Theme 2 Readings – Feminism
Excerpts from "19th Amendment to the United States Constitution | DocsTeach"
This source is a digital document from the National Archives that presents the joint resolution proposing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
The 19th Amendment states that the right to vote cannot be denied based on sex, and Congress has the power to enforce this.
The amendment required ratification by three-fourths of the states (36 at the time). Tennessee's ratification on August 18, 1920, was the 36th, legally enfranchising half the population.
Despite ratification, many women were still unable to vote due to discriminatory state laws.
A joint resolution is required for a constitutional amendment before it is sent to the states for ratification.
The document is in the Public Domain, free of known copyright restrictions.
Excerpts from "Betty Friedan | National Women's History Museum"
This source is a biography of Betty Friedan (1921-2006), a journalist, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, voiced the frustrations of American women with limited gender roles and helped spark activism for gender equality.
Friedan was politically active and involved in labor and union issues, advocating for workplace rights for women.
Her research for The Feminine Mystique involved surveying her Smith College classmates, revealing their dissatisfaction with being suburban housewives.
The Feminine Mystique became a bestseller and brought many women into the women's movement. The book identified "the problem that has no name," which was a widespread "malaise" among women.
In 1966, Friedan co-founded NOW and authored its mission statement to bring women into full participation in American society in equal partnership with men.
Friedan helped found the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (later NARAL) and co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus.
She organized the Women’s Strike for Equality in 1970 to raise awareness about gender discrimination.
Friedan faced criticism for focusing on issues of white, middle-class, educated, heterosexual women and for her views on lesbian women in the movement.
Despite criticisms, she remained an important advocate for women’s rights and was called the "mother" of the modern women’s movement.
Excerpts from "FeminineMystique.pdf"
This source is an excerpt from Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique.
The book discusses "the problem that has no name," a sense of dissatisfaction among American women in the mid-20th century.
Women were told their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers, and were given advice on how to attract a man, manage a household, and raise children.
The book argues that women were being unfulfilled by domesticity and were encouraged to pity women who wanted careers, higher education, or political rights.
The suburban housewife was presented as the ideal, freed by appliances and fulfilled by her home and children.
The problem was dismissed or not taken seriously by experts, counselors, and psychoanalysts.
The "housewife's syndrome" included feelings of emptiness, incompleteness, and a sense of being unfulfilled.
The book challenges the notion that education, independence, and equality with men make women unfeminine.
Friedan argues that the problem cannot be understood in terms of material problems like poverty, but is related to a lack of something more.
Excerpts from "Finding Pauli Murray | National Organization for Women"
This source discusses Pauli Murray, a Black, queer, feminist civil rights lawyer and priest who co-founded NOW.
Murray's accomplishments and impact on law, civil rights, and women's rights have been largely erased from the narrative.
Murray was an African-American civil rights activist arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus 15 years before Rosa Parks, and organized restaurant sit-ins 20 years before the Greensboro sit-ins.
She challenged race and gender discrimination in legal, societal, academic, and religious circles.
Murray was a talented poet, autobiographer, historian, social commentator, political organizer, attorney, professor, legal theorist, and Episcopal priest.
She was the first African American to receive a doctorate in law from Yale University and the first African-American woman to become an ordained Episcopal priest.
Murray was a friend and correspondent of Eleanor Roosevelt, who encouraged her work and heightened the First Lady’s awareness of challenges faced by working women and communities of color.
Murray coined the term "Jane Crow" to describe the derisive laughter she received when suggesting the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was immoral and discriminatory.
Murray’s article “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII” drew comparisons between discriminatory laws against women and Jim Crow laws.
Murray, along with Betty Friedan and others, founded NOW after being discouraged by the EEOC's failure to enforce Title VII's prohibition of sex discrimination.
Murray's legal scholarship and activism have had lasting significance in American legal history and the women’s and civil rights movements.
Her book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, was called "the Bible for civil rights lawyers" and was useful in the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Murray co-wrote the brief on White v. Crook, which struck down the all-white, all-male jury system in Alabama as unconstitutional.
Her legal scholarship laid the groundwork for Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s argument in Reed v. Reed, which applied the Equal Protection Clause to sex discrimination.
Murray was openly lesbian and a victim of respectability politics, leading to her erasure from chronicles of the civil rights movement.
