Further Reading
Ceccarelli, Marco, ed.International Symposium on His-
tor y of Machines and Mechanisms Proceedings.New
York: Springer, 2000.
Fishman, Daniel.The Book of FAX: An Impartial Guide
to Buying and Using Facsimile Machines. Chapel
Hill, N.C.: Ventana Press, 1988.
Margolis, Andrew.The Fax Modem Sourcebook. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995.
Alvin K. Benson
See also Cell phones; Computers; Globalization;
Inventions; Science and technology.
Feminism
Definition Collection of theories and social
movements whose common goal is to empower
women politically, socially, and economically
Mainstream American feminism in the 1980’s continued
to focus on the notion of equality between men and women,
while many academic feminists argued that striving for
equality effaced important differences between the sexes and
prevented feminine values from being respected. Mean-
while, a growing backlash developed against feminism, as
many women disavowed the label “feminist,” and the move-
ments witnessed attacks on reproductive rights, increasing
sexual violence, and continuing economic disparities be-
tween men and women.
The defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
to the U.S. Constitution was a major blow to femi-
nism and women’s rights in the United States. The
ERA stated:
Equality of rights under the law shall not be de-
nied or abridged by the United States or by any state
on account of sex.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
This amendment shall take effect two years after
the date of ratification.Passed by Congress in 1972, the ERA was sent to
the states for ratification. Unlike other constitu-
tional amendments, the ERA was given a time limit
within which it had to be ratified—seven years. By
the end of the seven years, only thirty-five of the
required thirty-eight states had ratified the amend-
ment. Faced with growing opposition from conser-
vative groups, the initial move to pass the amend-
ment slowed and five states even voted to rescind
their ratifications. By the 1980’s, support for and op-
position to the amendment was largely split along
party lines, with Democrats in favor of its adoption
and Republicans against. With the election of Ron-
ald Reagan to the presidency, the conservative swing
in the country eliminated any immediate hopes of
passing the ERA.
New Strategies Faced with the defeat of the ERA
and a backlash against feminism, feminist advocates
and activists made major changes in their organiza-
tions and strategies. For many, the 1980’s became a
decade of “defensive consolidation,” as feminists
found that they had to defend gains they thought
were already won. A growing anti-abortion move-
ment picketing women’s health care clinics and ha-
rassing doctors who worked in these clinics forced
supporters of legal abortion to respond with orga-
nized rallies and to act as escorts for women using
the clinics. Supporters also went to court at the local
and federal levels to defend legal abortion.
A building consensus over protecting women
against violence was under attack. The trivialization
of sexual harassment and even rape caused feminists
to organize and work to change codes of conduct on
college campuses. In 1980, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that sexual
harassment was a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
The Supreme Court affirmed this interpretation of
the law in 1986. Feminists also began to focus more
on domestic violence. The National Family Violence
Survey of 1985 found that over 16 percent of all cou-
ples experienced at least one act of violence each
year. One television docudrama,The Burning Bed
(1984), raised the national awareness of domestic vi-
olence and increased support for feminists seeking
to strengthen laws relating to domestic violence
against women.
Economic and Poltical Issues Although women
theoretically made economic gains throughout the
1970’s because of the Civil Rights Act, the EEOC,
and affirmative action policies, the Justice Depart-
ment did little during the 1980’s to enforce those
policies. It became harder for women (and for mi-
norities) to bring individual or class-action suits
against employers for discrimination. Individual
women continued to break ground: Sandra DayThe Eighties in America Feminism 363