As the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches on Jan. 22—and with the the Supreme Court set to revisit women’s fundamental right to access abortion in the Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole case, the most serious threat to abortion since 1992—the Ms. Blog decided to look back at the realities of illegal abortion pre-Roe, and for women today […]
Search Results for: 1970
10 Things American Women Could Not Do Before the 1970s
It turns out that before the 1970s, an American woman could not…
Live-Blogging Women’s History: March 30, 1970
March 30, 1970: The New York State Assembly today came within three votes of replacing the state’s 140-year-old ban on abortions–except those to save the life of the woman–with a bill that would make abortions a matter strictly between a woman and her doctor (through the 24th week of pregnancy). After the State Senate passed […]
Live-Blogging Women’s History: March 18, 1970
March 18, 1970: Just 48 hours after 46 women filed an E.E.O.C. complaint against Newsweek charging sexism, another and far more radical action has been taken against a mainstream media giant. “Never underestimate the power of a woman” is the motto of the Ladies Home Journal, so when more than 100 women occupied its offices […]
Live-Blogging Women’s History: March 16, 1970
March 16, 1970: The publishers of Newsweek now have more confirmation than they might want that their current cover story, “Women in Revolt,” is both accurate and timely. Forty-six women who work for Newsweek announced today that they have filed a complaint against the magazine with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charging sex bias–the first […]
Live-Blogging Women’s History: March 2, 1970
March 2, 1970: In what is hoped will be a major advance for women’s rights, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed for the first time today to hear a case alleging sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The plaintiff is Ida Phillips, who was denied a position as […]
The Vagina Dialogues, Circa 1970
Before there was The Vagina Monologues, there were the pelvic instructors. These women, from Boston’s Women’s Community Health Center, were radical in not only instructing medical students in female sexual anatomy but in also using their own bodies as models. Their short-lived yet highly symbolic program took place from 1975 to 1976 at Harvard Medical […]
Whatever Happened to 1970s Lesbian-Feminism?
A montage of faces–“Women We Remember”–looking at turns impish, contented, self-assured and reflective appeared one after another on a screen. After the slideshow concluded, people in the standing-room-only audience shouted out names of other women they’d lost. As the chorus of voices died down, Sarah Chinn, director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies […]
When Women Went on Strike: Remembering Equality Day, 1970
Bold moves and high-risk strategies have been a feminist tradition since the days of Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony. But on March 20, 1970, when Betty Friedan gave her farewell address as outgoing president of NOW and called for a nationwide women’s strike on August 26 (the 50th anniversary of winning the vote), the […]
Women’s Independence, Credit Cards and Economic Power: Celebrating 50 Years of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) of 1974 enabled women to get credit cards or a mortgage without a co-signer, making it a pivotal milestone for women’s financial independence. The 50th anniversary of ECOA being signed into law by President Gerald Ford fell just a week ahead of the recent presidential election, considered by many to be a referendum on women’s rights in a political climate still reeling from the revocation of Roe. That critical landmark for women’s autonomy was overturned by the Dobbs decision in 2022, one year short of reaching its own half-century observance.
By focusing on women’s independence through the lens of economic power over the last 50 years, a new Smithsonian exhibit—”We Do Declare Women’s Voices on Independence,” commemorating ECOA’s passage—hones in on another essential factor in women’s ability to achieve freedom, security and power: financial independence.