Final: The 1960's-70s American Feminist Movement

Vision and Motivation

In 1960, the world of American women was limited in almost every respect, from family life to the workplace. A woman was expected to follow one path. That path consisted of marrying in her early 20s, start a family quickly, and devoting her life to homemaking. As one woman at the time put it, "The female doesn't really expect a lot from life. She's here as someone's keeper — her husband's or her children's." Wives bore the full load of housekeeping and child care, spending an average of 55 hours a week on domestic chores. They were legally subject to their husbands via "head and master laws," and they had no legal right to any of their husbands earnings or property, aside from a limited right to "proper support"
husbands, however, would control their wives' property and earnings. If the marriage failed, divorce was difficult to obtain, as "no-fault" divorce was not an option, forcing women to prove wrongdoing on the part of their husbands in order to get divorced.


The women's movement used different means to strive for equality: lobbying Congress to change laws; publicizing issues like rape and domestic violence through the media, and reaching out to ordinary women to both expand the movement and raise their awareness of how feminism could help them.
Seeing things from a woman's point of view, or perspective, allows everyone in society to know exactly what women have to deal with on a day to day basis. women. This is relevant to almost everything in a society driven by patriarchy, & male sexist bias. It is to be conscious of and critical towards domination of women by their male counterparts at home, in the workplace, in the streets, as regards property rights, right to education, right to justice and others. It implies social activism for the correction of gender imbalances/exploitation, abuse of women, sexual harassment etc. Over the years the United States has definitely been dominated by males, but women have started to play a more influential role within our society. Feminist theory uses the conflict approach to examine the reinforcement of gender roles and inequalities, highlighting the role of patriarchy in maintaining the oppression of women.