Second-wave feminism

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The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s.^[1]

Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism addressed a wide range of issues: de facto inequalities, official legal inequalities, sexuality, family, the workplace, and, controversially, reproductive rights.^[2] It also tried and failed to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. Many feminists view the second-wave feminist era as ending with the intra-feminism disputes of the Feminist Sex Wars, over issues such as sexuality and pornography.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Contents 1 Overview 2 View on popular culture 3 Timeline of key events 3.1 The rise of the second-wave 3.1.1 1953 3.1.2 1960 3.1.3 1961 3.1.4 1963 3.1.5 1964 3.1.6 1965 3.1.7 1966 3.1.8 1967 3.2 From Miss America to Ms.: Sisterhood is Powerful 3.2.1 1968 3.2.2 1969 3.2.3 1970 3.2.4 1971 3.2.5 1972 3.3 The ERA 3.3.1 1972 3.3.2 1973 3.3.3 1974 3.4 "Every layer of society" 3.4.1 1975 3.4.2 1976 3.4.3 1977 3.4.4 1978 3.4.5 1979 3.5 The 1980s 3.5.1 1981 3.5.2 1982 3.6 Post-feminism in the 1980s 4 Education 4.1 Title IX 4.2 Coeducation 4.2.1 Seven Sisters Colleges 4.2.2 Mississippi University for Women 4.2.3 Mills College 4.2.4 Other colleges 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading

Overview

The second wave of feminism in North America came as a response to the experiences of women after World War II.^[8] The late 1940s post-war boom, an era characterized by an unprecedented economic growth, a baby boom, and a move to the suburbs encouraged companionate marriages. This life was clearly illustrated by the media of the time; for example television shows such as Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver idealized domesticity.^[9]

In 1963, in her bestselling book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women, stating that placing women at home limited their possibilities, and wasted talent and potential. The perfect nuclear family image depicted and strongly marketed at the time, she wrote, did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women.^[10] This book is widely credited with having begun second-wave feminism.^[11]

French writer Simone de Beauvoir had in the 1940s examined the notion of women being perceived as "other" in the patriarchal society. She went on to conclude that male-centered ideology was being accepted as a norm and enforced by the ongoing development of myths, and that the fact that women are capable of getting pregnant, lactating, and menstruating is in no way a valid cause or explanation to place them as the "second sex".^[12] Friedan years later (in 1975) admitted that de Beauvoir's book, published in English in 1953, influenced hers. Indeed, Dijkstra argues that Friedan's book is to a large degree a deradicalized version of ideas first suggested in The Second Sex.^[13]

Though it is widely accepted that the movement lasted from the 1960s into the late 1990s, the exact years of the movement are more difficult to pinpoint and are often disputed. The movement is usually believed to have begun in 1963, when "Mother of the Movement" Betty Friedan published her bestseller, The Feminine Mystique and President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women released its report on gender inequality. The report, which revealed great discrimination against women in American life, along with Friedan's book, which spoke to the discontent of many women (especially housewives), led to the formation of many local, state, and federal government women's groups as well as many independent women's liberation organizations. Friedan was referencing a "movement" as early as 1964.^[14]

The movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965; in 1966 Friedan joined other women and men to found the National Organization for Women.

Amongst the most significant legal victories of the movement after the formation of NOW were a 1967 Executive Order extending full Affirmative Action rights to women, Title IX and the Women's Educational Equity Act (1972 and 1974, respectively, educational equality), Title X (1970, health and family planning), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974), the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the illegalization of marital rape (although not illegalized in all states until 1993^[15]), the legalization of no-fault divorce (although not allowed in all states until 2010 ^[16]), a 1975 law requiring the U.S. Military Academies to admit women, and many Supreme Court cases, perhaps most notably Reed v. Reed of 1971 and Roe v. Wade of 1973. However, the changing of social attitudes towards women is usually considered the greatest success of the women's movement.

By the early 1980s, it was largely perceived that women had met their goals and succeeded in changing social attitudes towards gender roles, repealing oppressive laws that were based on sex, integrating the "boys' clubs" such as Military academies, the United States armed forces, NASA, single-sex colleges, men's clubs, and the Supreme Court, and illegalizing gender discrimination. However, in 1982 adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution failed, three states short of ratification.

