Women’s Liberation and Feminism (A trip through the sixties)

[ismnotwasm]

“Women are an oppressed class. Our oppression is total, affecting every facet of our lives. We are exploited as sex objects, breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor. We are considered inferior beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men’s lives. Our humanity is denied. Our prescribed behavior is enforced by the threat of physical violence.”
- Redstockings (Bitch) Manifesto (1969)


The late 1960s were a time of change, when social and political issues took center stage and nearly everyone had a cause to champion. One movement that forever altered the balance of power in America was Women’s Liberation.

“A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.”
– Gloria Steinem

During WWII, women were found in factories, helping the war effort while establishing their own financial independence. When men came back from the war, the women lost their jobs and went back to being homemakers and mothers. Yet that freedom they experienced during the war left many of them wondering why they should be stuck at home when they could work as well as a man.

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl."
- Shirley Chisholm

Then in the 1960s, as the baby boom waned, women entered the workforce in droves. What they found there was disheartening. They discovered that in the male dominated capitalist society, they were treated second class. They were discriminated against in hiring, as men were usually taken first. They were passed over for promotions, and when they did land a man’s job, they were paid only a fraction of what men were paid for the same work.

"The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes."
- Bella Abzug

Seeking long overdue social, political and economic equality, women protested for such things as equal rights, equal pay, maternity leave, childcare, etc. Those who started this movement were quickly labeled “feminists”, and much of the media tried to stereotype these women as radical lesbians and kooks.

"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: Either she's a feminist or a masochist”
– Gloria Steinem

But they got organized and groups like NOW, the National Organization of Women, grew quickly and became a big lobby for women’s rights in Congress, and the sponsor of the ERA, Equal Rights Amendment (which still hasn’t been ratified). The Women’s Liberation movement embraced many causes from equal rights to abortion, from legalizing contraceptives to freedom from sexual harassment.

Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.
- Gloria Steinem

The timing was perfect. Everyone seemed to be protesting something, either the Vietnam War, student rights, Gay rights, so Women’s Liberation was another popular cause among many. Even women who didn’t consider themselves “feminists” were actively engaged in the fight for womens’ rights.

http://www.hippy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=311

Not a feminist site, but kind of fun.

[niyad]

1. k and r

[seabeyond]

2. We are considered inferior beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men’s lives.

this is the bottom line. this is the core of the sexism and misogyny in this world, our media, our culture. this is the explanation.