In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed,
which was significant for women because Title
VII makes discrimination against women in the
workplace illegal. The National Organization of
Women (NOW) was founded in 1966, with Betty
Friedan as the first president. NOW was, and
still is, a powerful advocate for women’s issues.
The first legal victory for minor girls came in
1972 with the passing of the Educational
Amendments, including Title IX, which forbade
inequalities in school sports between boys and
girls. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed
down its decision inRoe v. Wade, effectively
granting women, instead of the state, the right
to choose whether or not a pregnancy would be
carried to term.
Second-wave feminism slowed down in the
late 1980s, when third-wave, or postmodern,
feminism emerged. Third-wave feminism has
focused on race and on definitions of gender,
femininity, and sexuality. These waves, different
in their motives and ideas, have run concur-
rently, rather than one replacing the other.
Critical Overview.
Kathleen Fraser entered into her career as a poet
uncertain of her place in an arena that was still
largely formal and masculine. Encouraged by
friends, such as the avant-garde poet Barbara
Guest, and mentors like Kenneth Koch, Fraser
developed her unique experimental style and
feminist voice. Her poetry was published in
major magazines like the New Yorker and
Harper’s, but it bothered her that nearly all the
editors of such periodicals were men, and women
(especially the avant-garde women writers) were
underrepresented in magazines and anthologies.
In her extensiveContemporary Literatureessay
about Fraser’s work, Linda A. Taylor writes,
‘‘With her first book of poetry, Change of
Address(1967), Kathleen Fraser joined other
feminist poets in the mid 1960s whose works
challenged poetic convention by openly speak-
ing in women’s voices about women’s experien-
ces.’’ In the 1970s, Taylor adds, ‘‘the hostility
directed toward her avant-garde practice caused
Fraser to feel doubly marginalized—as a womenCOMPARE
&
CONTRAST 1960s:Organized sports for girls are practi-
cally nonexistent at U.S. high schools. Phys-
ical activities are limited to gymnastics,
cheerleading, and sometimes volleyball.
Today:Girls’ sports are as varied as boys’
sports in U.S. high schools. In making it
illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex in
schools, Title IX of the Educational Amend-
ments of 1972 ensured not only equal oppor-
tunity to play football or to cheerlead but
also the equal funding of girls’ and boys’
sports.
1960s:Female fashion models and celebri-
ties of the decade include Twiggy, Sofia
Loren, and Jane Fonda. On average, they
are five feet six inches tall, and weigh 120
pounds.Today:Female models and celebrities are
typically taller and thinner than they once
were, averaging five feet ten inches tall, and
weighing 110 pounds. Models of this era
include Gisele Bu ̈ndchen, Tyra Banks, and
Heidi Klum.
1960s:Popular poets publishing in English
include John Ashbery, Denise Levertov, and
Robert Lowell. Stream of consciousness,
featuring long, unbroken thoughts, is a pop-
ular form of composition.
Today:Formal rhyme and meter are making
a comeback in contemporary poetry, while
experimental forms continue to be produced
as well. Popular poets include Billy Collins,
Yusef Komunyakaa, and Nikki Giovanni.Poem in Which My Legs Are Accepted