GENDER

THROUGH THE
1970’S
Daisy, Damaris, Manny, Zack
 Femininity
Women were expected to be the caregiver
and were seen as being more submissive
compared to men. As women began to
gain more freedom over themselves, they
started uprises, speaking out their ideas
and becoming more politically involved.
 QUOTES
“Women’s Brains”
“Women, like it or not, had smaller brains than men and,
therefore, could not equal them in intelligence. This fact,
Broca argued, may reinforce a common prejudice in male
society, but it is also a scientific truth” (Gould 2)

● Smaller brains = not ● This helped prove that

intelligent there was prejudice
against women
 QUOTES
“AIDS has a Woman’s Face”
“The idea that women will have a way of re-asserting control over their own
sexuality, the idea that they will be able to defend their bodily health, the idea
that women will have a course of prevention to follow which results in saving
their lives, the idea that women may have a microbicide which prevents infection
but allows for conception, the idea that women can use microbicides without
bowing to male dictates” (Lewis 3)

● Women could have ● Men do not need to

control over their know that women
bodies have microbicides
 QUOTES
“Roe vs Wade”

“Roe v. Wade, legal case in which ● Huge Breakthrough for

the U.S. Supreme Court on January women's rights
22, 1973, ruled (7–2) that unduly ● Women given right to an
restrictive state regulation of abortion
abortion is unconstitutional.” .

“Post-war Gender Roles and Women in
Politics”
● Women in the workforce
● Single mothers become
more common.
● Shift in family structures.
QUOTES
“By the 1970s, many marriages
involved two careers, as both the
husband and the wife worked and
increasingly shared family duties,
accelerating a trend already well
underway in the post–World War II
period.”
Masculinity
To be considered manly or masculine, men were
expected to go and fight in the war, and provide for
their family. It also meant retaining traditional social
norms as opposed to accepting new changes; this
can be seen with the majority of protests for social
reform were carried out by women and conservative
politics (which was dominated by men) strongly
opposed these new reforms.
 QUOTES
“Being a Man”

“The youth who is subverted, as

most are, into believing in the
masculine ideal is effectively
separated from women and he
spends the rest of his life finding
women a riddle and a nuisance”
(Theroux 2)
 QUOTES
“About men”

“For all the women here who use ‘fragileness’ to Men’s liberation movement:
avoid work or as a sexual ploy, there are men ● Suggested new ideals of
who try to hide theirs, all the while clinging to an masculinity, in which
adolescent dependency on women to cook their men could be more
meals, wash their clothes, and keep the ranch
open with other people,
house warm in winter. But there is true
vulnerability in evidence here” (Ehlrich 8) and more able to
express emotions.
 QUOTES
“American manpower: Work and Masculinity”
“As low men – though not the lowest – on the economic
1973-1975 recession:
totem pole, authority at home was supposed to make up for
● The economy in the
their lack of authority in work and society, but women
1970s experienced
periods of inflation,
leaving the home to work upended that, too. Combined with
the social movements criticizing the white-male-dominated recession, and high
patriarchy, white working-class men felt threatened and unemployment rate.
attacked for circumstances over which they held no power, Many men lost their jobs
while their actual share of power was being eaten away.” and the women had to
fend for the family.
(Joseph 8)
 TIMELINE
1971 1973
Reed v. Reed decision Roe v. Wade
applied a clause

26 AUGUST 1970 22 March 1972 Early 1970s

Women's Strike Day march Eisenstadt v. Baird Men’s liberation
in Washington, D.C. and contraception movement
TIMELINE 1975 1977
Taylor vs. Louisiana on National Women’s
jury service to women conference

1973-1975 1976 1978

Economic recession Planned Parenthood vs Women’s rights parade
increased the unemployment Danforth on abortion and Pregnancy
rate of men. discrimination act
 CONCLUSION
SEPARATION OF CHANGE IN
IDEOLOGIES FEMININITY

CHANGE IN OVERALL IMPACT

MASCULINITY OF THE 70’S