The Feminist Movement in the 1960s and 1970s

Question 1

What did Eleanor Roosevelt do in 1960?

Answer 1

urged JFK to establish the Status Commission, to compile a report on women in the workplace

Question 2

What did the Status Commission show in 1963?

Answer 2

• women earned 60% less than men in the same job
• only 4% of lawyers were women
• only 7% of doctors were women

Question 3

Who was Betty Friedan?

Answer 3

• author of ‘The Feminine Mystique’
• her book sparked the feminist movement

Question 4

When was the Equal Pay Act passed? What was it?

Answer 4

• 1963
• made it law that women and men should receive the equal pay for the same job

Question 5

What was the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

Answer 5

• banned discrimination in employment because of race or sex

Question 6

Despite the 1963 and 1964 acts, how did many women feel?

Answer 6

• there was still widespread discrimination against women
• unequal pay still common (even today)

Question 7

What was the National Organisation of Women? When was it set up?

Answer 7

• set up in 1966
• had 40,000 members
• took companies that failed to give equal pay to court

Question 8

How did some women feel about NOW?

Answer 8

• they thought it was not inclusive or effect enough as most members were middle class and middle aged women

Question 9

What was the Women’s Liberation Movement?

Answer 9

• made up of young women
• used more extreme methods to gain rights and equality

Question 10

What did the Women’s LIB do to the Miss America beauty pageant and why?

Answer 10

• disrupted it
• felt that they shouldn’t comply with makeup etc, because it symbolised male control

Question 11

What extreme methods did the Women’s LIB use?

Answer 11

• burning bras
• protests

Question 12

What law regarding contraceptives was passed and when?

Answer 12

• 1965
• all married couples should be allowed to use contraceptives

Question 13

What law regarding divorce was passed, when and where?

Answer 13

• 1969
• California: the first state
• ‘no fault’ divorce

Question 14

What law Act was passed regarding education and when?

Answer 14

• 1972
• Educational Amendment Act
• women can study the same subjects as boys

Question 15

What was the Equal Rights Amendment? (ERA)

Answer 15

• 1972
• a change to the US constitution for the equality of all genders

Question 16

Why did ERA fail to become part of the US constitution?

Answer 16

• Phyllis Schlafly led the opposition = not enough states voted for it

Question 17

Who was Phyllis Schlafly and what did she argue?

Answer 17

• leader of the ‘STOP ERA’ campaign
• argued that ERA would lead to women in combat, greater abortion rates, unisex bathrooms and homosexual marriages

Question 18

What was the Roe v Wade court case and when was the law passed?

Answer 18

• court case where lawyers successfully argued that 21 Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey) had the right to abortion
• 1973 Supreme Court ruled that women had the right to a safe and legal abortion

Question 19

What was the result of the Roe v. Wade case?

Answer 19

• ended the Feminist Movement as women had full rights to their own reproductive system