Women Flashcards
What were the positives and negatives of the New Deal?
- Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for women in office
- Women represented in organizations eg Frances Perkins as secretary for Labor
- Ran by men
- Legislation discriminated against mothers
- AAs faced discrimination for social security in the South
- No attempt to secure equal pay
What were the positives of WWII?
- Women’s advisory committee and more women in office
- Women in work more and better paying
- More AA activism eg Rosa Parks in 1955 Montgomery
What were the limitations of progress created by WWII?
- Exempt from decision making in New Deal or War
- ‘Dual responsibility’ not supplemented with free childcare
- Unequal pay
- Discrimination of Japanese and AA women
- Divisions on women’s role after war
- Cold-war conservatism and prosperity limits progress eg 1942 sees 2 million women loose jobs
- Still focuses on social work
What was the ERA? What contributed to it nearly being ratified?
1) NOW makes ERA its goal in 1967
2) 1970 picketing Congress and 1972 march for equality
3) Supported by Martha Griffiths and Betty Friedan
4) Protest climate of Vietnam war
1972 congress passes act and 30 states accept it. Reagan prevents it being ratified in 1980.
Which two factors held back to ERA?
- People had opposed it being proposed in 1950s as it exempted women from draft etc
- 1961 Roosevelt recommends Equal Pay Act which makes ERA seem obsolete
What opposition was there to the ERA?
- Phyllis Schlafy and Daughters of American Revolutions see it as threat to tradition
- Others worry women will face conscription
What was radical feminism? How did they hope to achieve their aims?
- 2nd wave feminism involved with AA and Vietnam campaigning.
- Unstructured and centered on raising awareness
- Books such as Kate Millet’s 1970 ‘Sexual Politics’ and rise in women’s discussion groups
- 80000 women in these groups often focusing of divorce, abortion and age (unlike normal campaigning)
How successful was radical feminism?
- 1973 pay 57% of mans and lack of daycare and tax relief until 1977.
By 1992:
- 1/2 degrees going to women (still ‘female subjects’)
- Few women in decision making positions
- Pay 32% less than men
- 1984 first female Vice President
What was the focus for women in the 1960s?
- Abortion and reproduction eg NOW conference 1967
- Women’s equality league breaks away and doesn’t support abortion
- Paid maternity leave and education equality
What were some of the success for feminism in the 1960s?
- 1963 Equal Pay Act
- 1964 Civil Rights Act
- NOW 1966 bringing cases to court
- Feminine Mystique 1963 and ‘Report on American Women’
- 1960s New Frontier and later ‘Great Society’
What challenges did feminism face in the 1960s?
- Not clear aims
- Conservative opposition
- No support from political parties
- Radicalism causing divide
How did the Civil war help improve women’s rights?
- More economic responsibility
- More women working in low payed domestic roles
How was women’s rights linked with the abolition of slavery?
- Women wanted to vote in order to abolish slavery eg Female Anti-slavery convention 1948
- AA progress inspired women but male abolitionist didn’t want the causes linked and separates after the war
- Harriet Tubman rescued slaves
What was the suffrage movement? When did women get the vote?
- National Women’s Association 1869
- Figures like Elizabeth Cady Stanton focusing on political voice and divorce laws
- Mostly white, middle class women
How was moral reform and religion linked with women’s rights?
New tech and literacy- women wanted to share ‘moral values’
War = more charity and fundrasing
Church societies eg Sunday schools