Week 5 assignment HIS/135

The 1960’s was a decade of extreme changes and different contrasts. For many in the massive post-World War II baby boom generation, it was the best and worst for this time. In the 1960’s, deep cultural changes were taking place among the women in American society. Females, more than ever were entering the paid workplace. This increased dissatisfaction within women regarding gender disparities in pay and the concern for sexual harassment in the work place. One large change happened in the late 1960’s in the bedroom. The birth control pill was approved by the government. This gave more freedom to women in this time. It allowed them to have more control over their bodies and the choice on when they want to become pregnant. In the 60’s, there were more and more feminists that were speaking out for the rights of women. America soon came to accept this by allowing some of the basic goals come into play. One of these goals were equal pay for equal work. Some others were, end to domestic violence, curtailment of severe limits in women in managerial jobs, an end to sexual harassment, sharing of responsibility for housework, and the raising of children.
Journalist Kati Marton in Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History. "In 1963 Betty Friedan published her book The Feminine Mystique, in which she claimed that, 'the problem that has no name burst like a boil through the image of the happy American housewife.’” In the same year this book was published, an American woman, the physicist Maria Goepper-Mayer, won a Nobel Prize for the first time.
During the civil rights and anti-war movement became popular and had a growing number of women bombarded with different images about work and family. One in five women with children under the age of six and nearly one fourth of women whose children were over sixteen help jobs in the 60’s. Their pay was only 60% of the male’s pay rate at this time. Although the equal pay legislation passed in 1963, that did not solve the problem of lower paying jobs that were classed as female. In 1966, the National Organization for Women was formed. In 1968, feminists protested at the Miss America contest in Atlantic City, making the argument that the pageant was sexist.
Thanks to the hard working feminists, us women have just as many rights as men. These women will always be known for all they have done for the future and the rights for all women.