women were

Lawyers

10% of women were

Principal teachers

Airlines fired women if they were…

Married or reached aged 32

How many states banned women from serving on juries?

18

Where did pregnant women often face discrimination?

Employment

1963: Airline Sex Discrimination background

All flight attendants were women

Stewardesses were dismissed if they married or turned 32

1963 Stweardess early protest

35 year old stewardess publicly protested airline policies at press conferences

Stewardesses began organising through unions

1965 Government action towards the Airline issue

EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) ruled against NorthWest Airlines for firing a married stewardess

Ruling was not enforced

Who did stewardesses recieve support from?

EEOC

NOW

1968 Airline victory

Allowed stewardesses to marry and keep their jobs

1970’s court rulings towards airline practises

1970: Struck down marriage and age restrictions

1972: Men could also work as flight attendants

1916 National Women’s Party fought for…

Equal rights amendment

What did JFK’s commission on status of women do?

Pushed for equal pay

Rejected ERA

Internal divisions in the Women’s Movement

Disagreements over tactics and goals: abortion rights and lesbian issues

NOW members felt radicals (Firestone and Atkinson) with dramatic protests hurt public support

1968 Protest: 100 women involved

Miss America Protest

Women disrupted pageant in Atlantic city

What did the protesters do in the 1968 Miss America Protest?

Threw bras and wigs into a ‘freedom trashcan’

Crowned a sheep ‘Miss America’

1967: What was Johnson’s response to the Women’s Movement?

Banned gender discrimination by federal contractors

1971 NOW achievements

Fought 1,000 cases

Won $13mil back pay

1972 Congress passed…

‘Title IX’

Banned sex discrimination in education

Both houses approved ERA

What did Title IX do for women?

Increased opportunitues for women in:

Scholarships

Sports programmes

Educational resources

1972 Equal Rights Amendment

Houses of Congress approved but needed ratification by 38 states

Aim: Rights could not be denied because of sex

Ultimately failed to gain enough support

How did Nixon limit women’s rights?

Didnt support ERA

Opposed abortion rights

1971 Child Development Act: Nixon vetoed (argued increase federal involvement in fam life)

What would the 1971 Child Development Act have done if not Nixon’s veto?

Create national childcare system

Feminists support the bill as it wouldve allowed affordable childcare helping more women work

How did Nixon help women’s rights?

After criticism only 3.5% of Nixon’s appointees were women he increased his efforts to appoiont women

Nixon allowed EEOC to more actively enforce laws against workplace sex discrimination

What was the EEOC?

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

1971 Supreme Court Reed v Reed

Sally Reed challenged Idaho law: when choosing an administrator for an estate men should automatically be preferred over women

Court ruled gov couldnt treat men and women differently without a good reason - ‘reasonable not arbitrary’

‘Reasonable, not arbitrary.’

Gov can make distinctions between men and women only if there is a legitimate reason

Cannot make laws based simply on stereotypes or assumptions

Why did Reed v Reed matter?

First SC decision to apply the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause to sex discrimination

Legal foundation to women’s rights cases

What was NOW?

National Organisation for Women

1966 Betty Friedan and Ti-Grace Atkinson formed it to enforce 1964 CRA against sex discrimination

Ensure women’s equality in all areas

What tactics did NOW use?

Litigation

Political Pressure

Campaigns

Protests

1970 NOW Protest:100,000

National Women’s Strike

1967 NOW Campaigns

Challenged ‘Fly Me’ ads

1968 NOW Political Pressure

Pushed for Bill of Rights for Women

1963 Book by Betty Friedan best seller among college students

‘Feminine Mystique’ highlighted disatisfaction among middle-class housewives

‘The problem that has no name’ female domesticity

1958-59 ‘Comfortable concentration camp’

Betty Friedan’s take on women soley focused on domesticity and family

Many women used tranquillisers: alcohol to cope

Early Mid 1960’s Women’s Rights focused on…

Equality in the workplace

Sought equal pay, job opportunitues and an end to discrimination in employment

Late 1960’s Women’s liberation expanded from Women’s rights…

Beyonf workplace issues

Challenged sexism throughout society

Criticised traditional gender roles and the objectfication of women

Who was Jo Freeman?

Participated in Free Speech Movement

Volunterred with SCLC

1967 Freeman and Firestone Conference incident

Raised women’s issues at a conference

Dismissed with the comment ‘Move on, little girl..’

Sexism in progressive movements

1960: 25% to 66% 1974

Women who believed they faced discrimination

Growing consiousness: women recognise sexism in everyday life

Radical Feminist: Firestone’s Dialectic of Sex

Argued society built systems of male dominance around women’s reproductive role

Believed: IVF and contraception could help free women from biological constraints

Encouraged debate about gender, family and reproduction

Radical Feminist: Ti-Grace Atkinson

Left NOW in 1968 to find a more radical group called ‘The Feminists’

Criticised marriage and female dependancy, opposed pornography and some aspects of sexual revolution

1968 Burial of Traditional Womanhood

Anti-war activists staged a symbollic protest at Arlington National Cemetary

Mock funeral for traditional expectations of women

Sexism within Protest Movements

SDS women 33% of members in 1964

Only 6% of leadership roles held by women and concerns often dismissed

Calls for gender equality ridiculed

Encouraged independent women’s movement