Women’s Right Movement in the U.S: Timeline of Events (1960-1969)

1960 | The Food and Drug Administration approve birth control pills. | 1961 | White women earn 60 cents for every dollar earned by men, a decline since the 1950s. Women of color earn 42 cents for every dollar. | 1964 | Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race and sex. | 1969 | California is the first state to adopt a ’’no fault’’ divorce law, allowing couples to divorce by mutual consent. By 1985, all U.S. states have adopted similar laws |

The long journey to achieving women rights has been taking place for many years. Since the beginning of time, staggering changes have taken place for women in society. These are changes in the government, religion, politics and employment. These changes did not just happen by themselves; they resulted from the hard work of many dedicated women who refused to give up. These major changes in women’s rights begin approximately 165 years ago. Although there have been many major events in the women’s movement, below is a timeline of four major events that I believe to significant. These events are all interrelated in the sense that they helped to liberate women and provided them with the opportunity to make choices about their futures and their destinies. In other words, they liberate women who had traditionally been trapped into predetermined social roles of motherhood and housewives to make choices for them especially concerning when to have a family. With the approval of birth control, women now had the opportunity to decide when to have children and how many they should have. With this came authority to pursue other options with their lives such as education and careers. This gave women a renewed sense of perspective.

There was still much inequality in the workforce when it came to pay and securing employment. I listed the 1961 income discrepancies between women, women of color, and men; and as you can see, there was a huge difference in pay. This began a major struggle for equality that fell under the equal opportunity umbrella that passes in 1964 which made it illegal for employers to discriminate against women. This meant that women were to receive equal wages for equal work. Unfortunately employers quickly escape around this, but women did receive more equality with the passing of this law. As well, they received more opportunities for employment which led to them being able to support themselves, upward mobility, and status in the community based on their own reputation and not the reputation of their husbands. The last one that is listed in the timeline is the passing of the no fault divorce law. Prior to this, many women were trapped in bad or abusive marriages simply because they did not have the grounds to file for one. The passing of this law made it much easier for these women to get out of a bad situation and liberate themselves from oppressive or abusive conditions. This empowered many women to again feel a sense of strength and equality and be able to determine their destiny for themselves and not allow a man to do it for them.