Second-wave feminism was largely successful, with the failure of the ratification of the ERA the only major legislative defeat. Efforts to ratify it have continued, and twenty-one states now have ERAs in their state constitutions. Furthermore, many women's groups are still active and are major political forces. As of 2011^[update], more women earn bachelor's degrees than men,^[17] half of the Ivy League presidents are women, the numbers of women in government and traditionally male-dominated fields have dramatically increased, and in 2009 the percentage of women in the American workforce temporarily surpassed that of men.^[18] The salary of the average American woman has also increased over time, although as of 2008 it is only 77% of the average man's salary.^[19] Whether this is due to discrimination is very hotly disputed; feminist groups maintain that it is.

View on popular culture

Second-wave feminists viewed popular culture as sexist, and created pop culture of their own to counteract this. Artist Helen Reddy’s song “I Am Woman” played a large role in popular culture and became a feminist anthem; Reddy came to be known as a "feminist poster girl" or a "feminist icon." ^[20] “One project of second wave feminism was to create ‘positive’ images of women, to act as a counterweight to the dominant images circulating in popular culture and to raise women’s consciousness of their oppressions." (Arrow, Michelle. 2007).

Timeline of key events

The rise of the second-wave

1953

• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (1949) translated from French to English (with some of its text excised).

1960

• The Food and Drug Administration approves the combined oral contraceptive pill. It is made available in 1961.

1961

• President Kennedy makes women's rights a key issue of the New Frontier, and names women (such as Esther Peterson) to many high-ranking posts in his administration.
• Kennedy establishes a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt and comprising cabinet officials (including Peterson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy), senators, representatives, businesspeople, psychologists, sociologists, professors, activists, and public servants.
• 50,000 women in 60 cities, mobilized by Women Strike for Peace, protest above ground testing of nuclear bombs and tainted milk.
• Helen Gurley Brown writes Sex and the Single Girl.

1963

• The Commission's report finds discrimination against women in every aspect of American life and outlines plans to achieve equality. Specific recommendations for women in the workplace include fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable childcare.
• Twenty years after it is first proposed, the Equal Pay Act establishes equality of pay for men and women performing equal work. However, it does not cover domestics, agricultural workers, executives, administrators or professionals.
• Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is published, becomes a best-seller, and lays the groundwork for the feminist movement.
• Alice Rossi presents "Equality Between the Sexes: An Immodest Proposal" at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences conference.

1964

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employment discrimination on account of sex, race, etc. by private employers, employment agencies, and unions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is established; in its first five years, 50,000 complaints of gender discrimination are received.

1965

• Casey Hayden and Mary King circulate a memo about sexism in Civil Rights Movement.
• The Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut strikes down the only remaining state law banning the use of contraceptives by married couples.
• The case Weeks v. Southern Belle marks a major triumph in the fight against restrictive labor laws and company regulations on the hours and conditions of women’s work, opening many previously male-only jobs to women.
• The "Woman Question" is raised for the first time at a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) conference.
• EEOC commissioners are appointed to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Among them there is only one woman, Aileen Hernandez, a future president of NOW.

1966

• Twenty-eight women, among them Betty Friedan, found the National Organization for Women (NOW) to function as a civil rights organization for women. Betty Friedan becomes its first president. The group is the largest women's group in the U.S. and pursues its goals through extensive legislative lobbying, litigation, and public demonstrations.

1967

• Valerie Solanas writes and publishes "SCUM Manifesto".
• Executive Order 11375 expands President Johnson's 1965 affirmative action policy to cover discrimination based on sex, resulting in federal agencies and contractors taking active measures to ensure that all women as well as minorities have access to educational and employment opportunities equal to white males.
• Women’s liberation groups begin springing up all over the nation.
• NOW begins petitioning the EEOC to end sex-segregated want ads and adopts a Bill of Rights for Women.
• Senator Eugene McCarthy introduces the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the US Senate.
• New York Radical Women is formed by Shulamith Firestone and Pam Allen.
• Anne Koedt organizes "consciousness raising" groups.
• The National Welfare Rights Organization is formed.

