Chapter 12
I Am Woman: From the Frying Pan into the Fire
In This Chapter
Bringing women’s rights to Capitol Hill
Drawing out the woman within
Joining voices to create a chorus of protest
Resorting to more militant measures
Having sex without the stress
Facing the reaction
When the 1960s began, a woman’s place was in the home, or so it seemed. Middle-class women appeared happy tending to their suburban homes, raising their children, coddling their husbands, and creating mouth-watering casseroles. They were convinced that they had fulfilled their greatest dreams, or at least the goals that their families — and society as a whole — had for them. Younger women went to college to earn their coveted MRS or PHT (putting hubby through) degrees (and a major in education “just in case”).
However, as the ’60s progressed, women’s lives began to change, and by the end of the decade, feminism was a powerful movement. The publication of a landmark work, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan; the participation of young women in the civil rights and antiwar movements; and the introduction of a new birth control method, “the Pill,” combined with other factors made women question their place in this land of the free.
In the beginning, this “second wave” of feminism, as it has become known, began in earnest in the mid-’60s with the establishment of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which tried to accomplish its goals through conventional legislative means. By the end of the decade, however, more radical feminists brought the methods of protest that they learned in the civil rights and antiwar movements to the fight for women’s rights — they marched, they held sit-ins, they challenged conventional ideas about their roles in society, and they adopted a view that personal choices can be political statements.
Although many of the efforts, events, and results that were associated with the women’s movement and substantially changed gender relations in the United States occurred in later decades, the far-reaching effects wouldn’t have been possible had women not taken the first steps in the 1960s.
Exposing the Feminine Mystique
Although the beginning of the ’60s showcased women in frilly white aprons, spatula in hand and crying child on hip, females hadn’t been in such a role forever. During World War II (1941–45), women left the sphere of house and home and adopted what had been considered male roles in society. They worked in factories and kept America running as the country’s young men headed off to war. The famous image of Rosie the Riveter comes from this period. Other women joined the armed forces, and although they didn’t have combat roles, they made great contributions to the war effort as nurses, motor mechanics, weather forecasters, air traffic controllers, and radio/telephone operators. However, when the war ended and the GIs returned home, many women were forced to leave their jobs to make room for the returning soldiers.
Fast forward a few years to the 1950s, when the World War II veterans, many of whom had been to college on the GI Bill, were earning good salaries. To accommodate these upwardly mobile families, suburban housing developments were springing up to provide safe and affordable housing. Middle-class white women, lured by white picket fences, new laborsaving appliances, advertising and marketing messages, and the ideals presented on television adopted the roles of mother, helpmate, and homemaker to the exclusion of almost everything else. In fact, this view of the proper role of middle-class women in society became so pervasive that a woman choosing to remain single or to successfully pursue a career was looked on as either a pathetic spinster or a cold dragon lady.
Early in the ’60s, suburban white middle-class women supposedly had it all. They didn’t have to work, had lovely homes, beautiful children, attentive husbands, new cars, and an increasingly prosperous lifestyle. But even though life seemed heavenly, underneath it all, many of these women had vague feelings of uneasiness and boredom. They couldn’t quite put their finger on it, but they had a sense that life must have more to offer than marriage, babies, and a well-ordered house. Many of these women were also well educated and somehow felt vaguely guilty that they’d abandoned their ideals and wasted their educations pursuing a life that would reach no further than the kitchen or the laundry room. They became resentful of the mind-numbing boredom of their daily routines. But how could they complain? They had everything they ever wanted.
In preparation for her revitalizing work, Friedan interviewed thousands of women, giving them the opportunity to say what they really felt about their lives. They reported that although they were happy with their families and felt that they’d achieved everything they ever wanted, something was missing. After talking to those women and hearing the same feelings expressed over and over again, Friedan had a title for the book’s first chapter: “The Problem that Has No Name.”
After the book was published, millions of other women recognized themselves in its pages. They remembered who they were in college and in their short-lived careers and wondered where their bright, stimulated, and interesting selves had gone. The Feminine Mystique led women to examine their lives, and the results changed American society. When women reconnected with their less domesticated selves and demanded gender equality in the family, workplace, and government, they instigated social changes that continued into the next millennium.
