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Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements
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1948
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Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
("The Kinsey Report") demonstrates that a large percentage of U.S. males have
had non-heterosexual forms of sexual relations at least some time in their
lives.
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1953
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The Second Sex
appears in an English translation of the 1949 book by Simone de
Beauvoir.
Mattachine Society formed in Los Angeles.
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1955
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Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization, is founded in San
Francisco.
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1960
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The Food and Drug Administration approves birth control pills
and the 1st oral contraceptive goes on the market.
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1960
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Illinois becomes 1st state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting
adults in private.
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1961
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President Kennedy establishes Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
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1963
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The Feminine Mystique
by U.S. feminist Betty Goldstein Friedan, 42, argues that women as a class
suffer various forms of discrimination but are victimized especially by a
system of delusions and false values that encourages them to find personal
fulfillment through their husbands and children. She calls this "the problem
that has no name." Five million copies are sold by 1970, laying the groundwork
for the modern feminist movement.
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women issues report documenting
discrimination against women in demployment and education.
June 10 - Equal Pay Act. Congress votes to guarantee women equal pay for equal
work, but the law will prove difficult to enforce. . .It does not cover domestics,
agricultural workers, executives, administrators or professionals.
The legislation was first introduced in 1945.
1st Gay Rights demonstration in the U.S. takes place in New York.
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1964
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employment discrimination by private
employers, employment agencies, and unions based on race, sex, and other
grounds. To investigate complaints and enforce penalties, it establishes the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which receives 50,000
complaints of gender discrimination in its first five years.
White women make up about half the students participating in Freedom Summer but
find themselves relegated often to menial jobs in the "Movement".
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1965
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June 7 - Connecticut’s 1879 law prohibiting sale of birth control devices is
unconstitutional, the Supreme Court rules 7 to 2 in Griswold v. Connecticut.
The case involved a New Haven clinic run by leaders of the state’s Planned
Parenthood League.
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1966
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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded to help U.S. women gain
equal rights. Founder and president of the new civil rights organization is
Betty Friedan. One of the principal reasons for founding the organization is
dissatisfaction with the slow implementation of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964
1st Gay community center opens in San Francisco.
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1967
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California becomes the first state to re-legalize abortion.
Chicago Women's Liberation Group organizes, considered the first to use the
term "liberation." New York Radical Women is founded. The following year they
begin a process of sharing life stories, which becomes known as "consciousness
raising." Groups immediately take root coast-to-coast.
The Advocate
begins publication in Los Angeles.
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1968
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New York Radical Women garner media attention to the women's movement when they
protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City.
The first national women's liberation conference is held in Chicago.
The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded.
The Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement appears in Chicago, edited by Jo
Freeman and others. By 1971, over 100 women's movement newsletters and
newspapers are being published across the country.
National Welfare Rights organization if formed by activists such as Johnnie
Tillmon and Etta Horm. They have 22,000 members by 1969, but are unable to
survive as an organization past 1975.
Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
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1969
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June 27 - New York’s Stonewall Inn riot launches a “gay rights” movement as
homosexuals protest police raid on a Greenwich Village dance club and bar on
Christopher Street.
1969 The Boston Women's Health Book Collective publishes the self-help manual
Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book by and for Women
, incorporating medical information with personal experiences. Nearly 4 million
copies sold as of 1997.
California’s supreme court rules in September that the state’s anti-abortion
law is unconstitutional. It infringes on a woman’s right to decide whether to
risk childbirth and bear children, says the court.
Chicago women set up "Jane," an abortion referral service. During four years of
existence, it provides more than 11,000 women with safe and affordable
abortions.
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1970
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July 1 - The most liberal abortion law in the United States goes into effect in
New York State.
Kate Millett's
Sexual Politics
Robin Morgan's
Sisterhood is Powerful
The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced into Congress.
1st Pride March takes place in New York to celebrate Stonewall.
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1971
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The first battered women's shelter opens in the U.S., in Urbana, Illinois,
founded by Cheryl Frank and Jacqueline Flenner. By 1979, more than 250 shelters
are operating.
New York Radical Feminists holds a series of speakouts and a conference on rape
and women's treatment by the criminal justice system. Susan Brownmiller's book,
Against Our Will
, is one result. Another: the establishment of rape crisis centers across the
country.
The non-partisan National Women's Political Caucus is founded to encourage
women to run for public office.
Shulamith Firestone's
The Dialectic of Sex
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1972
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Ms. magazine begins regular publication, reaching a circulation of 350,000
within a year.
The first emergency rape crisis hotline opens in Washington, D.C. By 1976 400
independent rape crisis centers operate nationwide offering counseling,
self-defense classes, and support groups.
Title IX of the Education Amendments requires that "No person in the United
States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied
the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program
or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
In Eisenstadt v. Baird the Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy
encompasses an unmarried person's right to use contraceptives.
After languishing since 1923, the ERA is passed by Congress on March 22 and
sent to the states for ratification. Hawaii approves it within the hour. By the
end of the week, so have Delaware, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Idaho and Iowa.
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1973
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January 22 - Abortion should be a decision between a woman and her physician,
the Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade. The court’s 7-to-2 decision upholds a
woman’s right to privacy in opting for abortion during the first 6 months of
pregnancy. “Right-to-life” groups work to undermine the ruling. effectively
canceling the anti-abortion laws of 46 states.
The U.S. military is integrated when the women-only branches are eliminated.
The National Black Feminist Organization is established.
National Gay ("and Lesbian" is added later) Task Force is founded; Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund is founded; Homosexuality removed by APA list of
"psychiatric disorder".
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1974
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Hundreds of colleges are offering women's studies courses; there are over 80
full programs in place. Additionally, 230 women's centers on college campuses
provide support services for women students.
The Coalition for Labor Union Women is founded, uniting blue-collar women
across occupational lines.
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