Women and Liberation

Women and Liberation: Values vary among women

Franklin Whiddon

HIS/145

June 15, 2015

Christy Hawthorne

Women and Liberation: Values vary among women

As the 1968 Miss America Pageant began, a group of protestors gathered outside to protest the crowning of a new American beauty. Though the sixties were already known for protests and struggles for equal rights, this protest had a different agenda than the nation had become accustomed to. The protest of the Miss America Pageant would usher in a new ideology that women no longer wanted to be objectified and viewed based on the customs and norms that centuries of gender specific roles had defined. The protest would remain peaceful but the symbolism of burning bras, makeup, traditional styles of dress, magazines, shoes, and even household cleaning supplies set the stage for change as more women wanted to liberate themselves from traditional roles (Curtis, 1968). However, at the same time only a few blocks away, the first Miss Black America Pageant was also underway yet the same protestors felt there was a need for the beauty of the black woman to be on display. This conflict of interest would serve as the foundation of division within the beliefs and values of women involved in the Women’s Liberation movement.

The early sixties saw a rise in women’s movements as more women were now working outside the home. The very thought of liberation from normality seemed strange to some women but Betty Friedan was instrumental in revealing that the frustrations that many women felt were not isolated but a societal problem (Moss & Thomas, 2013, p. 152). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had even addressed equality among the sexes but as the Act was viewed more as racial equality, little thought or enforcement was given to gender equality. The feminist movement sought to take this battle to the highest courts and demand the freedoms they deserved but disagreements in within the ranks of the Women’s Liberation movement caused...