University of North Carolina at check hill professor teaches a class about expanding rights in the 1960s and 70s. Looking at womens grecian and the gay rights movement. He covers Birth Control, the equal rights amendment and the stonewall riots. I want to start with a little story. Woman sherry, which is a pseudonym, was featured in a life magazine article. The story was about a choice that her family was facing. She was pregnant. Her husband had recently traveled to europe where he acquired a drug called thought of mind. Thalidomide had not been approved for use in the United States of america but it was approved in european countries. Anxiety, insomnia, nausea. Nausea is key. Women began taking it to relieve morning sickness. Her husband had been in europe. He acquired these pills and brought them back home for her. She was pregnant, she takes about 40 of them in her pregnancy. She and her husband did not know that thalidomide causes birth defects. Then she read an article about the drug, found out more, and called the doctor. She wanted to learn more about what the little light can do. Children, babies, thalidomide caused brain damage, damage the eyes, nose, years and severely damaged growth of limbs. Cases, the children affected by thalidomide did not survive at all. In england, about half of the thalidomide babies died within a few months. Around 10,000 of these children were born in total. Mostly in western europe. This is an incredibly dangerous drug and later it was banned. Has four here, she children. She calls her doctor to learn whether drug can do and her doctor says come on in. She goes in and he starts to show her pictures of these children who had been born to mothers who had taken the drug. She said she remembered feeling like someone telling you your child has been run over like run over by a truck. Her doctor recommended an abortion which was only legal in cases that might affect the mothers life at that point in time. She and her family are faced with a choice. Knowingave the child that her life might be incredible difficult, provide an enormous financial and emotional burden for you and your other children and that the child might not survive past a few months, or follow the doctor suggestion and having an abortion . She said, naturally i had misgivings. There is life there. I have the right to take it . But is it like when you cant dress yourself, run, walk, dance, play games . If i had no choice, i would have the baby, but i have a way to prevent this tragedy. Something happened here that remove that choice. A panel of doctors said that she could not have an abortion in the state of arizona. At the end of the day, that meant that she had to leave the country if she wanted to have the procedure. Ultimately, the details here are not as important as the broader concept, that the choice was not hers and her familys to make. It was the panel of doctors who got to make the choice. This is at the heart of the issue of much of what we are going to talk about today. Who gets to make that sort of a choice and how that changes. That choice is incredibly difficult, that moral and ethical choice will be made by the family, by the doctor, by a team of doctors, the government or people that dont even know the family . To tell you how to make that choice or who should make it. Every family, their doctor, certainly there god. Im going to talk about how that changed in the United States of america. That is much of what we are going to do today. Of course this was part of a broader rights revolution that fundamentally changed American Society in the 1950s and 1970s. We havent talking about rights in the class and we are going to throw a crescendo with this rights revolution. One last major change here. One of the big difference between this in the Civil Rights Movement is this is a movement that is calling on the expansion of what rights actually are. In the Civil Rights Movement, it was largely about rights that were already guaranteed to africanamericans that were not being enforced. About that. Ly this is about asking the constitution to be expanded. To consider a different kind of right. That is what well talk about today. I have a generic 60s collage. The 60s were a complex decade. They are famous and remembered in a particular way. When youre think of the 60s before this class, what do you about . What . Do you think comes to mind for civil rights. Civil rights, obviously a huge part. The assassination of john f. Kennedy. The sexual revolution. Again, i teach a class on the 60s but we are going to try to cover that here in the next 40 minutes or so. Speaking. s generally a big misconception is that it was revolution and chaos for everybody all the time. It was certainly not. For many americans, the 1960s are basically this, a continuation of the 1950s. Especially the early 1960s. It is an area of asperity. The median Family Income was 5,300. It is an error of security, upward mobility, social economic class and there is high employment. The endpoint was 4. 8 . For women, it was 5. 4 . Consumerism and youth culture, suburban growth, rock and roll. When we think about the 1960s, people might think about woodstock as a major cultural event. The counterculture didnt have anything on the actual cultural flashpoints that most people experience. The three highest grossing films of the 1960s, the sound of music, 101 dalmatians and the jungle book. You have seen many of those movies. Disney dominates the 1960s because of all the baby boomers going out to the movies. A lot more salt the sound of music man went to woodstock. Of course, the 1950s did not work for everyone. The 50s were good for many but had problems from many other people. Crow, limitations, jim segregation in the north. Poverty come as we have talked about. 1 5 of americans lived in poverty. Gender limitations. This is one we will lean into today. Women did not have the same opportunities as men for employment and social advancement. Their unique disadvantages that women faced but also conformity, boredom. The 1960s were characterized with a incredible sense of optimism and hope. The sense of optimism is incredible. People from all walks of life, even the most disadvantaged people, for black southerners who had never had Voting Rights, are so hopeful because of americas place in the world and the rhetoric of its leaders. Lines from famous the 1960s were dripping in this sense of hope. Dc, f. Kennedy, washington, i do believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith and devotion will light our country and all who serve it and the glow from that fire can light the world. The expansiveness of that optimism. Martin luther king jr. , perhaps the most hopeful speech in American History. I have a dream that my children will one day lead in a nation where they will be not judged the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted in every hill shall be laid low. The crooked places will be made straight in the glory of the lord shall be revealed. That is an incredible sense of optimism that many people share. We have had these moments where we fixed some of these issues and we will dig in on a new one today. A couple weeks ago, we were