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First wave feminism
Just as the abolitionist movement made nineteenth-century women more aware of their lack of power and encouraged them to form the first women’s rights movement -
Second-wave feminism
the protest movements of the 1960s inspired many white and middle-class women to create their own organized movement for greater rights -
Feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique
a nonfiction book in which she contested the post-World War II belief that it was women’s destiny to marry and bear children. Friedan’s book was a best-seller and began to raise the consciousness of many women who agreed that homemaking in the suburbs sapped them of their individualism and left them unsatisfied. -
Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC)
In 1964, for example, when a woman’s resolution was brought up at a Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) conference, Stokely Carmichael flippantly cut off all debate: “The only position for women in SNCC is prone.” -
National Organization for Women (NOW), formed and proceeded to set an agenda for the feminist movement.
Framed by a statement of purpose written by Friedan, the agenda began by proclaiming NOW’s goal to make possible women’s participation in all aspects of American life and to gain for them all the rights enjoyed by men. Among the specific goals set was the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. -
NOW called the Congress to Unite Women
NOW called the Congress to Unite Women, which drew more than 500 feminists to New York City in November 1969. The meeting was meant to establish common ground between the radical and moderate wings of the women’s rights movement, but it was an impossible task. -
“The Badword Manifesto.”
Based in New York City, the Redstockings penned the movement’s first analysis of the politics of housework, held the first public speak-out on abortion, and helped to develop the concept of “consciousness-raising” groups—rap sessions to unravel how sexism might have coloured their lives. The Redstockings also held speak-outs on rape to focus national attention on the problem of violence against women, including domestic violence. -
Congress passed Title IX of the Higher Education Act
which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program receiving federal funds and thereby forced all-male schools to open their doors to women and athletic programs to sponsor and finance female sports teams. -
ERA passed Congress
The eventual dwindling of the women’s rights movement was hastened by NOW’s singular focus on passage of the ERA. Owing to the efforts of women such as Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem -
legalized abortion
in its controversial ruling on Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion. -
The failure of the ERA
followed in the 1980s by a gradual decline in organized, often bellicose activity by masses of women in the United States. Moreover, there was a growing national sense that the core goals of the women’s rights movement had been achieved. NOW continued to work for women’s rights -
movement that was once defined by its radical pitch had taken on new tones
some of them conservative. The divide over abortion continued to alienate many women, such as the Feminists for Life, who believed fervently in women’s rights but disagreed with the mainstream movement’s position on abortion -
divide deepened
the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, declared her opposition to abortion on demand. -
First woman president
HIllary ran for first female president
