From the book... . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Paradigm Shift: Women’s Rights – Circa 1960s Debuting in 2007, Emmy Award-Winning pop-culture smash sensation Mad Men haunts Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers with a stunningly vivid portrayal of early 1960’s American gender disparity. As unimaginable as that chasm seems today, it is just 40 years before, in 1922, that women have even gained the basic right to vote in federal elections through the ratification of the 19th Amendment. With the right to vote in hand, sheer math goes to work, and by the time the 1960’s roll around, there are as many eligible women voters as there are men. Change, of some sort, is inevitable. And just like that, on the heels of The Equal Pay Act of 1963, it is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that gives women more than just symbolic change – it alters the landscape forever. Among other things, Title VII provides women (and others) equal rights to white men in the workplace. In doing so, Title VII forever mints formal classifications of Americans into the law, and the public eye. Those historically discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of race, gender, national origin, or religion, are now forged together in the national conscience as groups of people owning civil rights under the law. 500,000 claims are filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the first five years of its existence alone. Over the years, the concept of “civil rights” greatly expands. During the 1960s, African Americans and women work tirelessly to ensure that these new legal rights translate into their every day treatment in all aspects of life. While the Modern Civil Rights Movement is devoted to the advancement of African-Americans, it is the National Organization of Women, and later the Women’s Liberation Movement that take up the fight on behalf of women. “Women’s Lib” becomes the moniker for the women’s rights movement.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 15:36:34 +0000