From Miss America to Ms.: Sisterhood is Powerful

1968

• Robin Morgan leads members of New York Radical Women to protest the Miss America Pageant of 1968, which they decried as sexist and racist.
• The first national women's liberation conference is held in Lake Villa, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.
• The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded by Betty Friedan and others.
• Coretta Scott King assumes leadership of the African-American Civil Rights Movement following the death of her husband, and expands the movement's platform to include women's rights. Shirley Chisholm is elected to the United States Congress that same year, the first black congresswoman.
• The EEOC rules sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers illegal, a ruling which is upheld in 1973 by the Supreme Court. Women now are able to apply for higher-paying jobs previously opened only to men.
• New York feminists bury a dummy of "Traditional Womanhood" at the all-women's Jeanette Rankin Brigade demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C.
• For the first time, feminists use the slogan "Sisterhood is Powerful."
• The first public speakout against abortion laws is held in New York City.
• Notes from the First Year, a women's liberation theoretical journal, is published by the New York Radical Women.
• NOW celebrates Mother's Day with the slogan "Rights, Not Roses".
• Mary Daly, professor of theology at Boston College, publishes a scathing criticism of the Catholic Church's view and treatment of women entitled "The Church and the Second Sex."
• Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol^[21]

1969

• The radical organization, Redstockings, organizes.
• Members of Redstockings disrupt a hearing on abortion laws of the New York Legislature when the panel of witnesses turns out to be 14 men and a nun. The groups demands repeal, not reform, of abortion laws.
• Redstockings popularizes slogans such as "Sisterhood is Powerful", and "The Personal is Political" which become buzzwords of the feminist movement.
• California adopts a "no fault" divorce law which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent. It is the first state to do so; by 2010 every state has adopted a similar law. Legislation is also passed regarding equal division of common property.

1970

• Kate Millett publishes her book, Sexual Politics.
• Germaine Greer publishes her book. The Female Eunuch.
• Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co., a U.S. Court of Appeals rules jobs held by men and women must be "substantially equal" but not "identical" to fall under the protection of the Equal Pay Act. It is therefore illegal for employers to change the job titles of women workers in order to pay them less than men.
• Sisterhood Is Powerful, An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement edited by Robin Morgan is published.
• The women's health book Our Bodies first published as a newsprint booklet for 35 cents.
• A Ladies' Home Journal sit-in protests "women's magazines" as sexist.
• The North American Indian Women's Association is founded.
• Chicana feminists found Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional.
• Toni Cade publishes The Black Woman.
• On August 26, the 50th anniversary of woman suffrage in the U.S., tens of thousands of women across the nation participate in the Women's Strike for Equality, organized by Betty Friedan, to demand equal rights.^[22]
• Feminist leader Bella Abzug is elected to Congress, famously declaring "A woman's place is in the House".
• President Richard Nixon vetoes the Comprehensive Child Development Act, which would have established federally funded childcare centers.
• AFL-CIO meets to discuss the status of women in unions. It endorses the ERA and opposes state protective legislation.
• The Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church allow women to be ordained.
• National Right to Life Committee is established to block the legalization of abortion.

1971

• "I Am Woman," was a popular song performed by Australian singer Helen Reddy, became an enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement, was published.
• Every president has published a proclamation for Women's Equality Day since 1971 when legislation was first introduced in Congress by Bella Abzug. This resolution was passed designating August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day:

The full text of resolution reads:

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971 Designating August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26 of each year is designated as "Women's Equality Day," and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women's rights took place.

1972

• Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin co-founded Ms. magazine^[23][24]

The ERA

1972

• The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced into the U.S. Congress and is passed by Congress with few members voting against it; it is then sent to the states for ratification.

The amendment reads:

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

• President Ford, in support for the Equal Rights Amendment, issued Presidential Proclamation 4383"

"In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.

Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day."

• In Eisenstadt v. Baird the Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy includes the right to use contraceptives even if unmarried.
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, passed by Congresswoman Patsy Mink of Hawaii, states "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." This revolutionary legislation ended sex descrimination in high schools and colleges.
• The National Women's Political Caucus is founded by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Myrlie Evers, several congresswomen, including Shirley St. Hill Chisholm and Bella Abzug, several heads of national organizations, and others who shared the vision of gender equality. Steinem delivers her Address to the Women of America.
• Headed and edited by journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine becomes an independent publication, and is considered the magazine of the feminist movement. (It was originally published in New York Magazine, for which Steinem was a columnist.)
• With the majority of feminists being pro-choice advocates of the legalization of abortion, pro-life women form the organization Feminists for Life to counter them.
• Shirley Chisholm (see "1968") runs for the Democratic Party's nomination for President, the first African American and second woman to run for a major party's nomination. She was the first woman to win primaries in a Presidential election.
• The first battered women's shelter opens in the U.S., in Urbana, Illinois, founded by Cheryl Frank and Jacqueline Flenner.
• New York Radical Feminists hold a series of speakouts and a conference on rape and women's treatment by the criminal justice system.
• Feminist Women's Health Center founded in Los Angeles by Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman.
• Congress passes Senator and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's bill establishing the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. The program is made permanent in 1975.

