Did the status of ethnic minorities and women change in the 1960’s?

There is little doubt that the 1960’s was a decade that changed American culture in a huge way. Not only did the black community gain large amounts of equality but other minority groups such as Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, the Asian community and although not a minority group Women.

There two main types of feminists in the 1960’s; liberal feminists that aimed to address economic issues and radical feminist who focused on female identity. Arguably the main issue for women was the limited opportunities in the workplace for women. In 1960 there were just 23 million employed women meaning that over sixty percent of women were unemployed. Income was also a big issue as the average income for a man in 1961 was $27000 compared to $15000 for women. In addition women accounted for 79% of unpaid work in America. In terms of female identity, radical feminists such as Ti-Grace Atkinson believed that heterosexual relationships were patriarchal and led to women being submissive. Therefore Atkinson advocated celibacy or lesbianism which received success in that it promoted gay rights campaigns in the late sixties.

In 1966 the National Organisation for Women (NOW) was formed and aimed to achieve “truly equal partnership with men.” NOW was the biggest feminist group and primary aim was to focus on employment by lobbying Johnson’s government in the mid-sixties. This resulted in a number of victories such as the signing of executive order outlawing sexual discrimination in a state run company. In addition Title VII of the 1964 civil rights act was passed which protected women. In this sense the status of women did change in the 1960’s. On the other hand neither the executive order nor Title VII achieved equal pay for women and the gap between men and women’s pay worsened in the 1960’s. Feminist also