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Post World War II Cult of Domesticity According to Betty Friedan, by The Post World War II Cult of Domesticity According to Betty Friedan, by the end of the 1950s: The average marriage age had dropped to 20 14 million girls were engaged by 17 Women attending college had dropped from 47% in 1920 to 35% in 1958 60% of women dropped out of college to get married (Ph. T – Putting Husband Through) Despite warnings about having more than 3-4 children, families continued to have large families Document 1 Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique (1963) For over fifteen years there was no word of this yearning in the millions of words written about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts telling women their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers. Over and over women heard in voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they could desire--no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity. Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet training, how to cope with sibling rivalry and adolescent rebellion; how to buy a dishwasher, bake bread, cook gourmet snails, and build a swimming pool with their own hands; how to dress, look, and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting; how to keep their husbands from dying young and their sons from growing into delinquents. They were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights--the independence and the opportunities that the old-fashioned feminists fought for. Document 2 PROVISIONS OF EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963 An Act to prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that this Act may be cited as the "Equal Pay Act of 1963." Prohibition of sex discrimination (1) No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility. Document 3 Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010, Institute for Women’s Policy Research 2010 From National Women’s Law Center FAQ Sheet (accessed January 25, 2019) Women in the U.S. who work full time, year round are typically paid only 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. The wage gap has stagnated, with very little change since 2007. This gap in earnings translates into $10,169 less per year in median earnings, leaving women and their families shortchanged. This disparity is the top concern of working women. Although enforcement of the Equal Pay Act and civil rights laws and other progress, including increased access to reproductive health care, have helped narrow the wage gap over time, addressing the significant pay disparities that remain is critical for women and their families. Among full time, year round workers, women who started, but did not finish high school, make 74 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. In 2017, women in the United States with only high school diplomas working full time, year round were typically paid only 76 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Among workers with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, women typically make 75 cents for every dollar men make. Even when women earn a Bachelor’s degree, they still make less than what men with an Associate’s degree make ($52,439 and $54,700, respectively)—and men with only a high school degree but no college education typically make more than women with an Associate’s degree ($42,440 and $40,641, respectively). Document 4 Civil Rights Act of 1964 In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 88-352. The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. The word "sex" was added at the last moment. According to the West Encyclopedia of American Law, Representative Howard W. Smith (D-VA) added the word. His critics argued that Smith, a conservative Southern opponent of federal civil rights, did so to kill the entire bill. Smith, however, argued that he had amended the bill in keeping with his support of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party with whom he had been working. Martha W. Griffiths (D-MI) led the effort to keep the word "sex" in the bill. In the final legislation, Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to "fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to implement the law. Document 5 From Wikipedia (accessed January 25, 2019) This list names all the women who currently hold CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies. Women currently hold 26 (5%) of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies. (Fortune 500 companies are the largest companies on the baiss of revenue) Mary T. Barra, General Motors Co. (GM) Kathryn Marinello, Hertz Global Holdings Gail Bourdreaux, Anthem, Inc. Kathleen Mazzarella, Graybar Michele Buck, The Hershey Company Beth E. Mooney, KeyCorp Safra A. Catz, Oracle Corp. Denise M. Morrison, Campbell Soup Co. Mary Dillon, Ulta Beauty Deanna Mulligan, Guardian Life Insurance Michele Gass, Kohl’s Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo, Inc. Lynn J. Good, Duke Energy Corp. Phebe N. Novakovic, General Dynamics Corp. Tricia Griffith, The Progressive Corp. Patricia K. Poppe, CMS Energy Marillyn A. Hewson, Lockheed Martin Corp. Barbara Rentler, Ross Stores, Inc. Vicki Hollub, Occidental Petroleum Corp. Virginia M. Rometty, International Business Margaret Keane, Synchrony Financial Machines (IBM) Corp. Mary Laschinger, Veritiv Corporation Joey Wat, YUM China Anna Manning, Reinsurance Group of America Geisha Williams, PG&E Corp. Glass Ceiling: an unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities. Document 6 National Organization of Women (NOW) – Statement of Purpose, October 29, 1966 We, men and women who hereby constitute ourselves as the National Organization for Women, believe that the time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes, as part of the world-wide revolution of human rights now taking place within and beyond our national borders. The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men. We believe the time has come to move beyond the abstract argument, discussion and symposia over the status and special nature of women which has raged in America in recent years; the time has come to confront, with concrete action, the conditions that now prevent women from enjoying the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right, as individual Americans, and as human beings. WE BELIEVE that the power of American law, and the protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to the civil rights of all individuals, must be effectively applied and enforced to isolate and remove patterns of sex discrimination, to ensure equality of opportunity in employment and education, and equality of civil and political rights and responsibilities on behalf of women, as well as for Negroes and other deprived groups… WE REJECT the current assumptions that a man must carry the sole burden of supporting himself, his wife, and family, and that a woman is automatically entitled to lifelong support by a man upon her marriage, or that marriage, home and family are primarily woman’s world and responsibility — hers, to dominate — his to support. We believe that a true partnership between the sexes demands a different concept of marriage, an equitable sharing of the responsibilities of home and children and of the economic burdens of their support… WE BELIEVE that women must now exercise their political rights and responsibilities as American citizens. They must refuse to be segregated on the basis of sex into separate-and-not-equal ladies’ auxiliaries in the political parties, and they must demand representation according to their numbers in the regularly constituted party committees — at local, state, and national levels — and in the informal power structure, participating fully in the selection of candidates and political decision-making, and running for office themselves. WE BELIEVE THAT women will do most to create a new image of women by acting now, and by speaking out in behalf of their own equality, freedom, and human dignity – – not in pleas for special privilege, nor in enmity toward men, who are also victims of the current, half-equality between the sexes – – but in an active, self- respecting partnership with men. By so doing, women will develop confidence in their own ability to determine actively, in partnership with men, the conditions of their life, their choices, their future and their society. Document 7a Document 7b Selected Statistics on Female Participation in School Athletics Document 8a Source: Roe v. Wade (1973) – PBS Supreme Court Roe v.
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