THE WOMEN(S) MOVEMENT
During the 1950s and 1960s, in- creasing numbers of married wom- en entered the labor force, but in 1963 the average working woman earned only 63 percent of what a man made . That year Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, an explosive critique of middle- class living patterns that articulated a pervasive sense of discontent that Friedan contended was felt by many women . Arguing that women often had no outlets for expression other than “finding a husband and bear- ing children,” Friedan encouraged her readers to seek new roles and re- sponsibilities and to find their own personal and professional identities, rather than have them defined by a male-dominated society .
The women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration from the civil rights movement . It
CHAPTER 13: DECADES OF CHANGE: 1960-1980
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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was made up mainly of members of the middle class, and thus partook of the spirit of rebellion that affected large segments of middle-class youth in the 1960s .
Reform legislation also prompted change . During debate on the 1964 Civil Rights bill, opponents hoped to defeat the entire measure by pro- posing an amendment to outlaw dis- crimination on the basis of gender as well as race . First the amendment, then the bill itself, passed, giving women a valuable legal tool .
In 1966, 28 professional women, including Friedan, established the National Organization for Wom- en (NOW) “to take action to bring American women into full partici- pation in the mainstream of Ameri- can society now .” While NOW and similar feminist organizations boast of substantial memberships today, arguably they attained their greatest influence in the early 1970s, a time that also saw the journalist Gloria Steinem and several other wom- en found Ms . magazine . They also spurred the formation of counter- feminist groups, often led by women, including most prominently the po- litical activist Phyllis Schlafly . These groups typically argued for more “traditional” gender roles and op- posed the proposed “Equal Rights” constitutional amendment .
Passed by Congress in 1972, that amendment declared in part, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex .” Over the next sever-
al years, 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified it . The courts also moved to expand women’s rights . In 1973 the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade sanc- tioned women’s right to obtain an abortion during the early months of pregnancy — seen as a significant victory for the women’s movement — but Roe also spurred the growth of an anti-abortion movement .
In the mid- to late-1970s, how- ever, the women’s movement seemed to stagnate . It failed to broaden its appeal beyond the middle class . Divisions arose between moderate and radical feminists . Conservative opponents mounted a campaign against the Equal Rights Amend- ment, and it died in 1982 without gaining the approval of the 38 states needed for ratification .