Radical Feminist Movement[edit]

Second-wave feminism was diverse in its causes and goals. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, parallel with the counterculture movements, women with more radical ideas about feminist goals began to organize. In her work, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975, historian Alice Echols gives a thorough description of the short-lived movement. The radical feminists were after not only the end of female oppression by men but, as Echols notes, They also fought for safe, effective, accessible contraception; the repeal of all abortion laws; the creation of high-quality, community-controlled child-care centers; and an end to the medias objectification of women.[248] Small protests and signs of a larger support for radical feminism became more cohesive during the Students for a Democratic Society(SDS) June 1967 National Convention in Ann Arbor. The Womens Liberation Workshop denounced sexual inequality and stated, As we analyze the position of women in capitalist society and especially the United States we find that women are in a colonial relationship to men and we recognize ourselves as part of the Third World.[248] Cowritten by Jane Addams, one of the most prominent women in SDS, they argued that womens place within SDS was subordinate and revolution could not succeed without womens liberation.[248] While radical feminists agreed that a separate movement for them was needed, how that movement looked and its ultimate goals caused much divide. They questioned whether they should include men within their movement, whether they should focus on issues of war, race and class, and who or what it was they were exactly rallying against. There were also issues concerning African American women within the movement; while the radical feminists felt gender to be the greatest issue, African American women were also very much concerned with racism and many found that to be where oppression was most domineering. Despite being inspired by the black power movement, radical feminists had difficulty figuring out a place for race within their gender-centric movement. They were also divided over the place of lesbianism in the movement.[248] Notable radical feminist groups included Redstockings, founded in 1969. The group focused on power dynamics in gender and promoted consciousness-raising and distributed movement literature for free. Cell 16, founded in 1968, was a much more militant group arguing that women were conditioned by their sex-roles. The Feminists, founded by Ti-Grace Atkinson in 1968, claimed women were complicit in their oppression and needed to shed conventional gender roles. New York Radical Feminists, founded in 1969, also found maleness to be the greater issue than power roles. They were interested in building a larger movement through mass numbers in New York City.[248] Echols describes the movements end: Radical feminism remained the hegemonic tendency within the womens liberation movement until 1973 when cultural feminism began to cohere and challenge its dominance. After 1975, a year of internecine conflicts between radical and cultural

feminists, cultural feminism eclipsed radical feminism as the dominant tendency within the womens liberation movement, and, as a consequence, liberal feminism became the recognized voice of the womens movement.[248] The end of the counterculture movements and the governments observation of the movement also contributed to its end. The radical feminist movement demonstrated that Second-wave feminism was diverse in its goals, but also divided within itself. Echols notes, To many women, liberal feminisms considerably more modest goal of bringing women into the mainstream seemed more palatable, not to mention more realistic, than the radical feminist project of fundamentally reconstructing private and public life.[248] She also states that despite the fact that younger generations dont often see this movement as relevant, it is because feminist movements during this time actually did make significant changes.[248][248]

Abortion[edit]
One of the most controversial developments in American women's lives has been the legalization of abortion. In 1973 in the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that it is an illegal violation of privacy to outlaw or regulate any aspect of abortion performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, and that government can only enact abortion regulations reasonably related to maternal health in the second and third trimesters, and can enact abortion laws protecting the life of the fetus only in the third trimester.[249] Furthermore, even in the third trimester, an exception has to be made to protect the life of the mother. [249] This ruling has been extremely controversial from the moment it was made.[249] Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington had brought the lawsuit that led to Roe v Wade on behalf of a pregnant woman, Dallas area resident Norma L. McCorvey ("Jane Roe"), claiming a Texas law criminalizing most abortions violated Roe's constitutional rights.[249] The Texas law banned all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother, and Roe claimed that while her life was not endangered, she could not afford to travel out of state and had a right to terminate her pregnancy in a safe medical environment.[249]

