Women Fight for Equality

Directions: As you read about the rise of a new women’s movement, take notes to explain how each of the following helped to create or advance the movement.

1. Experiences in the workplace- Women were paid much less and it was seldom that one was promoted to management positions, reguardless of their education, experience or ability.

2. Experiences in social activism- When women protested that they were assigned lesser roles then the men usually brushed them aside. This lead to some women to organize small groups where they could discuss their concerns.

3. "Consciousness raising"- These are the small groups that women organized to discusss their concerns and shared their lives with each other and discovered that their experiences were not unique.

4. Feminism- The belief that women should have economic, political and social equality with men.

5. Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique- A book that captured the very discontent that many women were feeling, quickly a best-seller and helped to galvanize women across the country.

6. Civil Rights Act of 1964- It prohibited descrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to handle discrimination claims.

7. National Organization for Women (NOW)- An organization created by 28 women to pursue women's goals.

8. Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine- A journalist, political activists, and ardent supporter of the women's liberation movement, who made her voice heard on the subjects of feminism and equality.

9. Congress- They passed the Equal Rights Amendment which made it guarantee that both men and women would enjoy the same rights and protections under the law.

10. Supreme Court- They ruled in Roe vs. Wade that women do have the right to choose an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.

11. The Equal rights Amendment would have guaranteed equal rights under the law, regardless of gender. Who opposed this amendment? Why?
The conservative religious groups, political organizations, and many anti-feminists were against the Amendment with Phyllis Schlafly that was against it because they felt that the ERA would lead to things such as the drafting of women, the end of protecting homemakers, the end of husband's responsibility to provide for his family and same sex-marriages.