Excerpts from "Founding | National Organization for Women"
This source details the founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
After World War II, feminist voices dwindled, but the rise of the civil rights movement brought feminists back into the political arena.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 included a prohibition on sex discrimination in employment (Title VII), but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was not effectively enforcing it.
At a conference on Title VII and the EEOC in 1966, Pauli Murray denounced the EEOC's stance permitting segregated job advertising.
Betty Friedan contacted Murray, leading to a reemergence of the feminist movement.
Friedan and others invited frustrated conference participants to discuss alternative strategies, leading to the formation of NOW.
The purpose of NOW was to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society in equal partnership with men.
By October, NOW had 300 charter members and elected officers, including Betty Friedan as President and Aileen Hernandez as Executive Vice President.
NOW adopted a Statement of Purpose with broad concerns addressing all women and facets of a woman’s life.
The organization decided on a structure that gave basic power to the membership in annual national conferences.
Excerpts from "Four Waves of Feminism | Martha Rampton"
This source outlines the four waves of feminism, noting the lack of consensus on characterizing them.
The first wave (late 19th and early 20th centuries) focused on opening up opportunities for women, particularly suffrage. It began at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.
The second wave (1960s-90s) unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights movements, focusing on sexuality, reproductive rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment.
The third wave (mid-90s) was informed by post-colonial and post-modern thinking, destabilizing constructs like "universal womanhood" and heteronormativity.
The fourth wave is emerging with a realization that the third wave was overly optimistic or blind to certain issues, bringing feminism back into public discourse. Issues central to earlier phases are receiving attention, such as sexual abuse, unequal pay, and female representation.
The fourth wave speaks in terms of intersectionality, understanding women’s suppression in the context of marginalization of other groups.
Excerpts from "History of Marches and Mass Actions | National Organization for Women"
This source details the history of mass political actions organized by women in the U.S..
The first mass demonstrations for suffrage were held in 1911, organized by Alice Paul.
Suffragists picketed the White House in 1916 and 1917, leading to arrests and public outrage that aided the campaign.
Women of color were leaders of mass actions for various causes throughout the 20th century.
Rosa Parks' protest on a bus gave new vigor to the civil rights movement.
The second wave of feminism saw women feeling squeezed out of leadership in other movements, leading them to possibilities in the women’s movement.
NOW members picketed The New York Times in 1967 to protest segregated help-wanted ads and the EEOC for approving the ads.
In 1968, NOW members picketed the Miss America pageant, which contributed to the myth of "bra burners.
On the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 1970, NOW organized a Women’s Strike for Equality.
NOW organized “Take Back the Night” marches and vigils to protest sexual assault and violence against women.
Marches on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) began in 1976.
After the defeat of the ERA, NOW organized marches for women’s equality and lives, including the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, which drew a record 1.15 million people.
Marches build and rejuvenate movements for women’s rights, sending a message to those in power and changing the lives of participants.
Excerpts from "History — Equal Rights Amendment"
This source provides a brief overview of the history of the fight for equal rights in the United States.
It highlights the first public demand for women’s suffrage in 1848 at Seneca Falls and the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment by Alice Paul in 1923.
Alice Paul emphasized the need to write the principle of equal rights into the framework of the government.
Excerpts from "Paths to Ratification — Equal Rights Amendment"
This source discusses paths to ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
It argues that hard-won laws against sex discrimination do not rest on any unequivocal constitutional foundation and can be inconsistently enforced or repealed.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg believed that the ERA would provide an unassailable basis for applying the principle that all men and women are created equal.
The traditional constitutional amendment process is described in Article V of the Constitution, requiring a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and ratification by three-fourths (38) of the states.
Article V makes no mention of a time limit for ratification.
The first amendment with a time limit was the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), and beginning with the 20th Amendment, Congress has attached a time limit to the ratification of all proposed amendments.
The "three-state strategy" for ERA ratification was developed following the 1992 ratification of the "Madison Amendment" as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution after a ratification period of 203 years.
Some ERA advocates contend that the ERA's ratification period would meet the "reasonable" and "sufficiently contemporaneous" standards required by Supreme Court decisions.
With the ratification of the ERA by Nevada in 2017 and Illinois in 2018, one more state is needed to achieve the initial 38 states for federal ratification.
Article V gives Congress the power to propose an amendment and determine the mode of ratification but is silent on the power to impose time limits or its role after ratification by three-fourths of the states.
Five states have attempted to rescind their initial ratification of the ERA, but the legality of these rescissions is questionable.