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      Feminism and the Women's Movement


   [feminism1.jpg]
   Phyllis Schlafly spearheaded a nationwide campaign to stop the Equal
   Rights Amendment in January 1977.

      In the 20th century, there were at least three identifiable mass womens
      movements, or waves. First wave feminism grew from women activists
      involvement in nineteenth century movements such as the anti-slavery
      movement. After passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
      outlawed discrimination in voting on the basis of race, womans movement
      activists coalesced around campaigns to secure woman suffrage. By 1923,
      three years after passage of the universal suffrage 19th Amendment,
      some suffragists National Womens Party leader Alice Paul, for instance
      began pushing for an Equal Rights Amendment to outlaw all forms of
      discrimination based on sex, an ultimately unsuccessful campaign that
      lasted until 1983.
      Like the anti-slavery movement of the nineteenth century, the modern
      civil rights movement encouraged activism of all sorts. The rise of
      feminism in the mid- to late 1960s, especially the locally organized,
      community-based forms of womens liberation, was based in part on young
      womens recognition of sexism within the movement, made up of
      male-dominated groups like Students for a Democratic Society, the
      Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (aided in its development by
      seasoned activist Ella Baker), and others.
      White middle-class women such as Betty Friedan, a founder of the
      advocacy-oriented National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, and
      Gloria Steinem, a founder of Ms. magazine in 1972, seemed to dominate
      the medias depiction of womens lib. But women of color, such as Rev.
      Pauli Murray (a Hunter College graduate), an attorney, labor organizer
      Aileen Hernandez, Frances Beal and other activists with the Third World
      Womens Alliance, were also significant players. Women of color not only
      framed feminism to reflect their own experiences but also critiqued the
      notion that all women shared the same condition regardless of race,
      ethnicity, or class status.


                                                         [feminism2.jpg]
      Kate Millet, left, author of the best-selling feminist tract Sexual
   Politics, listens as writer Gloria Steinem speaks at a news conference
       given by women's liberation activists in New York City on Dec. 17,
                                                                    1970.

      Lesbian feminists such as Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, founders of the
      Daughters of Bilitis, the first U.S. lesbian rights organization, were
      early members of NOW, and Martin was the first out lesbian elected to
      NOWs national board.
      Ultimately, the ongoing analyses and activism of feminist women of
      color -- and lesbian feminists, radical feminists, and young women from
      all backgrounds raised with expectations of equality -- challenged and
      broadened the contemporary women's liberation movement, strengthening
      it as it moved into the 21st century and a new "third wave."


   [feminism3.jpg]
   Veteran activist - Goldie Chu - demonstrates at a pro-ERA rally.



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        CUNY Women's
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   Distinguished CUNY
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    Milestones in Women's
   Leadership in American
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