The mother of the movement
Betty Friedan graduated in 1942 from Smith College with a degree in psychology and did graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley. She worked as a journalist for several years and married in 1947. After her children were born, she worked as a freelance writer for a number of magazines while living the typical life of a suburban wife and mother. Although her life was “ideal,” she was somewhat bored and dissatisfied and wondered whether other women felt the same. In 1957, she sent a questionnaire to her Smith classmates to see what their lives had been like since graduation.
Friedan was no stranger to opposing conventional views. While at Smith and Berkeley, she was active in Socialist and Communist organizations. After graduation, while working as a journalist, she mainly wrote for left-wing publications, promoting labor unions and denouncing poor working conditions for women.
The results of her survey showed that many of her classmates felt the same say she did. Friedan became so interested in women’s lives that she developed more detailed questionnaires, conducted personal interviews, and discussed her results with psychologists and other professionals. When she submitted her work to three separate women’s magazines, they all turned her down because her ideas contradicted conventional thinking about the roles of women (and probably would’ve angered their advertisers as well). Over the next five years, Friedan organized, compiled, and expanded her research, and in 1963, she published The Feminine Mystique. The book quickly became a bestseller with more than a million copies sold and sparked a nationwide debate over the role of women in society.
However, the concerns of working-class and African American women were largely absent from Friedan’s work. Idle women, bored in their suburban homes, didn’t often fit the reality that these women experienced.
Looking to the Government with Mixed Results
In the early ’60s, the federal government took steps to evaluate and eliminate sexual discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment. However, in spite of commissions and legislation, women’s employment opportunities and pay lagged behind that of men.
Establishing a commission and legislating equal pay
Even at the beginning of the 1960s, before the second wave of feminism began, the wheels were already in motion to eliminate gender inequality. In 1961, Esther Peterson, the highest-ranking woman in President John F. Kennedy’s government as the assistant secretary of labor for women’s affairs, recommended that the president create a commission to study discrimination against women and ways to eliminate it. That same year, Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
The commission’s 26 members were politically and professionally diverse and included educators, writers, leaders of women’s organizations, union leaders, cabinet secretaries, and members of Congress. Under Kennedy’s orders, federal departments and agencies provided the commission with the information it needed.
The commission’s main focus was recommending ways to eliminate discrimination and suggesting legislation and services that would help women to achieve equality. The group achieved some important objectives:
An executive order requiring equal employment opportunities for women in companies working under federal contracts
Recommendations for changes in state laws that excluded women from
• Jury duty
• Owning property or a business
• Legal control of their earnings
In the early 1960s, a married woman’s status was largely determined by what state she lived in. In some states, women could own property, start and run a business, and have complete power to manage their finances. But in other states, married women couldn’t make contracts, buy or sell property, manage their money, or make wills without approval from their husbands.
A commission on the status of women in every state in the union
Recommendations on issues concerning the availability of affordable day care, access to education, and wages
But by far the most important of these changes was the Equal Pay Act that President Kennedy signed in 1963. This legislation made it illegal to pay women less than men based on sex and put enforcement under the supervision of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Although the Equal Pay Act made it illegal for employers to pay less for the same work based on gender, they could still pay different wages based on experience, seniority, education, or merit. These differences, though valid for determining pay, also provided loopholes that made proving gender discrimination difficult.
The job interview
Even after the president’s commission dissolved in 1963, job discrimination continued. In the mid-’60s, as young college graduates entered the professional job market, employers had a not-so-subtle way to avoid hiring them.
One woman, married for two years, was looking for a job in the computer industry, then in its infancy. Either directly or indirectly, she was often asked about her plans for children. Of course, the young woman knew that if they asked the question, they already had their own answer. Eventually, she was hired by a company with a huge turnover problem, so it didn’t matter if she left after six months. But she stayed for six years. To manage the problem of employers questioning their personal lives, many engaged and married women left their wedding and engagement rings at home.
Including women in the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was mainly enacted to address the issues of racial inequality that were raised by the civil rights movement (see Chapter 6). Some of its provisions, however, affected women in that they protected the voting rights of all citizens and prohibited discrimination in education, public facilities, and federally assisted programs. The Civil Rights Act also provided for equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Coming Together to Build a Movement
Commissions not withstanding, women were on the move, but they soon realized that they couldn’t do it alone. As women left the home and entered the outside world, they became more aware that the legal and social structure worked against them. They were confronted with discrimination in the workplace, education, government, and the military. A number of factors came together and lit the spark for women’s movement in the mid-1960s:
More women encountering workplace obstacles: Through the fifties and sixties, more women were entering the workplace. Therefore, more women were exposed to related discrimination and restrictions. In 1950, about 31 percent of women were in the workforce; in 1960, about 35 percent were working; but by 1970, 42 percent of women worked outside the home.
