Within the late 1970s, the Feminist movement began making challenges for equal rights. While there weren’t any dramatic changes at the time, the Feminist movement made some substantial gains within the 1970s. One of which was title IX, an amendment that brought about equality within education and mostly sports. Unfortunately, they also failed to achieve certain things, such as abortion rights and the ratification of the ERA. With abortion, women claimed that they had the right to choose. However, the reason they supported abortion was that it would be used as a way to save money when poor. With the ERA, they were split up in terms of whether to support the ratifications or not. Within all of this, women also pushed for sexual equality, as displayed in many books such as Our Bodies, Ourselves.
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Title IX - While this law was reauthorized in 1972, it wasn’t until 1975 that Charles Weinberger, who was U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, approved title IX issued guidelines within it that required intercollegiate (college) sports to have equal rights and equal opportunities for women. This is viewed as a victory for the feminist movement, as it brought many opportunities for women in sports such as softball and volleyball. In 1976, the NCAA challenged the legality of the amendment, and in 1979 the HEW issued a final policy interpretation on it, which led to the development of the Department of Education in 1980. This group would oversee and help enforce title IX.
Tags: Women's Rights, Political
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Anti-Abortion Rally - Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Social Conservatives began an anti-abortion movement based off the notion that abortion is the same thing as murder. While defenders of abortion claimed that they had “the right to choose” (which happens to be one of the freedoms in the U.S. constitution), opponents of abortion claimed “the right to life” and tried to protect the rights of an unborn child. Despite the opposition, the anti-abortion movement won its first victory in 1976, in which Congress ended federal funding for abortions through medicaid (interesting to note, this was over Ford’s veto).
Tags: Women's Rights, Political, Social, Legal
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Doug Marlette’s cartoon illustrates the unequal distributions of pay between male workers and female workers. This inequality is what inspired support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The ERA was designed to eliminate any obstacles that prohibited women from becoming fully involved in public life. Ironically, women were divided in terms of supporting it, some claiming that the amendment would relieve men of the responsibility of providing for their wife and children, as well as reproach the role of wife. Despite the fact that a majority of Americans supported the amendment, the division of women as well as mobilization of conservatives ended up causing the amendment to fail to achieve the 38 states ratification needed.
Tags: Women's Rights, Political, Social
Artifacts:
30) Title IX (Physical Volleyball)
31) Anti-Abortion Rally (Photo)
32) Doug Marlette's Cartoon (Political Cartoon)
30) Title IX (Physical Volleyball)
31) Anti-Abortion Rally (Photo)
32) Doug Marlette's Cartoon (Political Cartoon)