Activity Two: Family Feuds in the Modern Women’s Rights Movement

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Overview:

This activity requires that you read statements made by feminists associated with the women’s liberation movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Younger and more radical than women who joined the National Organization of Women, they directly confronted the realities of patriarchy, sexism, and discrimination by race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation. 

A quiz and discussion on the documents will be on Wednesday, December 2.

Disclaimer: Most documents in this activity argue that men, as individuals and as a group, oppress women, treating them as subordinate. These expressed attitudes were very much part of the rhetoric of the women’s movement in the late sixties and early seventies. But this “man-hating” attitude was short-lived because many affiliated with the women’s liberation movement realized that men were also victims in a society which imposed one’s role and self-defined identity based on his or her sex.  

Sources: (handouts)

Introduction: Feminist Revival and Women’s Liberation.[1]

Manifestos, Demands, Constitutions[2]

·         The Redstockings Manifesto (1969)

·         Chicana  Demands (1972)

·         Lesbian Feminist Organization, Constitution (1973)

·         National Black Feminist Organization, Manifesto (1974)

Personal Stories[3] -- Letter from a Battered Wife (1976) and Sexual Harassment Begins with Hiring Procedures (1976)

Questions for Documents:

Redstockings Manifesto

  1. What examples are cited to show that men are the agents of women’s oppression?
  2. What is the “chief task” cited in this manifesto
  3. How does this manifesto define “internal democracy”?
  4. What positive role can men contribute to the liberation of women?

Chicana Demands (1972)

  1. What is the list of demands cited in the first section of this document?
  2. What are the specific demands for (1) the workplace; (2) prostitution; (3) abortion?

National Black Feminist Organization, Manifesto (1974)

  1. What is meant by “dual oppression”?
  2. What examples are cited to illustrate this dual oppression?
  3. How has history, past and present, defined the black woman? (examples)
  4. Why did black feminists decide to establish an independent organization?

Lesbian Feminist Organization, Constitution (1973)

  1. What are the causes cited for the reality of sexism for lesbian feminists?
  2. What kind of society needs to exist before all individuals are free to define themselves?
  3. How does this document define feminism?
  4. What specific actions are needed to achieve a woman to be a “self-defined individual? 

Letter from a Battered Wife (c. 1976)

  1. The woman who writes this letter seeks help and advice?  Who does she consult? What advice did she get?
  2. Why reasons does she cite of why she can’t leave her husband?

Sexual Harassment Begins with Hiring Procedures (1976)

  1. How does Working Women United define sexual harassment? 
  2. What are the examples of how this “permeates all aspects of women’s work”? What is the clear message to women?
  3. What are the top four responses of women who experienced sexual harassment? (Table)
  4. What reasons did women cite for not lodging formal complaints against men who harassed them?
  5. What happens if women ignore harassment by men?  What are the reasons that many women did not report the harassment?
  6. What is the “other side” of sexual harassment?


 


[1] Ellen Skinner, “Feminist Revival and women’s Liberation,” Women and the National Experience, 2nd edition, pp. 226-228.

[2]Skinner, 230-232, 226-240.

[3][3] Nancy MacLean, The American Women’s Movement, 1945-2000, 128-135.