Occupylsx

Women’s strike in the U.S.

The action, marking the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote, was conceived by Betty Friedan, a famous second wave feminist who wrote the bestseller “The Enigma of Femininity”. The activists of NOW (National Organization for Women) took over the organization, and although many people doubted the success of this enterprise, the strike on August 26 was mass – several tens of thousands of people took part in the march. The goal of the action was not just to celebrate the anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, but to draw attention to the problems of modern American women: although equal rights existed on paper, in real life women still earned less than men, faced sexist stereotypes and career restrictions, could not legally have abortions, get parental leave and protect themselves from sexual violence.

This action was the culmination of a long struggle by American feminists: the mass strike was preceded by other important speeches. One of them gave rise to the stereotype of “evil feminists who burn bras”: rally participants at the Miss America pageant in 1968 ritually threw away objects symbolizing the objectification of women, among which were bras. The women’s protests of the 1960s and 1970s are the subject of Mary Doer’s documentary She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry, which captures the sisterhood atmosphere and revolutionary spirit that prevailed in NOW. Second-wave feminists were the first to talk openly about sexuality, domestic violence, domestic sexism and taboo topics related to women’s health – and the march of thousands for equality brought these topics to media and government attention.