Status of Women

Report Outline
Womens's Drive for Equal Opportunity
Women in Employment, Education, Politics
Issues and Portents for Equal Rights
Special Focus

Womens's Drive for Equal Opportunity

Revival of Feminist Fervor Through ‘Women's Lib’

Any celebration of the 50th anniversary of woman's suffrage in the United States must necessarily be tempered by the realization that the status of women in American society still has a long way to go to reach par with that of men. It was on Aug. 26. 1920. that Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby proclaimed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting women the right to vote. Eight days earlier, on Aug. 18, Tennessee had become the 36th state to ratify and thus validate the amendment. Postal officials will acknowledge the historic occasion by issuing on Aug. 26 a commemorative stamp in a special ceremony at Adams. Mass., birthplace of suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony.

More indicative of the anniversary mood, however, is the emergence of the women's liberation movement I “Women's Lib”), bent on finishing the job the suffragists began more than a century ago. Whether or not many women stage a strike or otherwise demonstrate for their rights on Aug. 26, as called for by Now (National Organization for Women) and endorsed by a number of other women's groups, the evidence will still point to a heightened militancy in the continuing struggle to elevate the status of women in American life.

It is a mistake to judge the strength of the new rise of feminism by the relatively small number of women who physically storm male sanctuaries or shout obscenities at male reporters. They are only the outer edge of mounting impatience among women against the secondary role which society has assigned to their sex. Like the Black Panther Party in its relationship to the Negro population, the few militant women awaken deeply buried feelings within large numbers of other women who never before consciously thought of themselves as oppressed.