By Patrick Allitt, Emory University
In the late 1960s and ’70s, American corporations came under pressure to include women. Quite a lot of them used a tokenism policy. They’d have one woman in a senior and significant place, often in publicity, so that the corporation’s image would be projected by an attractive woman. Gradually, though, the principle of routine hiring of women professionals did become established.
Important Issues among Feminists
By the 1980s, the most sacrosanct areas were being changed. For example, President Reagan chose the first woman to be a Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, partly to allay claims that he was an old-fashioned sexist. In 1984, for the very first time, one of the two major political parties, the Democrats, chose a woman as the running mate for their presidential candidate; Geraldine Ferraro was the running mate of Walter Mondale.
However, one of the great obstacles to women’s entry into the workforce was the question of childcare. If a mother was going to work, what were her children going to do, especially her pre-school age children? Thus, access to good quality childcare became and remained a very important issue among feminists. Should the government underwrite it, or was the private sector adequate to provide affordable childcare of the right kind? More generally, was looking after the children intrinsically a woman’s job rather than a man’s job? Ought not childcare duties to be shared equally among the two genders?
These were the questions that all feminists had to confront.
This is a transcript from the video series A History of the United States, 2nd Edition. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Becoming Social Revolutionaries
In the mid- and late 1960s, women who were involved in the area of radical movements, particularly working for civil rights and then working in the anti-Vietnam War movement, became very critical of the gender discrimination they encountered among their male comrades.
For example, in 1968, during one of the great student uprisings at Columbia University in New York, the student radicals occupied the administration building until the administration met what they called their non-negotiable demands. It wasn’t long before the college girls there found that they were being made to do cooking and housework, and so a group of them posted a sign that said, ‘Free women don’t cook’, and they insisted on the equal sharing between men and women of all the domestic duties. They had a vision of themselves as social revolutionaries.
They also sought to oppose what they called ‘sexism’. It was a new word in the 1960s, picking up the idea of racism and applying it to gender. They sought to oppose sexism and women’s self-delusion by conducting ‘consciousness-raising’ workshops.
Consciousness-raising Groups
Very often, the feminist leaders had to persuade other women that they were, in fact, victims of discrimination even if they didn’t feel as though they were. Consciousness-raising was the process of persuading women that they were being victimized.
Women in consciousness-raising groups counseled one another, and ‘Sisterhood is powerful’ was one of the great slogans of the women’s movement.
They also denounced such conventional forms of female display as beauty contests. A radical feminist group called ‘Witch’ picketed the Miss America Pageant in 1968 in Atlantic City, carrying posters that said, ‘Miss America sells it’; the implication being that it’s almost a form of prostitution to become involved in these beauty pageants. The women ought not to be evaluated on the basis of such frivolous externals as their appearance.
Minority Groups of Feminists
The feminists themselves compared themselves with other minority groups, in particular, with the African American population. Though they were not a numerical minority in the way that the African American population was, they considered themselves the victims of systematic discrimination, and in that sense, a minority.
Like other groups, they understood the symbolic importance of demonstrations. On August 26, 1970, which was the 50th anniversary of women getting the vote back in 1920, there was a New York women’s strike, a New York housewives’ strike, and a women’s march for equality in New York. Their slogan was: ‘Don’t iron while the strike is hot!’ – an interesting reversal of the famous familiar saying.
Gloria Steinem
Among the slightly more radical feminists, the principal figure was Gloria Steinem. She was the co-founder in 1972 of Ms. magazine. ‘Ms.’ was a new title. The idea was, why is it that men should have only one title, ‘Mr.’, whether or not they are married, whereas women should have two different ones, ‘Miss’ if they’re not married, and ‘Mrs.’ if they are? A neutral term, ‘Ms.’, would ensure that this kind of insidious discrimination doesn’t get made. This, thus, became the name of the journal, produced by and for women.
Earlier on, Gloria Steinem herself had been a freelance journalist who had encountered what became known as ‘the glass ceiling’ in journalism. She wanted to do serious political stories, but her editors were constantly pushing her off on what she regarded as frivolous and unworthy assignments.
Ironically, even though she became one of the most articulate spokespersons for the feminist movement, the mainstream media was very attracted to Gloria Steinem because she was beautiful. She was articulate, but she was also very striking in her appearance, so the mainstream media, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the networks, would regularly ask Gloria Steinem for ‘the women’s view’ on issues. This led to resentment among many other feminist leaders who didn’t like the way in which the old convention of the beautiful woman getting the best of everything was being duplicated.
Common Questions about Radical Feminists: Voices against Gender Discrimination
Very often, the feminist leaders had to persuade other women that they were, in fact, victims of discrimination even if they didn’t feel as though they were. Consciousness-raising was the process of persuading women that they were being victimized.
‘Sexism’ was a new word in the 1960s, picking up the idea of racism and applying it to gender.
Gloria Steinem was a principal figure among the radical feminists. She was the co-founder in 1972 of Ms. magazine. She became one of the most articulate spokespersons for the feminist movement.
