By LEAH MONTEJANO
Staff Writer
A Renewed Women’s Movement
The late 50s and 60s was a time when protests and movements to promote change were popular. In the mid-’60s a new movement began, the women’s liberation movement. Many refer to this as the Feminist Movement now, the word feminist means an individual who believes in the equality of men and women politically, economically, and socially. During World War II, women were given more freedom than they had received in years since individuals throughout the war were desperate for employees, but once the war had finished the women went back to their traditional roles as housewives. News and the public encouraged women to stay at home because they believed women would improve society and upcoming generations by remaining home while their husbands supported them.
Origins of the Movement
Women began to grow angry towards the lack of gender equality that was so normalized. A few examples of sexist discrimination women faced included; Females would be denied credit at banks, job advertisements in the Newspapers only separated jobs by gender, and women workers were paid less for doing as much work as the male employees. In the mid-’60s almost half of American Women had occupations but most of those women worked low-paying jobs. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed by President Kennedy and women were no longer paid less for doing the same work as male employees
The Time is Now
In June of 1966, a feminist named Betty Friedan created an organization to accomplish feminist goals. Friedan and like-minded women created the National Organization for Women. By October, they began their first conference of NOW. The organization was against the exclusion of women from some professions and was also against those who did not abide by the Equal Pay Act. NOW was determined to pass an Equal Rights Amendment and this determination eventually had their own magazine by July 1972.
Image of Betty Friedan
Successes and Failures of the Feminist Movement
The women’s movement fought to get their rights passed from the Constitution during the late 60s and early 70s. The movement also took action to appeal laws against abortion and pass laws against gender discrimination in work, home, and education. One achievement met by the movement involved education. A woman named Kathy Striebiel was a victim of gender discrimination. Kathy wanted to join the swim team when she was a Junior in Highschool but the school did not allow girls to join. Though, this was later found to be a lie because St Paul had banned gender discrimination. Kathy’s mother filed a complaint against the school to the human rights department and they eventually allowed Kathy to swim. Once Kathy beat a boy and earned a spot at the meet the coach said since the meet was outside of St. Paul the rule of law did not apply. In response to this, the women’s movement set out to ban gender discrimination in education. Congress responded to the women by passing a law that included Title IX. Passing this gave women educational opportunities and also athletic opportunities.