The Women's Liberation and Feminist Movements in the 1960s and 1970s: (2)

Question 1

Where did the Women’s Movement emerge?

Answer 1

During the 1960s a powerful Women’s Movement emerged in several Western countries. It started in the United States.

Question 2

Was the Women’s Movement a single organisation?

Answer 2

Where it was not a single organization, but different that were united by common aims to improve the status of many groups of women and end discrimination based on gender.

Question 3

What were the expectations of women in the 1950s in Western countries?

Answer 3

During the 1950s, middle class women in Western countries were expected to stay at home and raise families.

Question 4

What jobs did women have?

Answer 4

Some women did work, but they had a limited number of careers to choose from. Women could be nurses but not doctors, flight attendants but not pilots. In offices and factories, women were seldom promoted (95% of managers were men).

Question 5

How did the wage structure work for men and women in the 1950s?

Answer 5

They worked longer hours and were paid less than men (on average 40% of the salaries of men, even for the same work).

Question 6

When women got ____, they would usually lose their jobs.

Answer 6

married

Question 7

What were women skills often undermined by?

Answer 7

Their skills were often undermined by sexist attitudes and sexual harassment.

Question 8

What was the public image of women?

Answer 8

The public image of women was that they should marry and raise a family. Most women did not question this view of their position in society.

Question 9

How did the attitude of women begin to change in the 1960s?

Answer 9

In the 1960s the attitude of women began to change. Many young women were not prepared to accept their inferior position in the work place, or the restricted view of what a ‘good’ woman should be.

Question 10

What did women want?

Answer 10

They wanted greater independence on a personal level and in public.

Question 11

What book shaped women’s attitude in the 1960s?

Answer 11

This new attitude was partly inspired by the publication of a book in 1963, called The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan. She argued that the American middle class home had become a ‘comfortable concentration camp’ for women. The book was immensely popular and people began to speak of ‘Women’s Liberation’.

Question 12

What was women’s criticism of The Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 12

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the grounds of gender and also of race. But many women felt that the law was not being properly applied.

Question 13

What organisation was formed in 1966?

Answer 13

So in 1966 Friedan and others set up the National Organization for Women (NOW). NOW held peaceful demonstrations and used petitions, strikes and legal actions to force employers to give women greater equality in the workplace.

Question 14

What did NOW encourage women to do? (3)

Answer 14

• They campaigned to have laws changed and challenged discrimination in the courts.
• They also lobbied for maternity leave and childcare centres to make it possible for women to follow a career
• They encouraged married women to keep their own surnames.

Question 15

How was the Women’s Liberation Movement formed?

Answer 15

Some feminists believed that NOW and the older generation of leaders were not radical enough. So they adopted more forceful tactics and became known as the Women’s Liberation Movement (or Women’s Lib).

Question 16

What did the Women’s Lib see as an important part of their work and what did they form?

Answer 16

They saw ‘consciousness-raising’ as an important part of their work.

They formed discussion groups to encourage women to express their feelings and ideas, and to develop ways to change the situation.

Question 17

How did feminists protest against male sexism? (2)

Answer 17

• Feminists protested against male sexism by invading all-male clubs and bars, and burning men’s magazines which they said exploited women.
• They also challenged society’s representation of women.

Question 18

Why did they target Miss World?

Answer 18

In a widely-publicized protest in 1968, they targeted the Miss World pageant. To show their disgust at the limited image of womanhood represented, they paraded a sheep and crowned it ‘Miss America’.

Question 19

What did they do to symbolize their refusal to be trapped by conventional restrictions?

Answer 19

And to symbolize their refusal to be trapped by conventional restrictions, they burnt their bras and threw their stockings, high-heeled shoes, corsets, false eyelashes, hair curlers and cosmetics in rubbish bins.

Question 20

These tactics resulted in widespread ____ and also criticism of the movement.

Answer 20

publicity

Question 21

How did feminist actions help working class women who often disagreed with them?

Answer 21

Many working class women did not identify these feminists with campaigns, but their support issues did such as ‘equal pay for equal work’ and the need to build child care facilities. But it was the protests of feminist that ensured groups that this was put into practice.

Question 22

Why were many African American Women more involved in the Civil Rights Movement?

Answer 22

Many African American women were more involved in the Civil Rights Movement because they felt that gaining racial equality was more urgent than getting gender equality.

Question 23

A development which changed the lives of millions of women in the 1960s was the development of the _____ ___ pill.

Answer 23

birth control

Question 24

What was the dark reality of women before the invention of birth control?

Answer 24

Before this, women had few effective methods of controlling pregnancy, and so they could not pursue careers easily. Many had dangerous illegal abortions.

Question 25

What did the development of ‘the Pill’ mean for women?

Answer 25

The development of ‘the Pill’ meant that women had more control over their own lives.

Question 26

What was the result of feminists challenging the laws prohibiting abortion?

Answer 26

As a result, abortion became available in many states, despite strong opposition. Therefore, to the issues of equal pay and equal rights to work were added the more controversial ones of contraception and abortion, and the ethical issues that they raised.

Question 27

What did a group of women workers at a Ford factory in Britain do?

Answer 27

In 1968 a group of women workers at a Ford factory in Britain went on strike for equal pay. They won support from their trade union and from the public.

Question 28

What did women in Britain form?

Answer 28

Women in Britain formed the National Joint Action Campaign for Women’s Equal Rights, and organized an equal pay rally in Trafalgar Square.

Question 29

What the result of the actions of National Joint Action Campaign for Women’s Equal Rights?

Answer 29

As a result, an Equal Pay Act was passed the following year.

Question 30

In other Western European countries women protested about similar issues. Women in Italy and France took part in huge protest marches, demanding changes to ____ and _____ ____. In both countries, the ban on abortion was finally lifted.

Answer 30

divorce

abortion laws

Question 31

What did the success of the Women’s Lib do for millions of women?

Answer 31

The success of the Women’s Liberation Movement opened up a larger world of choices and opportunities for millions of women.

Question 32

What was the Women’s Lib confined to?

Answer 32

However, it remained largely a middle-class movement confined to industrialized societies. In developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia it had much less impact.