Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

Document Links:

Document 27.1 No More Miss America! (1968)

Document 27.2 GLORIA STEINEM, Women Freeing the Men, Too (1970)

Document 27.3 NATIONAL BLACK FEMINIST ORGANIZATION, Statement of Purpose (1973)

Document 27.4 PAT MAINARDI, The Politics of Housework (1970)

Document 27.5 PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY, What’s Wrong with “Equal Rights” for Women? (1972)

INTERPRET THE EVIDENCE

  1. According to New York Radical Women, how had male ideas of “what women are supposed to be” constrained women’s lives (Document 27.1)? What range of issues did these radical feminists raise?

  2. Why did Gloria Steinem emphasize to a class of Vassar women how women’s liberation would benefit men (Document 27.2)? How did different feminists envision the roles of men in their movement?

  3. According to the National Black Feminist Organization, what were the unique problems black women faced (Document 27.3)? How did they see their relationship to white feminists and to the male-dominated black liberation movement?

  4. In what ways did Pat Mainardi and Phyllis Schlafly disagree over the nature of housework (Documents 27.4 and 27.5)? How does Mainardi’s focus on housework fit with the demands of New York Radical Women, Gloria Steinem, and the National Black Feminist Organization?

  5. What was Phyllis Schlafly’s definition of women’s liberation (Document 27.5)? Who do you think might have agreed with her analysis? Who, aside from radical feminists, might have disagreed?

PUT IT IN CONTEXT

  1. Where do the agendas of the various advocates of women’s liberation overlap, and where do they differ?

  2. How does feminism compare with the other progressive social movements of the 1960s and 1970s?

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 217