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1970's Women
Equal Rights
Amendment
Alice
Paul and National Women’s Party aimed to pass an (ERA) to the Constitution
Make illegal all forms of
discrimination based on sex.
Some believed that strict enforcement of equal rights would eliminate protective
labor legislation for women.
ERA would be particularly
harmful to working-class women.
1960-women's rights movement revived the ERA debate.
1972-The ERA measure won
congressional approval as the 27th Amendment, but it had to be
ratified by 38 states.
Female politician, Bella
Abzug, of New York, and (NOW), supported the ERA
Congress supported the ERA
and extended the 7 year deadline for ratification to 10 years.
Opponents of the ERA
argued a legal doctrine of equality threatened to erase the traditional
differences between men and women and confuse the distinct roles that the
sexes played in society.
1982- the ERA was defeated
when only 35 states ratified, needed 38
Phyllis Schlafly
(1924- ) author &
political activist
1945- earned a master's
degree in political science from Harvard University. Law degree from Washington
University in 1978.
She ran unsuccessfully for
Congress twice.
1970s and early
1980s, Schlafly campaigned against the proposed (ERA).
Schlafly opposed the ERA.
She believed it would take away legal rights of wives, force women into combat
and negatively influence families (Could lead to unisex restrooms.)
She became a leading
opponent of the ERA through her lobbying organizations, Stop ERA and Eagle
Forum, and by testifying against the ERA before 30 state legislatures.
"Schlafly, Phyllis,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://Encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved
Gloria Steinem
•
(1934- ), American writer and political activist,
•
1963, after the success of her article about working undercover in the
Playboy Club in Manhattan,
•
In 1971, Steinem helped found the National Women's Political Caucus.
•
Steinem produced the 1st issue of the feminist Ms magazine.
her belief that
when women are liberated, men will become whole people as well.
"Steinem,
Gloria," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://Encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Reproductive Rights
The Comstock Law was
overturned in 1938 and all federal legal prohibitions against birth control
lifted, with much help from Margaret Sanger.
Birth Control Pill:
Available by prescription in the US since 1960, birth control pills are the most
popular form of reversible contraception.
(94%
effective)
In Roe v. Wade
(1973), the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot restrict abortion in the
first 6 months—or first two trimesters—of pregnancy.
States could intervene to
protect the life of the fetus once that life could be viable outside the womb.
1976- Congress prohibited
Medicaid reimbursement for abortions.
Supreme Court upheld in
Harris v. McRae (1980).
Webster
v. Reproductive Health
Services of 1989, the court upheld a Missouri law banning the use of public
employees or facilities in performing abortions.
Every day 5,000 women
worldwide die from lack on safe abortions.
Yet, it the most preformed
medical procedure.
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