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The 60s and 70s were turbulent from war to scandals to really

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bad hairdos there was a lot going on nothing else it was definitely a time of

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change out of all this turbulence and change came the feminist movement which [rockstars talking on stage at a concert]

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took root in American society the whole 1950s cult of domesticity was losing

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steam remember that was the thing where women were supposed to stay home and [a woman smiling while being hugged by a man]

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provide nurturing and moral guidance to their family while the male provided

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and protected if that old gem but that old gem was losing its gleam women wanted a

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bigger piece of the action and more of a say in things on a local and national [a woman planting a flag of the USA]

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level they wanted a bigger slice of the pie and they didn't want anyone to

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expect them to bake it one thing was becoming more and more clear women

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particularly in middle-class America were not happy campers sitting at home [a woman looking unhappy sat on a sofa]

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and raising children with only daytime television and neighborhood gossip as

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distractions wasn't cutting it anymore this feminine mystique of blissful [an old TV in the bin]

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domesticity might have looked cool on TV and in magazines but feminist were

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discovering that it wasn't true for the majority of American women which brings

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us to Betty Friedan who wrote The Feminine Mystique in it she argued that [Betty Freidan smiling]

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women had seen a decrease in there rights since World War two with the era of baby

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booming suburbia the book exploded like silverware in the microwave it changed

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the way many women especially the young ones thought about feminine roles on the [a young woman stood outside a mansion]

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other hand many working-class women felt insulted that Freidan idealized working

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outside the home some women just didn't see the appeal and working a [a woman stood outside a factory with a yellow hat]

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soul-sucking job all day though Freidan was probably a wee bit insensitive to the

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harsh lives of working women she had put her finger on something that seemingly

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[a finger squashing an image of a woman at home] no one was willing to talk about life of a so-called happy housewife is often heard

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very unhappy well Friedan gained national attention with her message and

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women across the nation began throwing in their dish cloth for membership in [a woman throwing a dish cloth]

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the National Organization for Women or now and other newly formed women's

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rights groups Friedan helped defend now with the primary goals of ending

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gender-based job discrimination legalizing abortion and getting the

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government to subsidize childcare do you wanted to see women less confined [a woman walking onto the street]

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to the home and more able to make their way in higher education and in the

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workforce now had a hand in ensuring passage of title 9 of the educational

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Amendments Act of 1972 this required colleges to provide equal opportunities [image of the title IX amendments act]

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and programs for female and male students alike and historically male-dominated

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institutions such as Yale and Princeton led the way in encouraging female [women wearing a graduation hat]

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enrollment as the 1970s dawn the women's rights movement became the feminist

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movement it challenged increasingly controversial issues and pushed for

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universal equality among the sexes one thing was for sure though the bad [a woman and man on either side of a balancing scale]

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hairdos were in full effect no matter which bathroom you used

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