Feminism in the 1970s begins with Betty Friedan's last radical feminist act - she organized the Women's Strike for Equality on August 26th, the 50th year anniversary since the 19th Amendment was passed. After this strike Betty Friedan slowly sank into the deep waters of age, her feminism becoming more moderate as well. She will always be remembered for her Feminine Mystique and her later moderate feminism will always be forgotten, as is the way of radfems, libfems, and white feminism in its entirety.
Earlier in 1970 the court case Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. ruled that companies couldn't change the job titles of women so they could pay them less, a huge leap for wage equality. However the Equal Rights Amendment doesn't get ratified by the states, so it's pretty obvious that the court ruling is not going to be supported and implemented freely. Though, in the same year married couples are given the right to use contraceptives - Eisenstadt v. Baird - and Title IX of the Education Amendments explicitly bans sexism in schools, which is supported by the case Reed v Reed, extending the protections of the 14th Amendment to everyone regardless of gender. The infamous Roe v Wade gave women abortion rights, the Equal Credit Opportunity forbid discrimination based on race, gender, religion, etc., marital rape laws are enacted in several states, and pregnant women are specifically protected from discrimination. So 1972 was a year of losses and wins, good steps forward for women's rights overall.
Of course, even with all those court cases, laws, and amendments passed, the fight didn't end. Dubbed the 'war on women' by many feminists, or men trying to keep women from exercising what they call fundamental rights of human beings. The number of court cases following the 1970s are ridiculous, to be brutally honest, because they all rule the same thing essentially - women are human beings with rights that no one especially men can violate. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, ruling that sexual harassment is not just a sexual crime but blatant discrimination in the workplace; Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirming women's right to contraceptives and abortions if she so chooses to have one (but allowed all the restrictions placed upon the act, including the possible life-threatening one that made women tell their spouse they were getting an abortion); United States v. Virginia ruled that the all-male Virginia Military School had to desegregate gender-wise or close; Kolstad v. American Dental Association said that a women could sue for damages from sexual discrimination. A ridiculous number of court cases, and there are still plenty more where those came from.
In these recent years of feminism there seems to be a lot more advancement and regression than any other period of feminism. Sandra Day O'Connor was the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice in 1982; women all over America were finally being ordained by their religions, Lutheran denominations and Jewish Renewal Movement being some of the first ones; Sally Ride becomes the first female astronaut and goes into space; Geraldine Ferraro is the first women to run for vice president from a major political party in 1984, the Democrats; Janet Reno becomes the first female Attorney General.
Susan Faludi even wrote a book about the backlash against women and feminism during the 1980s, appropriately named Backlash. Not a book easily disputed, given all the court cases that had to reaffirm women;s rights during the 80s alone. The newly dubbed Third Wave Feminism came out from what were perceived as the failings of the 1960s - 1980s in terms of women's equality. It was also influenced by the shift to focus on LGTBIA+/MOGAI (Marginalized Orientations, Gender identities, and Intersex) rights, as the third wave of feminism focuses most on issues of race and gender issues. The music movement Riot Grrrl came into existence during the 1990s as well, supporting more women in the punk scene and creating safe spaces for not just punk women but their female fans as well.
There have always been two sides to the feminism coin, but it seems that they split even more widely after third wave feminism takes hold of the modern movement. On paper radical feminism and liberal feminism seem simple enough - the former seeks to essentially destroy all gender roles including the concept of them while the latter aims to make women equal to men in the eyes of the law and everyone. Same goal basically. Now, if you truly love yourself you will never delve much deeper into these two groups for their dark depths are with toxic, vitriol wastelands where nothing makes sense and something is always on fire. Because within each group there are extremists who are just out of this world with their beliefs. If you're lucky you might find a nice moderate radical or liberal feminist to converse with, but mostly you'll be running into those extremists since they are the most outspoken and active feminists in their groups.
Into the 2000s. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act was put into effect by President Obama, allowing women to file complaints about unfair wages 180 days after their last, instead of first, unfair paycheck. Kind of a common sense move to me - how are you going to know if your paycheck is unfair if you don't have multiple paychecks to compare to? Very nice act there. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared in early 2013 that the military would now start allowing women to serve in combat roles overseas. The final step in equality for those female nurses, pilots, and messengers from WWII - now women are recognized to be able to fight just like a man. The only thing left is including women in the draft, a highly controversial topic for MRAs and supported by most feminists.
Sadly there is always regression to stem the advancement of women's equality. An ongoing issue since the dawn of man - women' sexual education. Go pick up any high school health textbook and look at the chapter(s) for sexual health. I can guarantee there's at least one full chapter dedicated to the penis, whole sections dedicated to masturbation habits of adolescent boys, and too many photos of penises including at least one actual real life picture. There will be no chapter on female sexuality, only one about adolescent change and pregnancy, with medical diagrams of vaginas that are not fully labelled or even explained properly. The education about women's health is so abysmal as to be non-existent in America's schools. Thousands of girls have died because they weren't properly educated about their bodies, or doctors, teachers, and parents refused to take complaints about irregularities and pain seriously. Add in the fact that condoms are distributed to boys for free yet tampons and pads are not distributed for free to girls and it become glaringly obvious that serious change is needed.
Most of the 2000s feminism seems to be a mesh of the 1970s advancement and 1980s regression with an added-in war between radical and liberal feminists (just both sides extremes). There has been more shifting within the movement regarding color; more black women have been outspoken about how much white feminism doesn't help them, signaling perhaps a new feminist movement? Black Feminism is already well in the works with tons of support, taking cues from previous movements' ideas and goals to advance black women's rights. Though the movement is for black women it creates a much better idea of feminism for any young girl, as it calms down the liberal and radical extremes into a much more inclusive, moderate movement. And getting young girls and women into feminism is what changes the world, so I'm looking forward to seeing Black Feminism change the face of the movement in the future.
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Have a real life Rosie the Riveter.
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