Expanding minds in college: By the early 1960s, there were already large numbers of women in college, and the numbers were growing. Throughout the decade, then, more women were exposed to both higher education and the accompanying professional expectations. Also, more women gained exposure to the civil rights and student movements of the time (see the “Getting Radical” section later in the chapter).
Organizing to take a stand — NOW
Full civil rights for women
Increased role in government
Equal educational opportunities
Society’s recognition of the value of homemaking and childcare
Improving popular images of women in the media
Reflecting the professional status of its members, who were accustomed to working in corporations and functioning in committees, NOW was organized along traditional lines. It had elected, salaried officers, established local dues-paying chapters, and held national conferences. To create change, NOW lobbied legislatures, signed petitions, and filed discrimination lawsuits.
In the here and NOW
Over the years, NOW has become one of the most important forces of change for women in the United States, taking advantage of establishment methods such as lawsuits, lobbying, and political action committees (PACs). Although NOW still prefers these traditional methods today, it doesn’t shy away from more confrontational ways to get its message across. Although some members of NOW said that protest marches, rallies, pickets, and nonviolent civil disobedience were very ’60s and passé, NOW doesn’t hesitate to support, and in some cases even organize, huge (and widely attended) demonstrations. NOW organized the following protests:
1978: A march on Washington to support the Equal Rights Amendment.
1986, 1989, and 1992: March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., to support reproductive rights.
1995: Mass demonstration in Washington, D.C., to fight violence against women.
1996: A March to Fight the Right in San Francisco, focused on affirmative action.
2004: A March for Women’s Lives at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was the largest demonstration (more than 1.15 million) supporting reproductive rights in U.S. history.
At the time of this writing, NOW has 500,000 contributing members in 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Making waves for working women
As the women’s movement grew, the needs of working women became a priority for NOW. Because many mothers had to work, the availability of subsidized day care and early childhood education was important.
Although NOW was focused on equal employment opportunities for women, they also recognized that workers in traditionally female occupations, such as secretaries, waitresses, domestic workers, hospital workers, and flight attendants, needed to take action for fair working conditions. Another key focus was helping women enter traditionally male occupations, such as construction and law enforcement. The fact that certain jobs were considered men’s jobs and others were considered women’s work was reflected in employment want ads, which, in the early 1960s, were often divided into “Help Wanted Male” and “Help Wanted Female.”
Change didn’t happen overnight. Slowly, women acknowledged their feelings and began to think about how to improve their lives, which wasn’t easy at first. They faced enormous resistance from husbands and children, who resented having their full-time wives and mothers busy with other pursuits. In fact, as late as 1969, a woman wanting to continue her career after having children, unless she absolutely needed the money to survive, was often looked on as a bad mother and a selfish woman who shouldn’t have had children in the first place. Women also fought enormous feelings of guilt, as “experts” blamed working mothers for everything from their childrens’ poor grades to unhappy husbands and juvenile delinquents. But many women persisted and resisted, going back to school and entering the workplace.
Determined to enhance their lives, many middle-class women went to law school or medical school or earned MBAs. They became social activists, working for peace, racial equality, and better schools for their children. They fought for equal pay with men and for new opportunities for their daughters in academics and sports.
A brief history of the Equal Rights Amendment
Though many people believe that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), prohibiting sex discrimination, was a recent development, Alice Paul introduced the constitutional amendment, named the “Lucretia Mott Amendment” in 1923, stipulating that men and women should be treated equally. At that time, opposition to the amendment was mainly based on labor laws that were designed to protect women and children.
The women’s movement of the 1960s revived interest in the ERA, which was supported by organized labor and other mainstream groups. In 1972, Congress passed the amendment, but only 35 states ratified the ERA (38 were required to pass the amendment.) As the 1979 deadline for ratification approached, NOW lobbied for a three-year extension, which Congress granted, but the amendment still didn’t pass. The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced in Congress in 1982 and has been introduced in every session of Congress since then.
