Social Movements of the 1960s1980s

1
Social Movements of the 1960s-1980s

• Understanding the connections between Womens
  Movement and the Gay Rights Movement

2
Timeline of the Womens Movement

• The traditional perception of 1950s housewives
  continued into the early 1960s, although a 1/3 of
  women were working outside the home in 1960.
• In 1963, Betty Friedan published a landmark book,
  The Feminine Mystique. In it she documented the
  emotional and intellectual oppression that
  middle-class educated women were experiencing
  because of limited life options. The book became
  an immediate bestseller, and inspired thousands
  of women to look for fulfillment beyond the role
  of homemaker.

3
Timeline of the Womens Movement

• During the 1960s, thousands of young women on
  college campuses were playing active roles within
  the anti-war and civil rights movement.
• Many women finding their efforts blocked by men
  who felt leadership of these movements was their
  own province
• Women began forming their own "women's
  liberation" organizations to address their role
  and status within these progressive movements and
  within society at large.

4
Timeline of the Womens Movement

• 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting
  employment discrimination on the basis of sex as
  well as race, religion, and national origin. The
  category "sex" was included as a last-ditch
  effort to kill the bill. But it passed,
  nevertheless.
• With its passage, the Equal Employment
  Opportunity Commission was established to
  investigate discrimination complaints.

5
TITLE IX

• Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is
  the landmark legislation that bans sex
  discrimination in schools, whether it be in
  academics or athletics. Title IX states
• "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of
  sex be excluded from participation in, or denied
  the benefits of, or be subjected to
  discrimination under any educational program or
  activity receiving federal aid."

6
The Equal Rights Amendment

• The ERA was written in 1923 by Alice Paul,
  suffragist leader and founder of the National
  Woman's Party. She and the NWP considered the
  ERA to be the next necessary step after the 19th
  Amendment (affirming women's right to vote) in
  guaranteeing "equal justice under law" to all
  citizens.

7
The Equal Rights Amendment

• The ERA was introduced into every session of
  Congress between 1923 and 1972.
• In 1972 it was passed and sent to the states for
  ratification. The seven-year time limit in the
  ERA's proposing clause was extended by Congress
  to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA
  had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three
  states short of the 38 required for ratification.
  
• It has been reintroduced into every Congress
  since that time.

8
Timeline of the Gay Rights Movement

• During the 1950s, it would have been dangerous
  and illegal to register any kind of pro-gay
  organization. The founders of the first major gay
  rights groups had to protect themselves by using
  code.
• Most states classify consensual gay sex as a
  felony on par with sexual assault--sometimes with
  prison sentences of up to 20 years.

9
Timeline of the Gay Rights Movement

• In the 1960s, many gay people participated in
  Civil Rights Activism.
• The 1969 Stonewall Riots In 1969, NYPD raided a
  gay bar in Greenwich Village and started
  arresting employees and drag performers. A crowd
  of some 2,000 lesbian, gay, and transgender
  supporters of the bar took on the police, forcing
  them into the club. Three days of riots ensued.

10
Timeline of the Gay Rights Movement

• In 1973, members of the American Psychiatric
  Association began to realize that homophobia was
  the real social problem. They announced that they
  would be removing homosexuality from the next
  printing of the DSM-II, and spoke out in favor of
  antidiscrimination laws that would protect
  lesbian and gay Americans.

11
Timeline of the Gay Rights Movement

• In the 1980 election, leaders of the Religious
  Right were squarely behind Ronald Reagan.
• Democratic leaders had everything to gain and
  little to lose by supporting gay rights, so they
  inserted a new plank in the party platform "All
  groups must be protected from discrimination
  based on race, color, religion, national origin,
  language, age, sex or sexual orientation."