Firsts[edit]
One of the most famous feminist media events, aside from the 1968 Miss America protest, was the tennis match known as the "Battle of the Sexes." In this match, on September 20, 1973, in Houston, Texas, women's tennis champion Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs 64, 63, 6 3, before a worldwide television audience estimated at almost 50 million.[250] 55-year-old former tennis championBobby Riggs had defeated Australian tennis player Margaret Court earlier that year, and he was an outspoken opponent of feminism, saying for example, "If a woman wants to get in the headlines, she should have quintuplets,"[251] " and calling himself a "male chauvinist pig".[250]

1970s[edit]
There were a few important legal gains for women in the mid-1970s. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, enacted in 1974, illegalizes credit discrimination on the basis of race, color,

religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or because someone receives public assistance.[252] Due to this Act, creditors may ask you for most of this information in certain situations, but they may not use it when deciding whether to give you credit or when setting the terms of your credit.[252] In the 1975 Supreme Court case Taylor v Louisiana, the Supreme Court ruled that excluding women from the jury pool is illegal because it violates a person's right to a fair trial by a representative segment of the community.[253] In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, making employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions illegal.[254] Another important event around this time was the Vietnam War. Approximately 7,000 American military women served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War (19651975), the majority of them as nurses.[61][255] An Army nurse, Sharon Ann Lane, was the only U.S. military woman to die from enemy fire in Vietnam.[61][256] An Air Force flight nurse, Capt Mary Therese Klinker, died when the C-5A Galaxy transport evacuating Vietnamese orphans which she was aboard crashed on takeoff.[61][257] Six other American military women also died in the line of duty.[61] An important gain for military women occurred when in 1976, the five federal United States Service academies (West Point, Coast Guard Academy, Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, Merchant Marines Academy) were required to admit women as a result of Public Law 94-106 signed by President Gerald Ford on Oct 7, 1975.[258] The law passed the House by a vote of 303 to 96 and the Senate by voice vote after divisive argument within Congress, resistance from the Department of Defense and legal action initiated by women to challenge their exclusion.[258] More than 300 women enrolled in the academies in 1976.[258]

Domestic violence and rape[edit]

During the 1970s, feminists also worked to bring greater attention and help to women suffering from domestic violence and rape.[259]While it is not true that the expression "rule of thumb" comes from men beating women with sticks as big as their thumbs, as has been rumored,[260] it is true that little help was available to battered women before the 1970s, when some of the first battered women's shelters were created and states began adopting domestic violence laws providing for civil orders of protection and better police protection (the first "modern" women's shelter in the world was Haven House, which opened in 1964 in California).[261][262] It is not true that either Catherine MacKinnon or Andrea Dworkin (both feminist activists) said "all sex is rape", or "all men are rapists," or "all sex is sexual harassment", as has been rumored;[263] however, during the 1970s feminist activists worked to change laws stating that there had to be a witness other than the woman herself to charge a man with rape, and that a woman's sexual history could be brought up at trial, while the alleged rapist's could not.[264] Also, due to feminist activism the first law against marital rape (raping one's spouse) was enacted by South Dakota in 1975.[265] By 1993, marital rape had become a crime in all 50 states in America.[266]

