Women's Rights Movement- Cooper Cornell

Women's Rights- 
The movement starts with women's desire for equal economic opportunities including equal pay and rights to male workers. At the time the movement is starting, women are not allowed to open bank accounts or start businesses. The National Organization of Women is founded in order to push for the amendment making economic equality between genders. Due to the amendment it is now illegal to discriminate based on gender in the workplace. At the time everyone viewed women as wives who take care of the house and kids. Even the president, John F. Kennedy, joked about women's rights and viewed them as house wives. One of the first methods women took to change the societal norms was through publishing books. The first book that questioned the societal views on women was called The Feminine Mystique. At the time Hugh Hefner, a billionaire, had started a company that set up clubs with scantily dressed women called Playboy bunnies. At these clubs women would be used as sex symbols for the entertainment of men. One journalist went undercover as a Playboy Bunny in order to expose the discrimination in an article. As a result, Hugh Hefner changed the working conditions of his female workers. During the time women were supposed to marry and have kids, however one woman wrote a book about being a single woman who had sex with whomever she pleased and used birth control to prevent pregnancy. This book helped spread and idea of female freedom and individualism to women across the nation. Even TV shows such as That Girl show independent women as main characters that are free to make their own decisions. This idea of sexual liberation become one of the main concepts behind the movement. Similar to the methods of the Civil Rights Movement, women are trying to break attention to the cause and the discrimination towards them. They are bringing the oppression to light in order to achieve more rights and freedoms as equals to their male counterparts.