Women's Rights Movement in the 1970s

Women's Rights Movement In The 1970s In A People's History of the United States, Zinn begins his narrative of the liberation of women with the women's suffrage movement of the early twentieth century. However, according to Zinn, even after women were granted their vote, their identity was still largely measured by their success in living up to the idealized role models of wife and mother till the overt feminist movement of the late 1960s.

Till then, the only time that women were allowed to break the traditional stereotype mold of femininity and domesticity was during periods such as war, civil strife or extreme economic conditions (Zinn, 503-6). Zinn, in his account, gives a detailed description of the events that occurred in the 1960s. Women of all ages took active part in the civil rights movement of the sixties, which in a sense laid the ground for women collectively voicing their needs and demanding their rights.

The principal issues fought for were recognition of women's abilities outside the domestic sphere and the overall breaking of traditional stereotypes of femininity and sexuality (Zinn, 505-514). Though Zinn may have chosen to see universal suffrage as significant tangible evidence of an overt women's movement and therefore the start of an era, the fact is that the roots of the struggle for a new identity by women can be traced way back to the mid-nineteenth century.

For instance, Alice Rossi suggests that the women's liberation may have actually been more evolutionary in nature: there seem to have been three peaks of activity...a first peaking in the 1850s; a second in the period 1900-1920; and a third peak beginning in the late 1960s. An alternating generational phenomenon...with the feminist impulse acted out publicly in one generation and more privately in the next...the late 1870s and 1880s were decades of great expansion in women's higher education and in white-collar clerical and professional jobs for women...

Many of the daughters of suffragists seem to have done the same in the 1930s...women earned the highest proportion of advanced degrees...proportion of women in the labor force continued to climb dramatically throughout the 1940s and 1950s...disproportionate degree from the ranks of married women.

" (Rossi, 616-17) Rossi may have used the three significant milestones of education, suffrage and employment to earmark the progress of women's emancipation in society, but the collection of essays in The Feminist Papers reveal that the roots of the later 1960s movement were formed more than a century ago. In fact, it is only logical to infer that women must have always questioned the restrictions placed on them by a male dominated society.

This is evident in the essay On the Equality of the Sexes by Judith Sargent Murray, which was written in the period 1751-1820: "...our souls are by nature equal to yours...from the commencement of time to the present day, there hath been as many females, as males, who, by the mere force of natural powers, have merited...applause...wreath of fame." (Rossi, 21) Similarly, the work of Gilman and Lafollette in 1898 and 1926 reveal already existing concern over the exploitation of women as prospective mothers, unpaid domestic workers, economic relations and dependence based on sex and procreation, while calling for the need to liberate women as independent thinking and capable human beings who could make a valuable contribution to society.

Leading from the above, it can be concluded that the seeds of the feminist movement may have always existed but were nurtured by the lifting of restrictions on women's education and employment, picking up gradual momentum till it peaked in the late 1960s, when it challenged and changed the traditional stereotypes and role models for women across race and socio-economic strata.

Zinn's narrative, by virtue of it using women's voting rights as a starting point, loses something in the telling by leaving out a broader historical context, which is provided by The Feminist Papers. However, Zinn's depiction of women's perceptions of their status and lack of meaningful identity as individuals or as a gender does find echoes in both The Feminist Papers as well as The Feminist Mystique.

For instance, Zinn talks about women feeling that the core of the whole problem lies in "...the body...the exploitation of women...sex plaything (weak and incompetent)...pregnant...(helpless)... A biological prison had been created by men and society." (Zinn, 512) This view is expressed in its many aspects and dimensions right across the texts examined. Some examples are: John Adams: '...their delicacy renders them unfit for practice and experience in the great businesses of life, and the hardy enterprises of war, as well as the arduous cares of state.

Besides, their attention is so much engaged with the necessary nurture of their children, that nature has made them fittest for domestic cares." (Rossi, 13-14) her own body and beauty, the charming of a man, the bearing of babies, and the physical care and serving of husband, children and home." (Friedan, 31) Another issue raised by the women's rights movement that Zinn covers in his account is that of the efforts of the poor, black women in obtaining their rights: "...For a lot of middle class women...Women's Liberation is a matter of concern.

For women on welfare it's a matter of survival... The man runs everything...organized a National Welfare Rights Organization...urged that women be paid for...housekeeping, child-rearing." (Zinn, 513) While Friedan's work is focused on the middle.