Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

 

About the second wave of feminism,  Collins writes…”for the most part, the generation that took the risks, filed the suits, held the press conferences, and made the demands were not the ones who benefited.” 

 

Here are a few anecdotes from those days, all found in Chapter 10, “You’re Gonna Make It After All”:

• In 1973 Pres. Nixon asked veteran journalist Helen Thomas, ”Helen are you still wearing  slacks? Do you prefer them actually? Every time I see girls in slacks, it reminds me of China.”

An improvement over a decade-earlier comment when Ruth Bader Ginsburg applied for a Supreme Court clerkship and Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected her after asking “Does she
wear skirts? I can’t stand girls in pants.”

• Kathy Switzer, Syracuse University junior in 1967, used the entry name “K.V. Switzer” and obtained a Boston Marathon number. An official, Jock Semple, tried to rip her number off, yelling, “Get the hell out of my race.” In 1972 women finally were allowed to run the marathon.
  
  
•  Congresswoman Pat Schroeder visited a Denver high school after Title IX passed—a bill sponsored by Reps. Patsy Mink and Edith Green that banned discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funds. A basketball coach asked the team to show her what they thought of Title IX: they mooned her.
  
  
• Title IX did not mean parity: girls’ sports received 9% of the athletic budget. Girls in Cedar Rapids, IA  played tennis on the school driveway and stopped whenever a car entered; U of Kansas women drove overnight to track meets and slept on wrestling mats in the gym. The male athletes’ travel and hotel expenses were covered.
  
  
•  In 1974 Kathryn Kirschbaum, the mayor of Davenport, Iowa, was told she could not have a BankAmerica card. She needed her husband’s signature. Neither could Billy Jean King, winner of three Wimbledon titles. She needed her husband’s signature—he a law student with no income. Congress passed the Depository Institutions Amendment Act in 1974, banning sex discrimination in lending.
  
  
• Shirley Chisholm, congresswoman, noted that Rep. James Delaney presiding over the Rules Committee in 1977 called her “Shirley” while addressing the men as “Mr.” She objected and Delaney answered, “Shirley, what’s the matter? You and I have been intimate for years.”  “Jim, we don’t have to let the public know it,” said Congresswoman Chisholm.
  
  
• Barbara Jordan, only the third African-American woman lawyer in Texas, served three terms in Congress before succumbing to multiple sclerosis. From being called “a _____ mammy washerwoman” in her home state, she became a noted legislator and impressive speaker. The Austin, TX, airport now bears her name.
  
  
• “When Schroeder got her hoped-for slot on the Armed Services Committee…chairman, F. Edward Hebert, was so outraged that he decreed Schroeder and Ron Dellums, the second-term black congressman from California, would have to share a chair since each was worth only half a ‘regular’ member.” [255]. No one objected nor offered to find another chair.
  
  
• Diane Watson, elected to the California state senate in 1978, was the first black woman and only the second woman to win the seat. The first woman was Rose Ann Vuich who rang a small bell every time her colleagues spoke “Gentlemen.” Although the two women were not political allies, they did join forces when a $40 million renovation at the capitol did not include a women’s restroom off the senate like the men’s . The architect said, “My gosh, I forgot all about it.”
  
  
•  Madeleine Kunin (Vermont) and some female colleagues gathered on public television to discuss drug laws and highways and juvenile offenders. The (male) host concluded their segment with, “Well, you can see that brains and beauty do mix; they’re legislators, they’re ladies, and they’re lovely.”  “Oh, ___!” sighed a very refined lawmaker and retired teacher.
  
  
• Groups of two or more females? --paternalistic label of “girls,” no matter if they were grandmothers, sheriffs, or doctors. And publishers like the Washington Post, The New York Times, andMcGraw Hill had to train themselves to remove unnecessary descriptors such as “trim,” “blonde,” “short,” “divorcee.” The longest and hardest struggle centered on the term, “Ms.” In 1984 the Times “ran a story about Gloria Steinem’s 50^th birthday party that reported proceeds from the dinner ‘will go to the Ms. Foundation…which publishes Ms. Magazine , where Miss Steinem works as an editor’.” [259]
  
  
• Women entered law school , but many found professors called upon them only on an annual Ladies’ Day when they were to answer all the questions. One young criminal law professor announced that Ladies’ Day would focus on rape. At class time, the specific question was “How much penetration constitutes rape?” [Brenda Feigen, Harvard Law School, late 60’s, page 261]
  
  
• Flight attendant Eulalie Cooper was fired when Delta found out she was secretly married. Cooper sued but a Louisiana judge found that ensuring safety and serving food was uniquely suited to young, single women and therefore fell under the law’s exemption for “bona fide occupational qualifications.” This is the loophole that NOW (National Organization for Women) argued should only apply to sperm donors and wet nurses.

And who can speak to the battle for Equal Rights Amendment’s (failed) passage? ERA’s lasting impact would not appear to be on modifying the U.S. Constitution but rather its effect on the generation of political women who fought for it…and the women who followed their trail.

This provides a neat parallel to those first-wave feminists who fought for the right to vote, and left its legacy of suffrage and activism for women--including those who began the League of Women Voters.

 Now, let’s talk about the third wave of feminists—what will be their contribution? What effect will they produce for the women who follow?

 Maybe we already have all the equality, opportunity, and parity that women need  and/or want?

Feminist: a person who organizes to work actively on behalf of women's rights and interests

- Gloria Welch Legvold, January 4, 2010