Evidence 1: “The [Miss America] Pageant exercises Thought Control, attempts to sear the Image onto our minds, to further make women oppressed and men oppressors; to enslave us all the more in high-heeled, low-status roles; to inculcate false values in young girls; to use women as beasts of buying; to seduce us to prostitute ourselves before our own oppression.”—Document 27.1: No More Miss America!

Evidence 2: “The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with the popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up. Patriotism means obedience, age means wisdom, woman means submission, black means inferior: these are preconceptions imbedded so deeply in our thinking that we honestly may not know that they are there.”—Document 27.2: Gloria Steinem, Women Freeing the Men, Too

Evidence 3: “Black women want to be proud, dignified, and free from all those false definitions of beauty and womanhood that are unrealistic and unnatural. We, not white men or black men, must define our own self-image as black women and not fall into the mistake of being placed upon the pedestal which is even being rejected by white women.”—Document 27.3: National Black Feminist Organization, Statement of Purpose

Evidence 4: “If you don’t like this fundamental difference, you will have to take up your complaint with God because He created us this way. The fact that women, not men, have babies is not the fault of selfish and domineering men, or of the establishment, or of any clique of conspirators who want to oppress women. It’s simply the way God made us.”—Document 27.5: Phyllis Schlafly, What’s Wrong with “Equal Rights” for Women?

Evidence 1: “Miss America represents what women are supposed to be: unoffensive, bland, apolitical. If you are tall, short, over or under what weight The Man prescribes you should be, forget it. Personality, articulateness, intelligence, commitment—unwise. Conformity is the key to the crown—and, by extension, to success in our society.”—Document 27.1: No More Miss America!

Evidence 2: “No one of us would minimize the pain or hardship or the cruel and inhumane treatment experienced by the black man. But history, past or present, rarely deals with the malicious abuse put upon the black woman. We were seen as breeders by the master; despised and historically polarized from/by the master’s wife; and looked upon as castrators by our lovers and husbands. The black woman has had to be strong, yet we are persecuted for having survived. We have been called “matriarchs” by white racists and black nationalists; we have virtually no positive self-images to validate our existence.”—Document 27.3: National Black Feminist Organization, Statement of Purpose

Evidence 3: “‘Housework is too trivial to even talk about.’ Meaning: It’s even more trivial to do. Housework is beneath my status. My purpose in life is to deal with matters of significance. Yours is to deal with matters of insignificance. You should do the housework. ‘This problem of housework is not a man-woman problem! In any relationship between two people one is going to have a stronger personality and dominate.’ Meaning: That stronger personality had better be me. ‘In animal societies, wolves, for example, the top animal is usually a male even where he is not chosen for brute strength but on the basis of cunning and intelligence. Isn’t that interesting?’ Meaning: I have historical, psychological, anthropological, and biological justification for keeping you down. How can you ask the top wolf to be equal?”—Document 27.4: Pat Mainardi, The Politics of Housework

Evidence 4: “This is not the American way because we were lucky enough to inherit the traditions of the Age of Chivalry. In America, a man’s first significant purchase is a diamond for his bride, and the largest financial investment of his life is a home for her to live in. American husbands work hours of overtime to buy a fur piece or other finery to keep their wives in fashion, and to pay premiums on their life insurance policies to provide for her comfort when she is a widow (benefits in which he can never share).”—Document 27.5: Phyllis Schlafly, What’s Wrong with “Equal Rights” for Women?

Evidence 1: “This is the year of Women’s Liberation. Or at least, it’s the year the press has discovered a movement that has been strong for several years now, and reported it as a small, privileged, rather lunatic event instead of the major revolution in consciousness—in everyone’s consciousness, male or female—that I believe it truly is.”—Document 27.2: Gloria Steinem, Women Freeing the Men, Too

Evidence 2: “We, not white men or black men, must define our own self-image as black women and not fall into the mistake of being placed upon the pedestal which is even being rejected by white women. It has been hard for black women to emerge from the myriad of distorted images that have portrayed us as grinning Beulahs, castrating Sapphires, and pancake-box Jemimas.”— Document 27.3: National Black Feminist Organization, Statement of Purpose

Evidence 3: “On the other hand is women’s liberation—and housework. What? You say this is all trivial? Wonderful! That’s what I thought. It seemed perfectly reasonable. We both had careers, both had to work a couple of days a week to earn enough to live on, so why shouldn’t we share the housework? So I suggested it to my mate and he agreed—most men are too hip to turn you down flat. ‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘It’s only fair.’”—Document 27.4: Pat Mainardi, The Politics of Housework

Evidence 4: “The second reason why American women are a privileged group is that we are the beneficiaries of a tradition of special respect for women which dates from the Christian Age of Chivalry. The honor and respect paid to Mary, the Mother of Christ, resulted in all women, in effect, being put on a pedestal. . . . In other civilizations, such as the African and the American Indian, the men strut around wearing feathers and beads and hunting and fishing (great sport for men!), while the women do all the hard, tiresome drudgery including the tilling of the soil (if any is done), the hewing of wood, the making of fires, the carrying of water, as well as the cooking, sewing and caring for babies.”—Document 27.5: Phyllis Schlafly, What’s Wrong with “Equal Rights” for Women?