Women, Poltics, and American Society pg. 1-17 -- Notes

Textbook Reading:

- Abigail Adams, "Remember the Ladies", March 31, 1776
- 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, Declaration of Sentiments + resolutions about ending gender discrimination
- 12 days after original, bigger meeting in Rochester, NY
- Hist = periods of high activity + periods of littlr activity over the years
- Early Woman's Movement (1848-1875)
- Suffrage Movement (1890-1925)
- Women's Rights Monement (1966-1995)
- Each movement's accomplishes in poltics, education/employment + personal rights
- Important factors in movements: organization base w/gov. support + preexisiting groups, availablitity of leaders/organizers, existence of communication, role of crisies.
- Wmn sought rights termed as "public goods": proposed equal rights ammendment
- Movements wanting public goods/broder terms air worse then movements w/specific goals.
- Today: wmn=52% of pop. + only 13.7% of membership in House of Reps+Senate

An Overview of Wome's Rights Movement Activity
The Early Woman's Movement (1848-1875)
- Discussion = wmn's proper role in society
- 1840's = religious revialism+people worked for the less fortunate, starting temperance+ abolition movements
- Wmn fought for active role in movements, finding place in liberal antslavery w/William Lloyd Garrison (editor of The Liberator)
- Started making lots of other abolitionist groups
- Maria W. Stewart= writer for Liberator gave 4 public addresses in Boston. Notable for being a black, female speaker when there were none.
- Sarah and Angelina Grimke also spoke out, letting women voice opinions of political issues.
- Wmn recognized while working w/antislavery that they were also discriminated against
- 1840: Lucretia Mott + Elizabeth Cady Stanton went w/husbands to London for World Anti-Slavery Socierty. After long journey, denied right to participate in meeting + told to sit in balcony.
- Mott + Stanton met there, went home + raise kids, + 8 yrs later made the convention in Seneca Falls.
- Women's friendships+abolitionist newspapers+annual conventions=fledgling women's movement until after civil war.
- 1869=after 15th ammendment problems, 2 organizations: NWSA (national wmn suffrage asso.) + AWSA (american wmn suffrage asso.)
- Wmn split = weaker + less success. -> limited activity

The Suffrage Movement (1890-1925)
- 1890: NWSA+AWSA=NAWSA w/ Susan B. Anothony at the head
- Wmn's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) wanted primarily abolition of liquor, founded 1874+promotes wmn suffrage by 1879. 200,000 members by early 1900's
- North + West = preogressive era: National Consumers' League (NCL) + Wmn's Trade Union League (WTUL)
- Wmn reverse earlier movement views: motherhood+marriage=important for right to vote instead of incidental roles.
- WCTU effective in south, cloacking radicals under temperance.
- Temerpance+progressive mvemnts=starting points for suffrage leaders
- Industrial machines=less work for wmn=time for clubs=tmie to get together +talk
- Clubs+social causes=realization of wmns inferior political position
- 1914: General Federation of Wmn's Clubs (GFWC) supports suffrage mvemnt
- 1920=passage of 19th ammendement

Women's Rights Movement (1966-1995)
- After suffrage little wmns activity until 1960's + afterwards can be split into two groups:
The Younger Branch
- Wmn work w/wmn's rights + other protests
- Many in civil rights mvemnt, college studets, realize men don't value their contribution.
- Connected black supression w/female supression
- Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) + Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee (SNCC) formed.
- Groups make Black Power phase -> many activists go to anti-war where wmn also experienced sexism.
- 1965: Students for a Democratic Socety (SDS) meeting -> wmn broached wmn's issue=verbal abuse
- Wmn's rights plank introduced, wmn pelted w/tomatoes+thrown out of convention.
- Jo Freeman + Shulamith Firestone= former civil rights activists, demand convention address sexism, told to calm down. Freeman -> wmn's gorup in Chicago, Firestone -> wmn's group in NY
- Wmn's mvnt spreading through students, used consciousness-raising group to educate wmn about their problems.
- Early-mid 1960's: groups = important role in wmns health care centers, rape crisis center, shelters for batted wmn + feminist wmn bookstores.
- Quiet for a while, then pro-choice arena which = joining together in 1980's
The Older Branch
- 1890'd many national organizations = mostly wmn.
- After 1920, fwe rganizations=active for wmn rights
- National League of Women Voters (LWV), National Federation of Business + Professional Wmn's Clubs (BPW), + National Council of Negro Wmn (NCNW)= pursueing improveing wmns legislative status.
- Civil Rights mvement + Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) brought together wmn
- 1963: JFK's President's Commission on the Status f Women report American Women state leaders followed JFK's lead
- Wmn into action after Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) failed to enforce 1964 Civil Rights Act which prohibits sex discrimination in employment.
- 1966: 3rd National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women: conference by laws prohibit passing resolution demanding EEOC treat complaints seriously -> other wmns groups
- National Organization for Women (NOW), most orginial members from presidents commission
-Older branch wmn = well-trained leadersbut few organisers. NOW intial growth = slow, little new ground until 1970s
- 1970: media focus on wmn rights mvemnt. NY Times, Newsweek, NY magazie + more all spent time on the mvement making struggling mvemnt -> national phenomenon.
- 50th aniversay of areas = 2003 survey w/domestic violence + sexual assualt at the top along w/equal pay.
- No major issue = declined work in mvement
- 40% of wmn in 1970 = favored efforts to change wmns status.
= 1985: maj of wmn work outside home + 77% favored improved ststus for wmn
- End of 1980's = 58% -> change will occur
- Minority wmn more believe in need of mvement
- 68% hispanics, 63% african americans +41% whites strongly agree to push wmns mvement.
- Signals feminist realignment but wmn today=continually disengaged from wmn rights
- Gen X don't identify w/feminists, some do in "Third Wave Foundation"
- Many adavanecs in 150 yrs since Seneca Falls, many still unmet.

Vindicating Rights of Women
- 17th cent: Mary Astell = A Serious Proposal to Ladies 1965.
- Want wmn education + seminaries
- 1792: Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman argues for coeducation of nation's children + extension of English wmn's rights

The Feminist Label
- Nancy F. Cott says term feminist emerged around 1910 meaning "complete social revolution" for wmn
- Early ideas = emancipation of wmn as human-being + sex-being
- More radical -> mostly younger, educated wmn + National Wmn's Party
- Wmn = men, no gender superior
- Wmn roles + statues = product of social structue -> changeable
- Wmn self-identified as social group -> act as group to change status
- emphaziing sexual equality + sexual differences
- Feminist becoming negative. 1998 32% wmn + 37% men have favorable ideas of feminist
- 1999: only 26% of americans define themselves as feminist, yet many support wmns rights
- Education + income = related to woman labeling herself "strong feminist"

"Generation X Feminism - The Third Wave"
- 1970's feminists called "second wave" by the 1980's
- mid-1990's= new gen of feminists
- Third Wave Foundation = national organization seeks to promote fem social + political agenda in poeple 15-30
- Third wave members part $1 for wach yr of their lifes.
- ROAM, reaching out across movements, to bring together young wmn activists