History of the Womens Movement

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History of the Womens Movement

• By
• Julie Alfarofor the San Antonio College Womens
  Center

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150 Years of Change

• 1998 marked the 150 year anniversary for women to
  achieve full civil rights
• Changes in family life, religion, government,
  employment, education
• Seven generations of women have democratically
  sponsored meetings, petition drives, lobbying,
  public speaking and nonviolent resistance.

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A Revolutionary Tea

• July 13, 1848 marks the beginning of the Womens
  Right Movement.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her fiends had tea and
  discussed the plight of women.
• Two days later the women planned the Seneca
  Falls Women's Convention.

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A Declaration of Sentiments

• We hold these truths to be self-evident that all
  men and women are created equalthat they are
  endowed by their creator with certain
  inalienable rights
• Stanton listed eighteen grievances.

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The First Womens Convention

• The Declaration of Sentiments ended on a note of
  complete realism "In entering upon the great
  work before us, we anticipate no small amount of
  misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule
  but we shall use every instrumentality within our
  power to effect our object. We shall employ
  agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and
  national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the
  pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this
  Convention will be followed by a series of
  Conventions, embracing every part of the
  country.

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Backlash

• Newspaper editors ridiculed the women and often
  publish the Declaration of Sentiments.
• Some women were so embarrassed that they had
  their names removed from the declaration.
• The right to vote, the ninth resolution, was
  especially targeted!

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The Growing Movement

• The movement began to spread as a series of
  conventions followed.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Anthony, Lucy Stone
  and Sojourner Truth lectured through out the
  country.
• This movement had so much opposition that it took
  72 years to achieve success-the right to vote.

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The Nineteenth Amendment

• After the right to vote was achieved, some women
  realized that the quest for equality was not
  over.
• League of Women Voters
• National Womens Party drafts ERA
• The Birth Control Movement began just as the
  suffrage movement ended.
• Birth control was considered obscene until 1965.
  
  
  
  
  

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The Second Tidal Wave 1960s

• Esther Peterson, director of the Womens Bureau
  of the Dept. of Labor in 1961, worked with John
  F. Kennedy in forming the Commission on the
  Status of Women.

• Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in
  1963.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed
  which prohibited employment discrimination on the
  basis of sex

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The Second Tidal Wave

• The EEOC is formed to investigate discrimination
  complaints.
• NOW formed when the EEOC was complacent in
  investigating.

• Other organizations formed to address issues
  specific to certain groups or ethnicities.
• College women began the Womens Liberation
  Movement as a result of their efforts to take
  leadership roles in the anti-war and civil rights
  movements dominated by men.

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New Issues

• The combining forces of women produced a wide
  array of services, clinics and centers aimed at
  helping women become self-sufficient in all
  aspects of life.

• Title IX in 1972 the number of women in higher
  education and to professional schools increased.
• 25 years ago, 1 in 25 women played sports today
  the number is 1 in 3.

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New Issues
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ERA Re-Introduced

• In 1972, opponents argued that the the ERA would
  lead to family abandonment, unisex toilets, gay
  marriages, drafted women.

• It failed to receive ratification in 38 states.
• Only 46 supported equal rights for women.

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More Issues and the Third Wave
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The Future

• In 1971 only 3 of women held congressional
  seats.
• Today, 11 of women hold congressional seats

• Today, 21 of women hold state legislative seats.
• Today, more than three million women hold
  nontraditional jobs.

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The National Women's History Project3345
Industrial Dr. Suite 3Santa Rosa, CA 95403

• As Alice Stone said, I always feel the movement
  is sort of a mosaic. Each of us puts in one
  little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at
  the end."