Timeline of the Modern Women’s Liberation Movement

1961

• Hoyt v. Florida:  Because “woman is still regarded as the center of home and family life” the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Florida law allowing women to be called for jury service less frequently than men. http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/169/

1963

• Betty Freidan published The Feminine Mystique—sold 3 million copies in 6 months
• President’s Commission on the Status of Women issues report detailing inequalities in women’s lives.
• Equal Pay Act (equal pay for equal work)  http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/epa.html

1964

• Title VII of the Equal Rights Act of 1964 (sex discrimination in employment illegal)  http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html and creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Ruby Doris Smith, “The Position of Women in SNCC” http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNCC_women.html

1965

Ø      Casey Hayden and Mary King write “Sex and Caste”  http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/memo.html

• Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez begin grape boycott—involvement of Catholic religious

• Griswold v. Connecticut (married couples may use birth control)  http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html
• Executive Order 11246 prohibited sex discrimination by government contractors and requires affirmative action plans for hiring women http://www.dotcr.ost.dot.gov/asp/execorders.asp

1966

• National Organization for Women founded http://www.now.org/

1967

• New York Radical Women founded—first conscious uses of consciousness raising
• Executive Order 11375 added gender to the list of prohibited forms of discrimination in the federal government http://www.dotcr.ost.dot.gov/asp/execorders.asp
• EEOC rules that sex-separated job advertisements are illegal

1968

• Term “Women’s Liberation Movement” first appears—term adapted from “third-world” independence and liberation movements
• National Domestic Workers Union formed by Dorothy Bolden
• Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) elected to Congress—first African-American woman to do so http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000371
• Joreen, “The Bitch Manifesto” http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/bitch/

Ø      “No More Miss America!”   http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/miss.html

• Jo Freeman’s website with the photo essay on the protest:  http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/MissAm1969.html#photos
• Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) action at the New York Stock Exchange
• First National Women’s Liberation Conference held, in Chicago
• Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) formed by NOW women who left because of NOW’s commitment to abortion rights
• Jeanette Rankin Brigade (5000 women in various peace groups) demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C.
• New York Radical Women’s “Burial of Traditional Womanhood” --first use of phrase "Sisterhood is Powerful” http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/rankin2.html
• Anne Koedt, “Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm” http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html

1969

Ø      Chicago Women’s Liberation Union formed http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUAbout/about.html

• Frances Beal wrote “Double Jeopardy:  To Be Black and Female” http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/blackandfemale.html
• Redstockings formed http://www.afn.org/~redstock/

Ø      Redstockings Manifesto:  http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfib/courses/Redstockings.pdf

• Gerda Lerner publishes “New Approaches to the Study of Women in American History,” Journal of Social History  1969 3(1): 53-62.
• California implemented the nation’s first “no fault” divorce law.  By 1985 all states allowed no-fault divorce
• National Abortion Rights Action League founded
• Stonewall Riots (article from the NY Daily News:  http://www.trikkx.com/history2.html):  Gay Liberation Front created
• Yale University hosted Women’s Liberation Conference—Rita Mae Brown called for inclusion of lesbian women
• First Women’s Studies course offered in higher education, at Cornell
• First Women’s Studies Program offered, at San Diego State
• Mary Ann Weathers, “An Argument for Black Women's Liberation as a Revolutionary Force” http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/fun-games2/argument.html

1970

• 50,000 woman participate in Women’s Rights march in New York City on the 50^th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment
• Jo Freeman writes a history of the Women’s Liberation Movement http://www.jofreeman.com/feminism/liberationmov.htm

Ø      Pat Mainardi writes “The Politics of Housework” http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/polhousework.html

• Jennie V. Chavez organizes La Chicana at UNM and writes “A New Revolution Within a Revolution Has Begun,” Mademoiselle, April 1972, 150-152.
• “Mujeres Por La Raza Conference,” Houston
• Betty Friedan leads defeat of NOW resolution supporting lesbian rights; labels lesbians "the Lavender Menace" in the movement—lesbians leave NOW in protest
• Women in Gay Liberation Front founded
• North American Indian Women's Association formed
• Amazon Bookstore, Minneapolis,  opens - first lesbian-feminist bookstore
• A Woman's Place bookstore opens in Oakland, feminist bookstore
• Kate Millet, Sexual Politics
• off our backs  begins publication
• Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex
• Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch
• Robin Morgan (ed), Sisterhood is Powerful
• Radicalesbians, The Woman Identified Woman http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/womid/
   

1971

• Judy Syfers writes “Why I Want a Wife” –shorter than “The Politics of Housework” and almost as powerful http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/wantawife.html

Ø      “And Jill Came Tumbling After” –questions the gendered way we raise our children http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/jill.html

• “How to Start Your Own Consciousness-Raising Group” CWLU http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/crcwlu.html

Ø      “High School Women Ask, ‘What IS Consciousness-Raising?’”  CWLU http://www.cwluherstory.com/CWLUArchive/highschool.html