Getting Radical
As the women’s movement progressed, some women felt that changes weren’t happening fast enough. NOW seemed too slow and conservative for some. Much of their dissatisfaction arose during the late ’60s as an outgrowth of women’s participation in the civil rights, free speech, and antiwar movements. While working with the associated groups, women came to distrust working within the “establishment” (through courts or legislation) and also learned methods of nonviolent protest and gained experience organizing rallies. This experience would serve them well through the 1960s and beyond when fighting for economic equality and reproductive rights.
In spite of their contributions, however, women who participated in these social and political movements realized that although they were on the front lines, often being arrested and sometimes beaten along with the men, they were still regarded as peripheral and were disregarded when important decisions were being made. They felt that they were still treated as second-class citizens by their male comrades-in-arms, often relegated to fetching coffee and making copies while men did the “important” work. It was obvious that the men of the New Left and sectors of the civil rights movement believed, quite literally, in the proclamation, “All men are created equal.”
One concept that women took away from their years in the civil rights movement was that “the personal is political,” which means that their personal lives reflected not only their own decisions but were highly influenced by society and the political climate. As a result of this realization, radical feminists worked toward overthrowing some of the institutions that they felt were oppressive, forgoing NOW’s view that women could achieve equality by bringing lawsuits, and lobbying for legislation.
In their approach to protesting existing political and social structures, radical feminists tended to be more outspoken than the conventional activists relying on petitions and lawsuits. They staged sit-ins and poetry readings, sang songs, and performed street theater to publicize their concerns. These women also publicly spoke about their private lives, revealing information about their sexual preferences and activities. Some even went public about their illegal abortions. Although such actions turned off many traditionalists, they effectively brought feminism to the front of public consciousness.
The roots of PC vocabulary
Although promoting gender-neutral language wasn’t one of the top priorities of the women’s movement, their emphasis on workplace equality eventually gave rise to new terms in the decades that followed, such as
Flight attendants instead of stewardesses
Ms. instead of Miss or Mrs.
Police officer instead of policeman
Chair instead of chairman
Mail carrier instead of postman
Bringing the movement to the national stage: Miss America 1968
In the late ’60s, some feminists began to publicly question the standards of beauty and femininity, the widely held view that women were the weaker sex, and women’s own views of themselves. One of the more radical feminist views during the ’60s was that society treated women like objects. They thought that beauty pageants, such as the Miss America Pageant, were a glorification of physical beauty as defined and idealized by men. With this idea in mind, many feminists organized protest demonstrations to get their message across. In 1968, a group of feminists picketed the Miss America Pageant to protest its emphasis on physical beauty as the most important feminine quality — Figure 12-1 shows the demonstration.
As part of the protest, women threw girdles, cosmetics, high-heeled shoes, and bras into a trashcan to point out the artificial standards of beauty. They also mocked the pageant itself by crowning a goat with a tiara, and some of them would speak only to female reporters. The press, however, decided to enhance the drama. Using photos of bras hurled into a trashcan, they established a myth that women stripped to the waist and tossed their bras into a bonfire. Although the burning bra was a manufactured image, the idea behind the myth had some truth to it. Radical feminists rejected the common standards of beauty by going braless, refusing to shave their legs and underarms, giving up makeup, and not wearing provocative or uncomfortable clothing, such as high-heeled shoes. For these women, the bra, as well as the tiara, were symbols of the “old regime.” And quite quickly, the burning bra became the public symbol of radical feminism.
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Figure 12-1: Feminists rise up against the 1968 Miss America Pageant. |
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©Bettmann/CORBIS
One of the most important results of this demonstration — nationwide awareness — came about thanks to the media coverage. Although much of it was negative and played on the most outrageous aspects of the demonstration (also featuring women that the press considered unattractive), it made people aware of women’s lib.
The idea that women weren’t sex objects had some far-reaching effects. As women became more common and powerful in the workplace, they refused to be pressured for sexual favors, sometimes at the expense of their jobs. Eventually, sexual harassment legislation was passed in almost every state, making it illegal to make unwanted sexual advances toward women.
Raising consciousness
To help women become more aware of their own feelings and enhance their relationship to other women, consciousness-raising groups sprang up all over the United States. At first, they were mostly a vehicle for exploring “the problem that has no name.” Meeting and talking with other women made women realize that they weren’t quite so alone in feeling isolated and overwhelmed.