1973

• After defeating Margaret Court in a tennis match, Bobby Riggs declares that men are superior to women, and calls Billie Jean King to The Battle of the Sexes tennis match, in which King easily defeats Riggs, leading to the celebration of feminists everywhere. The Battle of the Sexes remains the most watched tennis match in the history of the world.
• Argued by attorney Sarah Weddington (and earlier, Linda Coffee) the Supreme Court of the United States rules 7-2 in Roe v. Wade that laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional. States are constitutionally allowed to place regulations on abortion which fall short of prohibition after the first trimester.
• Battered women's shelters open in the United States in Tucson, Arizona and Saint Paul, Minnesota.
• The Supreme Court holds that sex-segregated help wanted ads are illegal. (See "1968")
• Puerto Rican women hold their first conference.
• In San Francisco, California, Margo St. James organizes Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) to improve working conditions of prostitutes.
• Phyllis Schlafly attacks the Equal Rights Amendment in her newsletter and forms the STOP ERA organization.

1974

• The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination in consumer credit practices on the basis of sex, race, marital status, religion, national origin, age, or receipt of public assistance.
• In Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that employers cannot justify paying women lower wages because that is what they traditionally received under the "going market rate." A wage differential occurring "simply because men would not work at the low rates paid women" is unacceptable.
• First Lady Betty Ford moves to the front of the feminist movement as she talks candidly about her pro-choice views and feminist stances. A moderate Republican, Mrs. Ford actively lobbies state legislatures to ratify the ERA, earining the ire of conservatives, who dub her "No Lady".
• Mexican-American Women's National Association is formed as a Latinas feminist organization.
• Over 1,000 colleges are now offering women's studies courses (with 80 having full programs) and 230 women's centers on college campuses provide support services for female students.
• Elaine Noble becomes the first openly gay candidate elected to a state legislature. She was elected in Massachusetts.
• Coalition of Labor Union Women founded.^[25]

"Every layer of society"

1975

• Taylor v. Louisiana makes it illegal to exclude women from juries.^[26]
• The U.N. sponsors the First International Conference on Women in Mexico City.
• For the first time, federal employees' salaries can be garnished for child support and alimony.
• The National Right to Life PAC organized to stop women from obtaining abortions.
• Phyllis Schlafly organizes her Eagle Forum as an alternative to "women's lib". The forum favors support of school prayer, law and order, and a strong national defense. It opposes busing, federally funded childcare, and abortion.
• Tish Sommers, chair of NOW's Older Women Task Force, coins the phrase "displaced homemaker".
• Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will, claiming the ubiquity of rape, is published. She later becomes one of TIME's "Women of the Year" (see below).
• NOW sponsors "Alice Doesn't" Day, and asks women across the country to go on strike for one day.
• Joan Little, who was raped by a guard while in jail, is acquitted of murdering her offender. The case establishes a precedent for killing as self-defense against rape.
• In New York City, the first women's bank opens.
• United States armed forces opens its military academies to women.^[26]
• Time declares: "[F]eminism has transcended the feminist movement. In 1975 the women's drive penetrated every layer of society, matured beyond ideology to a new status of general — and sometimes unconscious — acceptance." The Time Person of the Year award goes to American Women, celebrating the successes of the feminist movement.^[27]

1976

• The first marital rape law is enacted in Nebraska, making it illegal for a husband to rape his wife.
• Congresswoman Barbara Charline Jordan of Texas, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress from the former Confederate States of America, who had received widespread recognition as a key member of the House Judiciary Committee during President Nixon's impeachment, delivers the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention. She is the first black and first woman to address the convention as a keynote speaker, famously declaring that what was different and special about that night was that "I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker".
• Redbook polls its readers about sexual harassment. Ninety percent of young women view the situation as serious.
• A bill that defines a "person" as "a human being" from the moment of fertilization is signed by Louisiana's governor.
• ERAmerica is launched to promote the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
• The Organization of Pan Asian American Women forms for women of Asian and Pacific American Islander descent.
• Supreme Court decision agrees with General Electric that the company's failure to cover pregnancy-related disability is not discriminatory.
• Both the House and Senate pass the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal Medicaid money for abortions.
• Many professional and women's organizations decide to boycott those states that have not passed the ERA and to hold their conferences elsewhere; the pressure is on for states to ratify the amendment before the 1979 deadline.

