70s-90s Flashcards
literature of the 60s
Betty Friedan ‘The Feminine Mystique’ the home as ‘comfortable concentration camps’ and legitimised sense of alientation and expressed the need for women to build an identity outside of the home
Adrienna Rich on lesbianism and seperatism and Atkinson more radical strands growing e’f NYRW and The Feminists
movement then manifested into NOW
est. in 66 founders inc Friedan and Chisholm
coins phrase ‘personal is political’ and sexism, soon brings focus on pushing for ERA
Ms America ‘72 puts women’s issues at forefront of the media, Steinem (member of now)
but pay gap contradiction
Johnson actions
enforces Title VII and makes executive order in 67 to outrule discrimination in fed employment
appoints 50 women to governmental posts,
but these legal milestones empty in practice, pay gap only widens by 69 and in 72 women still earning 57% less than men on average
NOW’s successes using litigation (political)
Weeks v Southern Bell - 67 Title VII upheld, precedent for challenging sexists practice
Roe v Wade 73 SC establish abortion as women’s legal right and choice, untill this point, state decision most illegalised, biggest success of rad fem movement galvanised opposition Phyllis into action and government opposition too with the passing of the Hyde Amendment 76, preventing use of federal funding (medicare) for abortion (bars more WC women from using)
political figures
National Women’s Caucus 1971 est. to encourage women into office as a result numbers in office double by 90s
significant figures like Chisholm, presidential campaign in 72, first woman to be in Natinonal Presidential debate, her campaign was greatly underfunded, yet highly ranked member of congress
Bella Abzug too had seat in House of Representatives known as ‘Battling Bella’
feminist protest (social factors) campagining an cultural awakening
1970 Fifteenth Avenue Strike 50,000 women NOW funded, fore abortion on demand, equal opportunity in workforce and education and free childcare (women doing the unpaid labour, barred from harvard law still untill 77 and wage gap only widening, jobs still gendered with ‘glass ceiling’ for women
radical split offs with NYRW Miss America pagent 68, crowned sheep, action towards sychophantic women
also formed ‘speak-outs’ about abortions and ‘consiousness-raising groups’ to find collective experiences of opression and discrimination
economic improvements
blurring of gender domains did statistically decrease yet this didn’t equate to equal pay only 4.8% managerial and executive jobs women ‘glass ceiling’, only 5 states had passed paid maternity leave
by mid-90s, this pay gap, mc women earning 98% of man so closes but AA women lower, facing employment discrimination and unpaid maternity leave
feminist impact on younger gen. stats
in 68, 65% of girls aspired to be housewives, saw that at the forefront of priority but by 78 that stat was only 25%
improved sense of solidarity with white women and AA women alike over 70% agreeing they supported the feminist movement in helping with endevours (obviously Davis sees drawbacks losso of intersectionality)
ERA CAMPAIGN turning point
birthed by Alice Paul was early as 20s, passed by Congress 72 sent to states for raitfication, proposed ending legal distincitions between men and women in laws e’g employment and in divorce courts, threatening the home so Phyllis Schlafly galvanised women in conversative cause (National Committee) emotive cause to protect that therefore ratification lapsed in 82 with New Rightest backlash.
BY 1992 politics
Clinton 1/3 of his appointments to office female
19/100 major city majors
Chisholm proposed bill for federal childcare vetoed and by Nix who prospose it damaged family values and by 90s still no right to paid maternity leave, shows family values still held dearly to american conservative hearts and so remain suspicious of feminist lobby
Regan nominated Sandra O’Connor as first female supreme court appointment
ERA faced too much opposition and lost momentum as many believed rights had been gained from the CRA and Roe v Wade already, yet women now politically aware of their vote which they hadn’t been before
BY 1992 economics
75% of married women with children employed
still no paid maternity leave and stuggled with pay discrimination - yet legal basis had been given to challenge it
BY 1992 social
survey from 90s found only 37% of men supported gender equality
feminist literature like Wolf’s writings on the ‘Beauty Myth’ women now confined by patriachal standards of perfection of women, feeds into billion dollar cosmetic industry, keeps them subjugated as domesticity once did
the case of Anita Hill who made sexual harrasssment allegations against Clarence Thomas before his appointment ot the supreme court, the senate committee conducted a public trial which was dissmissive of Hill, tirggered a third wave of feminism, proving that women still had a lot of battles to fight but the turn of the century, yet second wave radicalism at least opened a new consciousness of opression and liberation awakening