However, as consciousness raising began to spread beyond the middle-class suburbs, other issues emerged, such as the uneasy feelings that women ex- perienced when men made rude remarks on the street, either critiquing their bodies or making unwanted sexual advances. They began to examine their feelings about their bodies and their sexuality. By talking together, women also began to realize that they weren’t valued for their minds or abilities. Further, beautiful women were presumed to be stupid, and intelligent women were found unattractive.
Women on the small screen
As the 1960s began, viewers were still watching the ideal American family on TV — mom, dad, a couple of kids, probably a dog, and a house with a white picket fence. Sitcoms reflected the “typical” white, middle-class American family.
Some of these shows are actually regarded as ’50s icons — Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, and Father Knows Best are often nostalgically considered great examples of “the good old days,” when mom was waiting at home with milk and cookies for the kids and a martini for her husband. In fact, Donna Reed was held up as the perfect example of American womanhood (although she never mopped her floors in high heels and pearls — this was just an urban legend). Even Bewitched, a sitcom infused with magic, showed a happy housewife willing to largely ignore her gifts to please her successful wage-earning husband.
With the women’s movement in the works, could new roles for women be far behind? On The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 to 1966), Rob Petrie was actually shown fixing a meal. Even though Laura, played by the up-and-coming Mary Tyler Moore, was a stay-at-home mom, she clearly had a mind of her own and mostly wore Capri pants (a refreshing change from the mid-calf-length skirts of days past). Sally, Rob’s co-worker, was a single career woman (although part of the shtick was that she was always on the lookout for an eligible man).
Julia, starring Diahann Carroll, which ran from 1968 to 1971, was a groundbreaking show on two fronts. She was not only a single professional mom (albeit one who lost her husband in Vietnam) but also an African American in a leading role. That Girl, starring Marlo Thomas, was another first. In the show, which ran from 1966 to 1971, she was a single woman, building a career and loving her life. These shows definitely led the way for the shows of the ’70s and beyond, showing career women who lived full lives without husbands and babies.
Perhaps the most influential drama of the ’60s was Star Trek, which debuted in 1966 and ran until 1969. The show featured men and women of all races and nationalities working together (of course, the captain was a man, but hey — it was still only 1966!). In fact, the crew of the Enterprise spaceship worked in such harmony that Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura had the first interracial kiss on prime-time TV. Although Star Trek broke some important boundaries, it reinforced others — all the women aboard the Enterprise wore sexy, tight-fitting, and extremely short dresses.
In the consciousness-raising groups of the ’60s, women explored issues that made them reevaluate their lives, asking themselves questions such as
How do you feel about housework and childcare?
Do you like sex? Do you think it’s dirty?
Is your work (either inside or outside the home) important?
How do you feel about men? About other women?
Do you like being a wife? A mother?
What do you want to do with your life?
Another outgrowth of these groups was the realization that women could take action in order to fix some of their problems. They began to see that instead of competing with each other, they could unite to solve problems, such as establishing day-care centers, exploring job possibilities, or planning the best strategy for getting their husbands to help with the housework.
In consciousness-raising groups, women also began to study their own history and realized that they had a far larger role in the progress of this country and the world than they had previously believed, in areas of labor, education, literature, and other fields. By the mid-’70s, in response to demands to make curriculum more reflective of society and therefore more relevant, many campuses instituted women’s studies programs that not only explored women’s issues but also studied and celebrated women’s contributions to the arts, the sciences, and government. Even at the elementary and high-school levels, textbooks were rewritten to include a more balanced view of the role of women. Women’s studies were part of the same drive that created black studies programs — an effort to recognize the contribution of minorities to American history and culture.
Using the “L” words: Liberation, love, and lesbianism
In looking at the problems of women in society, many feminists determined that Western patriarchal society was the cause of most social problems, such as violence, discrimination, and oppression against women. Some radical feminists came to the conclusion that men weren’t just a necessary evil but were, in fact, completely unnecessary.
Another concept that grew out of ’60s feminism was free love (actually, this idea wasn’t new at all, but feminists rejected the double standard and claimed the same sexual rights that men had). Due to the idea that women could enjoy sex without fearing unwanted pregnancy (see the “Getting It On: The Power of the Pill” section, later in the chapter), there was no reason, other than patriarchal principles, why women couldn’t love whomever, whenever, and wherever they pleased.
