Hylton 1

Ainsley Hylton

Professor A. Hyams

United States History Since 1876

1 May 2020

Primary Source Lab 6

In the late 1900’s the actions of the Civil Rights Movement were beginning to take effect

and the lives of many minorities in the U.S. were beginning to improve financially and socially.

During the 1960’s the wave of strong social activism and protesting, led to more than just

oppressed citizens beginning to fight for equal rights.The LGBTQ community began to persuade

city officials to pass antidiscrimination legislation and The Americans With Disabilities Act of

1990 provided accessibility for people with disabilities. However after the Vietnam War and the

decline of the influence of the Democratic Party, conservative beliefs and ideals were on the rise.

One of the most prevalent of which was the belief that the role of the woman in society was to be

homemaker and wife while men were supposed to be the breadwinners of the household.

Because of this the Equal Rights Amendment proposed by second wave feminists in the 1970’s

which would make the workplace more equal for female workers, was protested against by many

religious conservatives. Even though the majority of people against the ERA were men, there

were still women who were against progress such as Phyliss Schafly who led the charge to defeat

the ERA bill.

The main problem that Schlafly seemed to have with the ERA bill is the fact that it went

against what she believed and what she was used to in America. Shafly believed that due to the

fact that women birth children means they are the ones who should be at home raising them and
 Hylton 2

that men should be the ones who make money to provide for their children. Because the ERA

would encourage more and more women to leave traditional motherhood and move forward into

the workplace leaving behind the expectation of them, Schafly was against it. The main fall out

of logic that Schafly bases her belief on is that the reason she believes that women do not deserve

the policies in the ERA is that because women have always traditionally had the role of

homemaker that nothing should change. However tradition shouldn’t dictate the treatment of

individuals especially if that treatment pushes them into a box where they are treated inferior

than others.