Transcript The U.S. Feminist Movement

Clarifying question
[All notes you take need to help you answer the following question]
WHY WAS THERE A NEED TO
FIGHT FOR WOMEN’S
RIGHTS? HOW DID THIS
MOVEMENT AFFECT THE
RIGHTS OF WOMEN?
Your response to the question above should reference at least 35 specific examples from the historical content contained within
this PPT presentation. For added information feel free to expand
your base of information from the internet but please use the
specific people, places and events found here.
The U.S. Feminist Movement
Origins in the 1880s that moved into the 1950s-1970s
Michael Quiñones, NBCT
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Women in the United States have been
extremely influential in the development of
social policy.
Although the rights of women have been
stifled during certain periods of U.S. History
several key figures have effected change.
Abigail Adams ,the wife of John Adams [2nd
U.S. President], enjoyed the respect and
admiration of several early U.S. policy makers
[J. Adams, Jefferson and Washington].
Adams expressed many views considered
very controversial for her time: anti-slavery,
wider women’s property rights and women’s
suffrage.
The Feminist Movement: Some Origins
 The so-called Seneca Falls Convention held in upstate New York for two days in July of 1848 sought to secure
for women many of the same rights Abigail Adams had espoused several decades earlier.
 Seneca Falls, New York was a mostly Quaker community that believed in expanding civil rights for various
oppressed groups such as blacks and women. In fact, as a result of petitions drafted at Seneca Falls in 1848 state
legislatures in Pennsylvania and New York passed women’s property rights laws protecting property before and
during marriage.
 Over the 2 days many influential figures addressed the convention including the famous ex-slave Frederick
Douglass who favored full civil rights for American women [particularly suffrage]. Quaker, Lucretia Mott,
feared that demanding women’s suffrage would be considered too drastic and undermine the entire movement
for women’s quality.
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an abolitionist and non-Quaker realist, advocated for and succeeded in having a
suffrage requirement included into what became known as the Declaration of Sentiments, a document
drafted and signed by over 1/3 of the convention’s attendees.
The Feminist Movement: Some Origins
 A major social issue that concerned many American women was the use of alcoholic
beverages. Tired of witnessing the devastation alcohol wrought on families a ban or
prohibition of the manufacture, possession and consumption of alcohol was sought.
 Rural men were especially prone to alcoholism because of isolation and depression.
Domestic violence on women was also a problem related to alcohol.
 Christian women religious groups such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
[WCTU] were most active in trying to have alcohol legally banned.
 Eventually states began to prohibit alcohol culminating in the 18th Amendment in
1919 which banned manufacture, possession and consumption of alcohol [except for
religious purposes such as communion].
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As a direct result of gains in women’s rights a renewed Women’s movement
became known as Feminism emerging in the 1960s lasting into the 1970s.
Feminism-a set of beliefs that demands equal political, social and economic
rights for women.
President John F. Kennedy established a Presidential Commission on the Status
of Women led by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1961.
The Commission investigated claims of discrimination in the workforce, schools
and public places and reported many instances to support claims made by various
feminist activists such as Betty Friedan who authored the Feminine Mystique
based on her interviews with dissatisfied women across the U.S.
The Feminist Movement: Legislation
 As a result of political attention to problems related to discrimination of
women in the public and private workforce several laws were passed to
create measures of equality.
 The Equal Pay Act of 1963 outlawed wage disparities based solely on gender.
 The next year, as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII of the law
forbade workplace discrimination and Title IX of the same forbade
discrimination in school admissions and athletics.
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Emboldened by legal advances the Feminist movement
pushed forward under the leadership of Betty Friedan’s
National Organization of Women [N.O.W.].
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N.O.W. sought to expand women’s reproductive rights
with the repeal of state abortion laws. In 1973 the
controversial Roe vs. Wade case declared anti-abortion
laws unconstitutional on the grounds they restricted
privacy rights according to the 4th Amendment.
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Prominent members of N.O.W. advanced the feminist
cause in publications, most notably, Ms. Magazine [cofounded by noted feminist Gloria Steinem] that touted
so-called Women’s Liberation [Women’s Lib] to be
realized immediately.
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Another of the feminist movement’s greatest
achievements was its support of Shirley Chisholm who in
1972 became both the first Democratic woman and
black major party candidate for President of the United
States
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N.O.W. and other feminist groups sought ultimate validation of gender equality
with a constitutional amendment.
In 1970 the Equal Rights Amendment [E.R.A.] began its journey through
Congress finally passing both houses in 1972.
Ironically there were many vocal critics of the E.R.A., including Phyllis Schlafly, a
conservative constitutional lawyer from Missouri and opponent of the E.R.A. who
believed women would be subject to the military draft and men’s jobs.
The amendment was sent to the states for ratification but despite repeated
attempts to gain passage only 35 of the 38 states needed ratified.
Reexamining the Clarifying question
[All notes you take need to help you answer the following question]
Your response to the question above should reference at least 35 specific examples from the historical content contained within
this PPT presentation. For added information feel free to expand
your base of information from the internet but please use the
specific people, places and events found here.
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Extend your learning by writing an evidence based
narrative about the Feminist movement.
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Use one of the specific historical people, events or issues
mentioned in this PPT presentation to write a first
person narrative explaining your experience as a woman
in the United States that has suffered discrimination.
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Your narrative must contain as its foundation specific
historical examples from this presentation and any
enhancement from internet research you conduct.
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Whether you are male or female this narrative must be
written from the female perspective.