Celebrating Women's History: Celebrating Women - Media Resources

Women begin to question the gender hierarchy particularly in light of their contribution to the civil rights and anti-war movements. President Kennedy initiates a commission on the status of women with Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act bars employers from discriminating on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, or national origin. The Equal Opportunity Commission established to implement the Civil Rights Act begins to hear from women en masse. Activists form the National Organization for Women to pave the way for changes in laws and consciousness. Women enter professional fields in greater numbers but are seldom elected to political office.

The response to early feminist efforts ranges from silence to outrage. Some working-class and African American women express skepticism that this movement has anything to do with them. There are prominent exceptions like Sojourner Truth, a former slave and black anti-slavery activist who is also a feminist. In 1848, 350 women and men attend a women's rights meeting in Seneca Falls, New York to draft a "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions." Women do not gain much ground in their pursuit of the vote, but in terms of other legal rights they do get a more sympathetic hearing.