It Was Fifty Years Ago Today Re-Living 1968 (September)

Friday, Sept. 19, 1968

Just saw “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Fantastic film! Just imagine if it was TRUE that we could become “star children!” Born into a universe of endless time and space with an eternity to learn, expand, grow. Incredible!

Monday, Sept. 22, 1968

My darling Johnny took me to lunch. I’m so lucky to have such a supportive and loving husband!

Friday, Sept. 27, 1968

I’ve been painting again—very organic shapes and somewhat Surrealistic. Have been looking at [Yves] Tanguy. Looking for ambiguity—objects floating and swirling but the space is here, close; there, infinite. I keep re-thinking the imagery of “2001” and wondering how I could incorporate “time” into my painting. Hmmmm…

“Nowhere -everywhere,” by Yves Tanguy

Monday, Sept. 30, 1968

Can’t decide what to do. John is going to a conference in Minneapolis next week and I don’t know whether I should go along or stay here with little Chris. I could leave him with Helen [our usual babysitter] at her farm. He always seems to enjoy visiting her and seeing all the animals. But I don’t want to leave him for five days! I guess I’ll stay home. Not like the conference is in, say, San Francisco…!

And in the larger world…

September 7, 1968

Women’s Liberation groups, joined by members of New York NOW, target the Miss America Beauty Contest in Atlantic City. The protest included theatrical demonstrations including ritual disposal of traditional female roles into the “freedom ashcan.” While nothing was actually set on fire, one organizer’s comment – quoted in the New York Times the next day – that the protesters “wouldn’t do anything dangerous, just a symbolic bra-burning,” lived on in the derogatory term “bra-burning feminist.” This was the event from which the myth of “bra-burning” feminists was created by the press, distorting the early image of the movement.

I became involved with the Women’s Liberation Movement in the early 1960s, although as early as 1955 I had supported organizations such as the Women Against War and other social justice movements. The issue of women’s equality seemed simply obvious to me. Why would anyone question such a statement? But I found that it would take years of hard work to make other people see what to me was indisputable.

An abbreviated women’s liberation movement timeline: 1960-1968
1960 – First birth control pill approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration

1961 – President’s Commission on the Status of Women is formed by John F. Kennedy with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair.

Fifty thousand women in sixty cities, mobilized by Women Strike for Peace, protest above ground testing of nuclear bombs and tainted milk.

Dolores Huerta joins Cesar Chavez as a leader of the National Farm Worker’s Association (later UFW). Jessie Lopez de la Cruz is the first union woman who organizes in the field.

1962 – Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, which exposes the dangers of pesticide use ” helps launch the modern environmental movement. She is subjected to sexist attacks for her work.

1963 – Betty Freidan publishes the Feminine Mystique
Congress passes the Equal Pay Act.
Some 200,000 people rally in Washington, D.C. and hear Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

Terrorist bomb planted by segregationists kills four girls attending Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama.

1964 – Civil Rights Act

The Free Speech Movement at Berkeley launches a sit-in and strike to protest restrictions on student political activity.

1965 – The “Woman Question” is raised for the first time at a Students for Democratic Society (SDS) conference.

First national anti-war protest held in Washington D.C.

In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court strikes down the one remaining state law prohibiting the use of contraceptives

The YWCA of Chicago’s child care program begins with a Head Start program at Chicago’s Coretta Scott King Center.

1966 – Formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW)

1967 – Women’s Liberation groups begin springing up across the country.

Eugene McCarthy introduces the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the US Senate

NY Radical Women formed by Shulie Firestone, Pam Allen and Anne Koedt organizes consciousness raising groups.

Women’s Radical Action Project (WRAP) organizes at the University of Chicago.

1968 – Feminists protest the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic

For the first time, feminists use the slogan “Sisterhood is Powerful.”

First national women’s liberation conference held in Lake Villa, IL.

First issue of the Voice of Women’s Liberation appears with Jo Freeman as the editor.

April 4, 1968: Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated.

June 5, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles.

August 1968: Police attack anti-war protestors at the Democratic National Convention.

For more on the history of the women’s liberation movement go to:

CWLU Herstory Project – A Women’s Liberation Timeline 1960 – 1977

Or A Timeline of The Feminist Movement on Viva.media