In NOW’s early years, some leaders were afraid that backing lesbian rights would lose support for feminism, so lesbians were asked to stay in the closet. However, by 1968, Ti-Grace Atkinson, head of the New York City chapter, left the organization to protest its stand on lesbianism, and within a year, others followed. By 1971, NOW changed its position to support lesbian rights and after 1975, made it one of their main priorities to eliminate discrimination against gays and lesbians — currently NOW supports same-sex marriage.
Getting It On: The Power of the Pill
Historically, no matter how educated, hardworking, rich, or poor women were, pregnancy defined their lives. Unplanned pregnancies could interrupt educations, stall careers, and throw economically marginal families into poverty.
A pregnant belly was a visible sign of sex, and in the early ’60s, no one talked about “nice” women and sex. Even married women were forced to leave their teaching positions as soon as they began to show, because the clear evidence that they had taken a roll in the hay wasn’t considered a good role model for children. For unmarried women, pregnancy meant a shotgun marriage, a back-alley abortion, or a visit to a home for unwed mothers, followed by a hastily arranged adoption. Obviously, then, the greatest deterrent to sex was pregnancy.
BC (birth control) BP (before the Pill)
Throughout history, women used a variety of herbs and other substances, some even as potentially lethal as mercury or arsenic, to prevent pregnancy. However, as well as being dangerous, these methods resulted in lots of babies, since choosing the right herb was largely a matter of trial and error. Barrier methods, including various types of condoms, were also widely used throughout history, with varying effectiveness. Although diaphragms were common in the 1950s and early ’60s, they were tricky to use, so society saw a lot of “diaphragm babies” in those days.
In the 1920s, birth control became an open topic of conversation (and some heated debate) due to the work of Margaret Sanger, who founded the American birth control movement and, later, Planned Parenthood. She believed that every woman has the right to control her own body, every child has the right to be wanted, and every woman is entitled to sexual pleasure. Through her efforts, many laws that prohibited distribution of birth control information were repealed.
Embracing planned pregnancy
When the Pill was first introduced, it didn’t have much of an effect on single women because many doctors refused to prescribe it for them. But eventually it became more accessible, and women realized that if they took the Pill, they could decide to have sex without worrying about an unpleasant surprise a month later — they were free to enjoy their own sexuality.
Unleashing female sexuality
In one fell swoop, the Pill separated the physical aspects of birth control from lovemaking. Though both men and women felt the effects, the Pill psychologically helped women enjoy sex more when they could be sure that they wouldn’t have unwanted pregnancies.
Many foresaw the “side effect” of the Pill and worried that without the fear of pregnancy, unmarried women would be more promiscuous — and in many ways, they were right. As more women took advantage of the freedom that effective contraception gave them, even respectable unmarried women were open about having sex, and in time, female sexuality lost the negative connotation it once had. Eventually, this new freedom gave rise to unmarried couples living together, later marriages, no-fault divorce, and single parenthood by choice, concepts that are quite commonplace today but were virtually unknown in 1960.
The Pill helped usher in the sexual revolution, a significant change in sexual morality and behavior. Before then, some commonly held views included:
Sex shouldn’t be talked about openly.
Women didn’t enjoy sex as much as men.
Premarital sex was okay for men but not for women.
In all actuality, the Pill was simply the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back of the old view of women’s sexuality. In 1953, Alfred Kinsey published his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, which scandalized America and made news all over the world. By interviewing thousands of women, Kinsey learned that one in four wives commit adultery and that half of all women have premarital sex. But the most shocking thing about the Kinsey Report wasn’t just what women said but what they implied — that women could, and in many cases did, enjoy sex as much as men. In 1966, Human Sexual Response by William Masters and Virginia Johnson was published, which talked about sexual arousal, orgasm, and masturbation. This book confirmed what Kinsey had said — sexual pleasure was possible and important for both men and women.
Fighting to extend women’s rights to abortion
Abortion didn’t become a federally protected right for women until 1973, with the Roe v. Wade decision. In the 1960s, the procedure was still illegal in many parts of the country, although in some states women could get abortions if the mother’s life was in jeopardy. If a woman had the right connections (and enough money), she might even get a sympathetic doctor to certify that she was indeed in danger.