• Publication of Our Bodies, Ourselves  by the Boston Women’s Health Collective  http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/

• Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation made it illegal for employees to refuse to hire mothers of pre-schoolers
• At 1971 NOW conference lesbianism declared a legitimate concern of feminism
• Reed v. Reed  states men can no longer be “preferred” as administrators of wills—thus men and women cannot be treated differently.  http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/322/
• First battered women's shelter opens, in Urbana, Illinois
• Mirta Vidal, Chicanas Speak Out - Women: New Voice of La Raza

 1972

Ø      Equal Rights Amendment (written 1923 and introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972) passed and sent to states for ratification  http://www.now.org/issues/economic/eratext.html

• Title IX banned sex discrimination in schools http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/ge/aboutRE.html
• Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band/New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band
• In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the Supreme Court rules, on right to privacy grounds, that unmarried people can use contraceptives  http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/630/
• First emergency rape crisis line in Washington, D.C.
• Women's Studies begins publication
• Feminist Studies begins publication
• Ms. Magazine  begins publication
• Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love, Sappho Was a Right-on Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism
   

1973

• Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court held that a woman’s right to privacy allowed abortions in the first trimester http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/  (whole text)  http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/334/ (thumbnail)
• National Black Feminist Organization founded
• Judy Dlugacz creates Olivia Records
• Lesbian Herstory Archives of NYC founded by Joan Nestle and Deborah Edel
• Jill Johnston, Lesbian Nation
• Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie publish The New Woman's Survival Catalogue (a directory of women's groups)
• Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle—bestselling lesbian novel
• Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation
   

1974

Ø      Creation of the Combahee River Collective, Boston http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/rspms/combahee.html

• Congress outlaws sex discrimination in housing
• First National Women's Music Festival in Champaign Urbana
• Aviva Cantor Zuckoff, “’We Remember Our Sisters’: A Jewish Women’s Haggadah” 
• Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur  makes mandatory maternity leave illegal http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0414_0632_ZS.html
• Women’s Educational Equality Act funded non-sexist teaching programs. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_040100_womenseducat.htm
• Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” http://www.judychicago.com/judychicago.php?p=dinnerparty1 (photo gallery of exhibit)

1975

• Taylor v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court stated that states cannot exclude women from juries http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0419_0522_ZS.html
• Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will
• First Take-Back-The-Night marches
• Signs:  A Journal of Women in Culture and Society  begins publication http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/Signs/home.html

1976

• General Electric v. Gilbert   stated that  employers cannot deny employees benefits during the last trimester of pregnancy http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/2002a/20020130/ca01-311.html
• Craig v. Gilbert stated that two different drinking ages for men and women are unconstitutional  http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/90/
• First Michigan Womyn's Music Festival http://www.michfest.com/
• Lilith begins publication—Jewish feminist journal http://www.lilithmag.com/

1977

• National Year of Women celebrated with National Women’s Conference in Houston
  • National Declaration of Women http://www.wiwomensnetwork.org/1977declaration.html

1978

• Pregnancy Discrimination Act http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/35th/thelaw/pregnancy_discrimination-1978.html

1981

• Roster v. Goldberg, the Supreme Court concluded that excluding women from the draft is constitutional http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/336/
•  Kirchberg v. Feenstra, overturns state laws which stipulate the husband is “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/450/455.html

1984

• Roberts v. U.S. Jaycees makes it unconstitutional for groups to exclude women http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/roberts.html
• Mississippi ratifies the 19^th Amendment

Web Resources:

The Feminist Chronicles—from the Feminist Majority Foundation—the most extensive timeline out there…

http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/part2.html

Women in American History from the Encyclopedia Britannica

http://search.eb.com/women/ind_womenweb.html

Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement 1848-1998 Timeline

http://www.legacy98.org/timeline.html

History of the National Organization for Women

http://www.now.org/history/history.html

Feminist.com—articles and speeches about feminism

http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/

Print Resources:

Bell, Diane, and Renate Klein, eds.  Radically Speaking:  Feminism Reclaimed.  London:  Zed Books, 1996.

Brownmiller, Susan.  In Our Time:  Memoir of a Revolution.  New York:  Dial Press, 1999.

Cott, Nancy.  The Grounding of Modern Feminism.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 1987.

Crow, Barbara A., ed.  Radical Feminism:  A Documentary Reader.  New York:  New York University Press, 2000.

DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, and Ann Snitow, eds., The Feminist Memoir Project:  Voices from Women’s Liberation.  New York:  Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Freedman, Estelle B.  No Turning Back:  The History of Feminism and the Future of Women.  New York:  Ballentine Books, 2002.

Nicholson, Linda, ed.  The Second Wave:  A Reader in Feminist Theory.  New York:  Routledge,1997.

Schneir, Miriam, ed.  Feminism:  The Essential Historical Writings.  New York:  Vintage, 1972.

Sigerman, Harriet, ed.  The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 2003.

Whelehan, Imelda, ed.  Modern Feminist Thought:  From the Second Wave to “Post-Feminism.”  New York:  New York University, 1995.