OCR textbook - campaign for political rights 1960-92

Question 1

1966

Answer 1

formation of national organisation for women (NOW)

Question 2

aim of NOW

Answer 2

‘full participation in mainstream american society’ & ‘truly equal relationship with men’

Question 3

what had these new aims (eg. NOW) emerged from

Answer 3

• new feminism
• study published in 1963 & commissioned by president kennedy =
  ‘report on american women’
• by 1960s, there was movement for change eg. kennedys ‘new frontier’

Question 4

what was new feminism

Answer 4

• challenged basis of women’s role in society
• influenced by writers eg. betty freidan
• demands for political/social change were underpinned by ideology that hadn’t been apparent in previous women’s movements

Question 5

what was the ‘report on american women’ 1963

Answer 5

• survey worked on by several highly educated women
• ready by elite
• found statistics of unequal pay, opportunities, political participation & status disturbing

Question 6

when was the feminine mystique by betty freidan published

Answer 6

1963

Question 7

what was the feminine mystique about

Answer 7

expressed (mainly middle-class) women’s discontent with post-war period

Question 8

kennedys assassination

Answer 8

1963

Question 9

who succeeded kennedy

Answer 9

lyndon b. johnson

Question 10

what did johnson introduce

Answer 10

johnson’s ‘great society’

Question 11

what problems did johnson’s new impetus for reform face

Answer 11

• not united in aims
• face considerable conservative opposition
• neither of political parties took up causes directly
• radical supporters often alienated mainstream support

Question 12

what was expressed in the NOW conference 1967

Answer 12

women’s demand for abortion & ‘the right of women to control their own reproductive lives’

Question 13

give an example of a breakaway women’s group, their disagreement with NOW & what they fought for/results

Answer 13

eg. women’s equality league action
- rejected NOW’s support for abortion-law reform
- pressed hard for equality in education
- brought action against 300 schools/colleges who were discriminating on women

Question 14

who did NOW bring legal action against

Answer 14

• employers who broke the 1967 executive order against sex discrimination by companies with federal contracts

Question 15

what was a major focus of womens organisations from 1970

Answer 15

passing of the ERA

Question 16

wording of ERA

Answer 16

equality of rights under law shall not be denied/abridged by the united states or by any state on account of sex

Question 17

when did the ERA get to the stage of being debated by congress & how

Answer 17

1972
- due to increased pressure from NOW & other women’s groups

Question 18

from when did the ERA become the expressed policy of NOW

Answer 18

1967

Question 19

what did supporters of the ERA do in 1970

Answer 19

picketed congress & disrupted a congressional committee considering lowering the voting age in order to raise the equality issue

Question 20

what happened in august 1972

Answer 20

strike of 20,000 women calling for full equality

Question 21

what marked the most significant expansion of militancy since 1890-1917

Answer 21

• betty friedans ardent advocacy - supported by congressman martha griffiths
• plenty of direct action/demonstrations

Question 22

martha griffiths

Answer 22

• lawyer who in 1954 became 1st female democrat elected to congress by michigan
• campaigner for women’s rights who successfully got sex discrimination included in civil rights act of 1964
• went on to be assistant governor of michigan

Question 23

what passed the house of representatives in 1972
- what passed congress

Answer 23

resolution introduced by martha griffiths calling for an equal rights amendment
- an edited version, exempting women from the draft, passed congress

Question 24

how many states accepted the amendment

Answer 24

30

Question 25

draft

Answer 25

us term for conscription/calling up civilians for military service

Question 26

opposition to ERA

Answer 26

• phyllis schlafly

Question 27

phyllis schlafly

Answer 27

• born in st louis
• financed college education via testing machine guns in arms factory during war
• conservative journalist
• wrote in support of family values & against feminism
• thought real right of a woman was to stay at home

Question 28

what was able to stop the amendment being ratified

Answer 28

movr towards conservatism - led to victory of repuboican ronald reagan in 1980

Question 29

who wrote ‘sexual politics’ in 1970

Answer 29

kate millett

Question 30

kate millets view

Answer 30

‘every avenue of power is entirely in male hands’

Question 31

what was the lack of political equality mirrored in

Answer 31

econokic equality

Question 32

eg of economic equality

Answer 32

female wages were avg. 63% of mens in 1956
—> by time of 1970s = 57%

Question 33

political movement of 1970s-1980s

Answer 33

• 80,000-100,000 women participated in some form of womens group
• social agenda was wider: health, abortion, marriage/divorce, sexuality & rights for older women/working women
• ‘second wave’ feminism

Question 34

situation by 1992

Answer 34

• 1980s saw expansion of education for women —> nearly 1/2 undergraduate & masters degrees = women
• old culture persisted
• proportion in science & engineering = much lower
• many still studied ‘female subjects’ & had ‘female jobs’
• limited no. of women in decision-making positions
• women paid on average 32% less than men

Question 35

how many women were engineers in 1990

Answer 35

fewer than 8%

Question 36

major political developments/not by 1992

Answer 36

• nineteenth amendment
• NOT = failure of ERA

Question 37

first women to be appointed to supreme court & hold major diplomatic post

Answer 37

= jeanne fitzpatrick 1981
appointed ambassador to united states