The Road to Equality: American Women Since 1962 (Young Oxford History of Women in the United States)

The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were decades of vast changes in the world at large new nations emerged, technology advanced at a record pace, and environmental awareness intensified. Perhaps no change was more obvious than the shifting roles of women. William H. Chafe shows how the 1960s women's movement transformed ways of thinking about men's and women's destinies. In areas as diverse as work, sexuality, and politics women sought to claim rights as individuals, and to upset the hierarchy of power between the sexes. Feminist T-shirts proclaimed "A Woman Without a Man is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle." Betty Friedan published her groundbreaking book The Feminine Mystique. Gloria Steinem launched Ms. Magazine, a key voice of the feminist movement. The peace symbol and Woodstock became icons of the new political and counterculture, and the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979 challenged sexual mores. Shirley Chisholm, Phyllis Schlafly, Roe v. Wade, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the National Organization of Women (NOW), and the Moral Majority were other major influences during these turbulent decades. They represented women from varied walks of life, economic conditions, races, and religions who found themselves questioning and challenging each other as often as they did traditional society.