1977

• The Canadian Human Rights Act is passed, prohibiting discrimination based on characteristics including sex and sexual orientation, and requiring "equal pay for work of equal value."
• First Lady Rosalynn Smith Carter takes an active role in government, heading policy proposals and sitting in on cabinet meetings, as more women serve in White House staff positions and in the U.S. Cabinet than ever before.
• The First National Women's Conference is held in Houston, Texas. Women from all over the country, 20,000 in all, gather to pass a far-reaching National Plan of Action.
• The National Association of Cuban-American Women formed.
• The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is established.
• Eleanor Smeal, president of NOW, demands that homemakers should have their own Social Security accounts.
• The American Civil Liberties Union asks the Rhode Island Supreme Court to allow women to use their own names, rather than that of their husbands.
• The first women pilots of the United States Air Force graduate.

1978

• For the first time in the history of the United States, more women than men enter college.
• The Oregon v. Rideout decision leads to many states allowing prosecution for marital and cohabitation rape.^[28]
• The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women, stating a woman cannot be fired or denied a job or a promotion because she is or may become pregnant, nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work.
• ERA's deadline arrives with the ERA still three state short of ratification; Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman leads a successful bill to extend the ERA's deadline to 1982.

1979

• Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The 1980s

In the U.S., the 1980s were marked by a decline of the second wave.

The second wave began in this decade in Turkey^[29] and in Israel.^[30]

1981

• President Jimmy Carter proclaims the first "National Women's History Week," incorporating March 8, International Women's Day.^[31]
• Ronald Reagan, who opposes the ERA, is inaugurated as President.
• Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman nominated to the Supreme Court; she is unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.
• Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick becomes the first female United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

1982

• Canadian feminist groups succeed in having equality of the sexes enshrined as a core principle in the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• The ERA fails to be ratified, with only three more states needed to ratify it; Reagan establishes a commission to find ways to ensure equality without an ERA.

Post-feminism in the 1980s

• In the case R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down section 287 of the Criminal Code, which had made abortion illegal.
• France passes the "equality of man and woman" law in 1983.
• In 1986 in Japan, the Women's Bureau of the Ministry of Labor enacted an equal employment opportunity law.
• Twenty-two states add Equal Rights Amendments to their state constitutions and the ERA campaign continues to this day; most supporters hold that the ERA can still be added to the Constitution if ratified by three remaining states.
• New opportunities arise for females as a generation of women become lawyers, corporate executives, doctors, professors, scientists, politicians, members of the military, and astronauts.

• In politics the U.S. saw not only its first female UN Ambassador and Supreme Court Justice, but its first female Transportation Secretary and U.S. Coast Guard Chief-Elizabeth Hanford Dole and, in 1984, the first woman nominated by a major American political party for Vice President of the United States, Democratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of New York. Also, a handful of women served the Reagan and Bush cabinets and in the U.S. Congress.

Education

Title IX

Coeducation

One debate which developed in the United States during this time period revolved around the question of coeducation. Most men's colleges in the United States adopted coeducation, often by merging with women's colleges. In addition, some women's colleges adopted coeducation, while others maintained a single-sex student body.

Seven Sisters Colleges

Two of the Seven Sister colleges made transitions during and after the 1960s. The first, Radcliffe College, merged with Harvard University. Beginning in 1963, students at Radcliffe received Harvard diplomas signed by the presidents of Radcliffe and Harvard and joint commencement exercises began in 1970. The same year, several Harvard and Radcliffe dormitories began swapping students experimentally and in 1972 full co-residence was instituted. The departments of athletics of both schools merged shortly thereafter. In 1977, Harvard and Radcliffe signed an agreement which put undergraduate women entirely in Harvard College. In 1999 Radcliffe College was dissolved and Harvard University assumed full responsibility over the affairs of female undergraduates. Radcliffe is now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Women's Studies at Harvard University.

