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Essay on Women's Movement in the 1960s
In the 1950s women lived in a condition of liminality, a condition in which, having resisted or rejected the roles and expectations of a hegemonic male culture, women found themselves neither altogether here nor there, not one kind of person or another, not this, not that. Rather than viewing such liminality as negative, it can be seen as positive, offering the possibility of self-creation. Liminality is thus closely allied with feminism, broadly defined, in the sense that it permits creativity on both personal and professional levels.
The 1960s saw the rise of the women's movement. It struggled with the issues of difference versus equality in determining public policy; stressed the importance of considering problems to reside not in personal characteristics but in interactions with the environment. Many women began a concerted effort to recognize the movements' constituencies, building on each other's strengths, and learn about each other's concerns. A growing body of literature explored the experience of women who were trying to rely upon and used the movement to address the concerns that sprung most directly from their experiences as women.
The women's movement was spawned by underlying conditions, such as a history of oppression by the purported majority population; denial of civil rights; a neglect of relevant issues by public policymakers; portrayal of stereotypes in popular culture and the news media; and disparate employment rates, wage levels, educational opportunities, and other social and economic indicators. Of course, being members of other minority populations, such as women of color and lesbians, further increases discrimination. Perhaps not surprisingly, this similar experience has created similar issues and goals for the movements, such as civil rights protections; respect by service providers, particularly the medical community; equal employment and educational opportunities; and autonomy in the legal system.Furthermore, the movement has experienced cycles of popularity......
