Beginning in the Late 1800's, Women Started Coming Together Within Their Community and Forming Organizations to Fight for Equality Throughout the United States

Beginning in the late 1800’s, women started coming together within their community and forming organizations to fight for equality throughout the United States. It began with women writing brochures and distributing literature throughout the colonies and eventually holding conventions. At the height of their fight for suffrage, they held a convention in New York that led to additional rights being granted allowing women rights to property, earned wages and additional divorce and custody legislation. While these victories were huge steps forward for women, the feminist movement was just beginning. The 1960’s and 1970’s brought about a time of immense social change in American society and feminism was a large part of that era (pg. 845). Women’s roles in home and family life began to change and many started taking on career paths that were stereotypically considered male positions. During this time women took advantage of the social shift and move along with the country. This movement led to extremely positive changes for women in American society. Without the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s most women would have difficult pursuing career paths in technical or academic trades or having an independent life outside of the home.

After the war ended in the late 1940’s, most American women were living the “dream.” They’re lives were based around being faithful wives and mothers and taking care of a household (pg. 845). This satisfied the desires and dreams of most women of the era and feminism wasn’t at all on their minds. It was the events that occurred during the early 1960’s that pushed the movement into the forefront of the American society and pushed for societal reform. It is noted that the publication of “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan is one of the first publications for women’s liberation (pg. 845). This particular publication illustrated how the lives of women had become focused solely on the home life. It exposed how most women were not able to express their intelligence, talent or education. Without women like Friedan taking the inituative to document the “suburban concentration camps” that were occurring throughout the 1950’s, that may still be the normal lifestyle today. The legislation that John F. Kennedy was able to pass in 1963, including the Equal Pay Act, helped put more women into the workforce as well (pg. 845).

With both the Equal Pay Act and Friedan’s writing in mind it is not surprising that more women