CHAPTER FivE • Civil RigHTs 101
Feminism
The movement that
supports political,
economic, and social
equality for women.major improvements in the economic and social situation of women in the United States.
In other words, the vote was to be used to seek broader goals. Lucy Stone, however, a
key founder of the rival American Woman Suffrage Association, believed that the vote
was the only major issue. In 1880, the two organizations joined forces. The resulting
National American Woman Suffrage Association had just one goal—the enfranchisement
of women—but it made little progress.
The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, founded in the early 1900s by Alice
Paul, adopted a national strategy of obtaining an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
Union employed militant tactics. It sponsored large-scale marches and civil disobedience—
which resulted in hunger strikes, arrests, and jailings. Finally, in 1920, the Nineteenth
Amendment was passed: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” (Today, the
word gender is typically used instead of sex.) Women now had the right to vote in all
states.The modern Women’s movement
Historian Nancy Cott contends that the word feminism first began to be used around- At that time feminism meant, as it does today, political, social, and economic
equality for women—a radical notion that gained little support then.
After gaining the right to vote in 1920, women engaged in little independent political
activity until the 1960s. The civil rights movement of that decade resulted in a growing
awareness of rights for all groups, including women. Increased participation in the work-
force gave many women greater self- confidence. Additionally, the publication of Betty
Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1963 focused national attention on the unequal status
of women in American life.
In 1966, Friedan and others formed the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Many observers consider the founding of NOW to be the beginning of the modern wom-
en’s movement—the feminist movement.
Feminism gained additional impetus from young women who entered politics to sup-
port the civil rights movement or to oppose the Vietnam War. In the late 1960s, “women’s
liberation” organizations began to spring up on college campuses. Women also began
organizing independent “consciousness-raising groups,” in which they discussed how
gender issues affected their lives. The new women’s movement experienced explosive
growth, and by 1970 it had emerged as a major social force.
The Equal Rights Amendment. The initial focus of the modern women’s movement
was to eradicate gender inequality through a constitutional amendment. The proposed
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was first introduced in Congress in 1923, states as
follows: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any state on account of sex.” For years, the amendment was not even given
a hearing in Congress, but finally it was approved by both chambers and sent to the state
legislatures for ratification in 1972. The necessary thirty-eight states failed to ratify the
ERA within the time specified by Congress, however. To date, efforts to reintroduce the
amendment have failed.Challenging gender discrimination in the Courts. When ratification of the ERA
failed, women’s rights organizations began a campaign to win national and state laws
that would guarantee the equality of women. This more limited campaign met with much
success. Women’s rights organizations also challenged discriminatory statutes and policiesCopyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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