Another option was to travel abroad or to one of the 17 states where abortion was legal. The problem was that these options were only open to wealthy or middle-class women; the poor either had their unwanted babies or attempted back-alley abortions, sometimes with lethal results. For many women, the right to abortion was a life-and-death issue. Before abortion was legalized, estimates were that 500 to 1,000 women a year died from back-alley abortions.
NOW and other feminists of the 1960s supported legal abortion as another viable method of birth control. From 1969 to 1970, women mounted massive demonstrations to demand the end to anti-abortion laws.
Banning birth control: The Catholic Church weighs in
Although issued by the pope, the Humanae Vitae encyclical ignored the recommendations of the Papal Commission on Birth Control. In 1966, the commission issued its report, which advocated that sexuality was part of marriage itself and not necessarily tied to procreation. They also recommended that a husband and wife should be able to choose any suitable method of family planning except abortion.
Facing a Backlash: Men and Women Fight Back
The more radical aspects of the movement also engendered some mean- spirited mockery and focused on women’s opposition to being treated as sex objects. This outspokenness was often interpreted as ugly women’s jealousy of pretty ones and of the fact that the best opportunities for upward mobility (such as rich men) often went to beautiful women. Opponents of feminism glorified the fact that real women, feminine women, delighted in dressing and acting to attract and please men. Regarding the wolf whistles and catcalls, these conservatives said women should appreciate that men found them attractive.
Many women agreed with these views, and in time, a women’s antiliberation movement arose, which advised women to be subservient to men and dress in sexy lingerie when their husbands came home from work (obviously, these women didn’t work outside the home). Many women were also threatened by the feminist movement, fearing that their husbands would no longer have to support their families and that they would be forced into the workplace. Later, they fought against the Equal Rights Amendment, fearing that it would place women on the front lines of the military and result in unisex bathrooms — their worst fears were realized. And up until the current day, one of the largest issues of contention is abortion and reproductive rights.
Some of the backlash was also aimed at what traditionalists claimed was feminists’ hatred of men, stressing that men were the real victims, ridiculed in the comics and on TV as stupid and ineffective, while they bore the brunt of supporting the family, being bound to jobs for the majority of their adult lives.
Another cause for resentment was what many felt was the erosion of the family. The counteraction was widely embraced by religious fundamentalists, who strongly believed in rigid biblical gender roles and opposed sex outside of marriage. Along with political conservatives, they fought birth control and abortion and worked to defeat federal and state funding for sex education and other progressive programs.
Leaving a Legacy
Many results of the women’s movement of the 1960s, including federal guidelines against coercive sterilization and laws that encourage more women to report rape, domestic violence, and child abuse, weren’t realized until several years later. Other results cropped up later as well, including
The legalization of abortion: One of the most hotly debated issues during the late ’60s was the legalization of abortion — the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, which protected abortion as an outgrowth of the right of every citizen to privacy, is still a political hot potato today.
The crackdown on discrimination: Although the Equal Rights Amendment, which addressed equal civil rights for women, failed to pass Congress in 1982, many of the provisions of that amendment have become law. The government enacted affirmative action programs to correct gender and race discrimination, and although unequal pay for equal work is still a problem, it’s no longer legal.
The rise in educational opportunities: Because of feminist activism, society has seen great changes in education to promote equal opportunities for girls. As a result, today great numbers of women are active in the medical, legal, business, and academic arenas.
The support for women’s sports: Even sports were affected by the women’s movement. In 1972, Title IX mandated equal funding for girls’ sports programs in any school receiving federal funds.
More balanced parental roles: Today, men are much more involved in family life (although nowhere near being equal partners in the daily work of homemaking and childcare). In 2005, you can see fathers changing diapers, preparing meals, and (gasp!) even driving carpools to soccer practice.
Although the women’s movement spawned many positive changes for women and society, it also caused a spike in the divorce rate. As soon as women were no longer economically dependent on their husbands, they were freer to leave unsatisfactory marriages. This financial independence also meant that divorced women didn’t feel compelled to remarry just to support themselves and their children. Eventually, alimony laws changed as well, because the courts determined that not all women needed their ex-husbands’ support, and men even began receiving alimony in some situations.