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 could only work certain jobs such as nurses, teaching, social work, retail services etc, none of which paid very well. Even when they were working the same jobs the women still got paid less. Women were not promoted to management positions even if they were more educated etc. When the facts came into the news it moved the woman to do more.

2. Experiences in social activism- Most women felt the sting of discrimination when they came to become involved in civil rights and antiwar movements. If women were in the SNCC and the SDS, the men were always the leaders and the women had roles that were less important.
In group discussions women found that the attacks were similar in the ways that they were all sexist discrimination based in gender.)

4. Feminism- The belief that women should have economic, political and social equality with men. Gained their movements in the 1800's and in the 1920's women won the right to vote.

6. Civil Rights Act of 1964- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is what gained the womens strength. The act prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender, which opened up equal Employment Opportunity Commissions (EEOC).

7. National Organization for Women (NOW)- NOW was created by Betty Friedan to pursue womans goals. Members pushed for the creation of child care facilities which would let mothers work and get an education. Their push on EEOC made sex segregated job ads illegal, and they made guidlines to employers saying that they could no longer refuse to hire a woman for traditionally male jobs.

8. Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine- Gloria Steinem was a a journalist, a political activist and and ardent supporter of the womans liberation movement who spoke about feminism and equality. Ms. Magazine was a feminist magazine that Gloria Steinem wrote.

9. Congress- Congress expanded the the powers of the EEOC and gave working parents a tax break to pay for child care. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which needed ratification by 38 states to become part of the Constitution it was passed.

10. Supreme Court-

11. The Equal rights Amendment would have guaranteed equal rights under the law, regardless of gender. Who opposed this amendment? Why?-

The men who were in competition of the jobs that the women would be able to receive would be against the the equal rights amendment. Men would lose jobs if the woman started to fill the open slots, therefore they wouldn't be able to provide for their families.