The 1980s brought more firsts for American women. 1980 was the first year that a higher percentage of women than men voted in a Presidential election, and a higher percentage of women than men have voted in every Presidential election since.[267] In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and became the first female Supreme Court Justice.[268] In 1983 Sally Ridebecame the first female American astronaut.[269] In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for Vice President by a major party (the Democratic Party), although she was not elected.[270] Also, in 1984 Katherine Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.[271] In 1987 Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to be elected chief of a major Native American tribe (Cherokee).[272] In 1991 she was re-elected with 83% of the vote; during her tenure the Cherokee nations membership more than doubled, to 170,000 from about 68,000.[272] In 1987, Congress declared March as the first National Women's History Month. A special Presidential Proclamation is issued every year since which honors the achievements of American women.[273] Younger women now began to be more involved in feminism. In the early 1990s, third wave feminism began as a response to the second wave's perceived inadequacies and shortcomings.[274] Third wave feminism, which continues today, is most often associated with a younger generation of feminist activism, an interest in popular culture and sexual agency, and an acceptance of pluralism and contradiction.[275] In 1991 in Olympia, Washington, Riot grrrl began in reaction to the domination of the punk rock scene of America's Pacific Northwest by all-male bands, and as an attempt to establish a female-friendly presence within this scene.[276] Riot grrrl consisted of feminist punk bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, and their zines, meetings and songs.[277] The concerns of military women again came to the fore as the Persian Gulf War (19901991) utilized an unprecedented proportion of women from the active forces (7%) as well as the Reserve and National Guard (17%).[278] Over 40,000 US military women served in combat support positions throughout the war.[278] Sixteen women died during the war and two were held prisoner.[278] In 1991 theTailhook Scandal occurred at the annual Tailhook Association convention held in Las Vegas, with more than 26 women (14 of them officers) being assaulted by scores of drunken naval and marine officers.[279] Accusations that the Navy mishandled the subsequent investigation were deeply damaging to the Navy's reputation.[279] Another famous sexual harassment case occurred when in 1991 Anita Hill, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, came forward with accusations that Clarence Thomas (who had just been nominated for the Supreme Court) had sexually harassed her.[280] Hill had worked for Thomas years earlier when he was head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and she charged that Thomas harassed her with inappropriate discussion of sexual acts and pornographic films after she rebuffed his invitations to date him.[280]When Thomas testified against Hill's claims before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he called the hearings, "a high-tech

lynching for uppity blacks," although Hill herself was black.[280] In the end, the Senate voted 52 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.[280] The 1990s brought more firsts for women in politics and the military. 1992 was known as the "Year of the Woman" because more women than ever before were elected to political office that year (women gained 19 House and 3 Senate seats for a total of 47 seats in the House and seven seats in the Senate) including Carol Moseley Braun, the first black female senator.[281] In 1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by Congress as a Supreme Court Justice, becoming the second woman on the court. In 1994 Shannon Faulkner applied to The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina and was accepted for admission.[282] She had left her gender information off the application.[282] When it was discovered that she was a woman, The Citadel revoked her offer, so Faulkner filed suit against The Citadel to gain admission.[282] The court rejected The Citadel's arguments, clearing her way to attend the school under court order.[282] Faulkner became the first female cadet in 1995, but resigned a few days into her first week.[282] A similar case occurred about this time that forced the Virginia Military Institute to open its doors to women.[282] On June 28, 1996, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v Virginia, the Citadel's governing board voted unanimously to remove a person's gender as a requirement for admission.[282] In 1999 Nancy Mace became the first woman to graduate from the Citadel.[283] The first women graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 2001 (Melissa Graham of Burleson, Texas, and Chih-Yuan Ho of Taipei, Taiwan).[284][285] Two important cases concerning women's rights were litigated in the late 1990s. The Matter of Kasinga was a legal case decided in June 1996 involving Fauziya Kassindja (surname also spelled as Kasinga), a Togolese teenager seeking asylum in the United States in order to escape a tribal practice of female genital mutilation.[286] The Board of Immigration Appeals granted her asylum in June 1996 after an earlier judge denied her claims. The case set a precedent in United States immigration law as applicants could now seek asylum in the United States from gender-based persecution, whereas previously religious or political grounds were often used to grant asylum. In 1999 Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Alabama, sued Goodyear because she was being paid at least 15% less than the men who held the same job.[287] A jury sided with her and awarded her back pay of $224,000 and nearly $3.3 million in punitive damages, but the company appealed, arguing she filed her claim too late, and it won a reversal from a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta.[287] In 2007 the Supreme Court agreed with the company and ruled that her suit should have been thrown out at the start because it relied on evidence of discrimination in the 1980s, not on unfair pay decisions in 1998 or 1999; the Supreme Court declared that employees wishing to file discrimination charges must do so no more than 180 days after they have received their first discriminatory paycheck, although Lilly Ledbetter did not know she had been discriminated against in pay until much more than 180 days had passed.[287] However, in 2009 President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law (the first bill signed into law during his presidency), which changed the law

so that now workers can sue up to 180 days after receiving any discriminatory paycheck, not just the first discriminatory paycheck.[287]

2000 present[edit]

Ann Dunwoody, the first female four-star general in the United States military (shown while two-star general).