The second, Vassar College, declined an offer to merge with Yale University and instead became coeducational in 1969.

The remaining Seven Sisters decided against coeducation. Mount Holyoke College engaged in a lengthy debate under the presidency of David Truman over the issue of coeducation. On November 6, 1971, "after reviewing an exhaustive study on coeducation, the board of trustees decided unanimously that Mount Holyoke should remain a women's college, and a group of faculty was charged with recommending curricular changes that would support the decision."^[32] Smith College also made a similar decision in 1971.^[33]

In 1969, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College (then all male) developed a system of sharing residential colleges. When Haverford became coeducational in 1980, Bryn Mawr discussed the possibly of coeducation as well, but decided against it.^[34] In 1983, Columbia University began admitting women after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College for a merger along the lines of Harvard and Radcliffe (Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia since 1900, but it continues to be independently governed). Wellesley College also decided against coeducation during this time.

Mississippi University for Women

In 1982, in a 5–4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan that the Mississippi University for Women would be in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause if it denied admission to its nursing program on the basis of gender. Mississippi University for Women, the first public or government institution for women in the United States, changed its admissions policies and became coeducational after the ruling.^[35]

In what was her first opinion written for the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor stated, "In limited circumstances, a gender-based classification favoring one sex can be justified if it intentionally and directly assists members of the sex that is disproportionately burdened." She went on to point out that there are a disproportionate number of women who are nurses, and that denying admission to men "lends credibility to the old view that women, not men, should become nurses, and makes the assumption that nursing is a field for women a self-fulfilling prophecy."^[36]

In the dissenting opinions, Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Warren E. Burger, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist suggested that the result of this ruling would be the elimination of publicly supported single-sex educational opportunities. This suggestion has proven to be accurate as there are no public women's colleges in the United States today and, as a result of United States v. Virginia, the last all-male public university in the United States, Virginia Military Institute, was required to admit women. The ruling did not require the university to change its name to reflect its coeducational status and it continues a tradition of academic and leadership development for women by providing liberal arts and professional education to women and men.^[37]

Mills College

On May 3, 1990, the Trustees of Mills College announced that they had voted to admit male students.^[38] This decision led to a two-week student and staff strike, accompanied by numerous displays of non-violent protests by the students.^[39][40] At one point, nearly 300 students blockaded the administrative offices and boycotted classes.^[41] On May 18, the Trustees met again to reconsider the decision,^[42] leading finally to a reversal of the vote.^[43]

Other colleges

Pembroke College merged with Brown University. Sarah Lawrence College declined an offer to merge with Princeton University, becoming coeducational in 1969. Connecticut College also adopted coeducation during the late 1960s. Wells College, previously with a student body of women only, became co-educational in 2005. Douglass College, part of Rutgers University was the last publicly funded women's only college until 2007 when it became coed.

See also

• American philosophy
• Feminism in 1950s Britain
• Feminist Sex Wars
• First-wave feminism
• History of feminism
• PaVEM
• Pro-life feminism
• Third-wave feminism

References

Further reading

• Boxer, Marilyn J. Jean H. Quataert, and Joan W. Scott, eds. Connecting Spheres: European Women in a Globalizing World, 1500 to the Present (2000),
• Cott, Nancy. No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States (2004)
• Freedman, Estelle B. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (2003)
• MacLean, Nancy. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents (2008)
• Offen, Karen; Pierson, Ruth Roach; and Rendall, Jane, eds. Writing Women's History: International Perspectives (1991)
• Prentice, Alison and Trofimenkoff, Susan Mann, eds. The Neglected Majority: Essays in Canadian Women's History (2 vol 1985)
• Ramusack, Barbara N., and Sharon Sievers, eds. Women in Asia: Restoring Women to History (1999)
• Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (2nd ed. 2006)
• Roth, Benita. Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Stansell, Christine. The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present (2010)
• Thébaud, Françoise. "Writing Women's and Gender History in France: A National Narrative?" Journal of Women's History, Spring 2007, Vol. 19 Issue 1, pp 167–172.
• Zophy, Angela Howard, ed. Handbook of American Women's History (2nd ed. 2000)

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