Women’s Liberation Movement

1. Women’s Liberation Movement

2. Learning Targets Place Women’s Liberation in historical context Understand the major gains and losses of the Women’s Liberation Movement Evaluate gender equality today Determine arguments both for and against the Women’s Liberation Movement and the ERA.

3. The Liberation of Marcia Brady • Men roles/stereotypes • Women roles/stereotypes • Examples of discrimination

4. “The Liberation of Marcia Brady” What was the purpose of the women’s liberation movement? What did Marcia do to fight for equal rights? Do you think Marcia succeeded? What stereotypes of girls/boys did you see? Would you have joined the Frontier Scouts or the Sunflower Girls to prove a point? Why or why not?

5. 1920: 19th Amendment passed Women can vote Movement stalls during Great Depression

6. 1940s: WWII “Rosie the Riveter” women work outside home in war effort Asked to return home after WWII “Raspberries for Tojo. Right now, that’s more important than anything else to Rosie the Riveter. but they’ll come a day when a lot of the good new things of peace-time will become more important to Rosie the Housewife…” --Monsanto Chemicals Ad Bureau of Women Workers 1945 survey found that75% of working women wanted to continue working.

7. 1950s: “Domestic” Decade women in traditional roles (wife, mother) Propaganda, TV and ads advertised the “perfect” mother!

8. The Good Wife Guide • What do these excerpts suggest about gender roles?

9. The Good Wives Guidefrom the Ladies Homemaker Monthly Read your assigned rule(s). Summarize the rule in your own words. What are your reactions to this rule? Think of your own household and experiences. Pick someone to share the rule and your group’s views.

10. A Good Wife in the 50s

11. HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE Home Economics High School Text Book, 1954 Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal, on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed. Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. His boring day may need a lift. Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the home just before your husband arrives, gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad he is home.

12. HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE Home Economics High School Text Book, 1954 Some don'ts: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind. Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first. Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to be home and relax. The Goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit. What are your reactions to these rules? How would your mom or grandmother react to them?

13. 1960s: Decade of Protest women see need for own rights Women aiding Civil Rights and Vietnam protests.

14. Second Wave of Feminism

15. 1961: Commission of the Status of Women Kennedy ordered “We have by no means done enough to encourage women to make their full contributions as citizens… It is appropriate at this time… to review recent accomplishments, and to acknowledge frankly further steps that must be taken. This is a task for the entire nation.” President Kennedy, 1963 Areas of concern: maternity leave, child care, pay, opportunities

16. 1963: The Feminine Mystique,Betty Friedan women’s liberation “bible” Challenged traditional roles ONLY “comfortable concentration camps”

17. Excerpts from The Feminine Mystique “ The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night--she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question--"Is this all?“… If I am right, the problem that has no name stirring in the minds of so many American women today is not a matter of loss of femininity or too much education, or the demands of domesticity…We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: "I want something more than my husband and my children and my home."

18. 1966: National Organization for Women (NOW) Worked on rights of working women - opportunities, pay, childcare, etc. Betty Freidan = organizer

19. Late 1960s: Radical feminists emerge Wanted women’s “liberation” Challenged how women were portrayed Women Protesting the 1968 Miss America Pageant

20. 1972: Title IX passed Public schools could not discriminate on the basis of gender

21. 1972: Equal Rights Amendment Introduced in 1923 by Alice Paul Considered seriously by Congress EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

22. Learning Targets Understand arguments for and against the women’s liberation movement and ERA. Debate the women’s liberation movement and ERA. Decide if the ERA needs to be passed and if the women’s liberation movement is done.

23. Debate Position Choose own position by sitting at the name plate: Blue: For Women’s Lib and ERA Yellow: Against Women’s Lib and ERA

24. Congressional Debate Motions

25. Equal Rights Amendment Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

26. Equal Rights Amendment Passed in Congress but never ratified (3 states short) Still debated today

27. Women Today 46% of workforce Paid less than men ($.76 to man’s dollar) 17% of Congress Key: Blue = average Red = men’s pay Grey = women’s pay

28. Obama White House Report on Status of Women (3/1/11) 1. Women have not only caught up with men in college attendance but younger women are now more likely than younger men to have a college or a graduate degree. Women are also working more and the number of women and men in the labor force has nearly equalized in recent years. As women's work has increased, their earnings constitute a growing share of family income.

29. Obama White House Report on Status of Women (3/1/11) 2. Gains in education and labor force involvement have not yet translated into wage and income equity. At all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009. In part because of these lower earnings and in part because unmarried and divorced women are the most likely to have responsibility for raising and supporting their children, women are more likely to be in poverty than men. These economic inequities are even more acute for women of color.

30. Obama White House Report on Status of Women (3/1/11) 3. Women are less likely than in the past to be the target of violent crimes, including homicide. But women are victims of certain crimes, such as intimate partner violence and stalking, at higher rates than men.

31. Final Reflection Do you believe there is a need for an Equal Rights Amendment today? Why or why not? answer in proper paragraph essay format

32. National Women’s Liberation List of What We Want, 1971 - Have these been achieved ?1 = YES 2=SOMEWHAT 3=NO Women's lives, ideas, desires, and dreams to be no less important than men's. We want men to do a fair share of the housework, raising children, and the work of maintaining and cultivating relationships—at least half of it. We want time for work, family, and ourselves. We want to be loved and respected for who we are as people. We want full control over the decision to have children. We want to build upon the victories of the women’s liberation movement of the sixties.

33. Modern Movement (1963) • Commission on the Status of Women • examined role of women • Equal Pay Act: = pay for = work