talking about the Civil Rights Movement and how that works. The nonviolent court needing committee, Voting Rights act. Jim crow is dead. Killed in the mid1960s. A system that had existed since the new south. Black southerners could vote. Civilrights movement did not solve all racial problems but it did fundamentally change the nation. Poverty. Treat society. Equal opportunity act, medicare and medicaid help people that are susceptible to falling into deep debt because of health care costs. Housing grants, Higher Education act. The poverty rate declines rapidly in the 1960s. The groups, it is definitive moment for the decline of poverty. People receive job training. It remains an enormous part of the society. Great society did not end poverty. Of course, that is one criticism of it. At the end of the day, we have never gotten back to poverty like that. We have some solutions already. Whats look at some other issues. One that we will focus on our gender limitations. Especially limitations for women. We talked about this in the 1950s, after the midterms. Womens domestic roles, you remember the kitchen debate. Remember mr. Nixon and nikita khrushchev. What is up with women in the kitchen . , talking about how it america the womans place was in the and it described and identity in the household. It also focused on how it america women are able to offer children a safe place. That ae is this notion womans place is in the kitchen with the children and as benign as that might seem in some Television Shows and all that, there were real serious results. There were serious problems. Sheer sexism. A lot of people believe that women lack the intelligence or emotional stability to perform any of the same jobs. That women need a man to take care of them and manage broader parts of their lives. Also, they really dont have a broader role in society outside of those children and the kitchen. So they have real consequences here. It is not just a moderate inconvenience. It is real discrimination that when its limits womens freedom and affects the potential of their lives. In 1960, Credit Card Company could refuse to give a woman a credit card because she was a woman. If you have a credit card in your pocket today, that was not always the case. Women could not serve injuries in every state. You could not get Birth Control in every state. A woman could be fired for becoming pregnant. Women could not go to Ivy League Law schools. Opportunities that all the men who go to the schools get that women are blocked from. All those career paths. It is not a meritocracy. There are no women allowed. Women did not receive the same pay for the same work of course. Legaly states, women by definition could not be raped by their spouses and they could not divorce their husbands. That means that legally many women did not have recourse for a bad or dangerous marriage. They were at a severe financial disadvantage if they tried to leave the marriage and couldnt get a credit card or a job. Any people were trapped. Then of course, who gets into law school, who gets to become a doctor, who gets promoted. Just a general sexism that limited womens ability to rise in society. Of course many women, especially when we had this generational shift, baby boomers being told there are endless possibilities, they want better lives. They dont want these restrictions on their lives. In response to these limitations, progressive women launched a Civil Rights Movement of their own. Largely understood and called second wave feminism. Also referred to as womens liberation movement. We often collect second wave feminism, because the first wave occurred during the progressive era. Talked about the changes in the 1910s. Second wave feminism is inspired by the Civil Rights Movement. Civilrights movement inspired a whole host of movements after it. People see what people like martin at the king junior are doing and they say, were going to launch similar movements. They use the same tactics. Sit ins, boycotts, marches. In fact, leaders were part of the Civil Rights Movement for joining womens liberation. Course, the idea of rights here is different. One thing different is that they seek to expand the idea of rights. Not just say be true to what you set on paper like Martin Luther king jr. Said, but actually, these are rights that women should have even though they are not explicitly guaranteed in the constitution. Leadership,pon the but they are sparked by the injection of new energy. Baby boomers, the new generation. That begins in the early 1960s and last through the 1970s. You could argue for days about people with people about when it really ends, if it is really over. We dont have time to get into that now. The broad goals of second wave feminism, and they are pretty ambitious. Reproductive rights. And employment discrimination. Limitations with jobs, one of the readings for today mentioned that less than 10 of doctors and attorneys in the early 1960s were women. And deployment employment discrimination. Financial equity. That has to do with access and freedom and mobility. Educational access. Restrictroles that schools being only for men. Of course, there are cultural aspect. Free themselves of cultural norms and expectations that constrict womens roles in society. One thing we have got to understand, this is not just a binary. Fors not all women pushing second wave feminism. We will talk about one woman who was an important opponent and it is not all men who were fighting against it. There were plenty of male advocates of second wave feminism. Lets start with reproductive rights. Important most inventions in modern American History and we often dont think of that because it doesnt fly or shoot or blow anything up. The pill is essential throughout much of the rest of the course and in our on lives. In 1960, the fda approved the pill for the public. 1962, 1. 2 million women were on it. To 6. 5, it was up million. At that moment, it had become the most popular form of Birth Control for women in america. Of course many of you understand this at the pill has many benefits for women. Gives them more power over their reproductive lives. It allows them to control the number of children they have. It is effective and does not rely on a mans cooperation. And it is not just for single women. A lot of married women take the pill because it enables them to take control of the size of their family. That is not just a decision about how many babies you want to have. It is an economic and Health Decision and a labor decision. More people would have used the pill, but it was not legal everywhere. I know that is hard for us to wrap our head around but the pill was out loud several states until 1965. Enter ellen griswold. I am sorry, estelle griswold. Right, shee on the was the director of planned parenthood in new haven connecticut. The state of connecticut has this old law passed in 1879 that made it illegal to assist in how to advise others access contraception. Based on that, you could receive a prison sentence for helping people use contraception. With the support of planned parenthood, she decides to challenge this law. A birtha doctor open control clinic that provides contraceptive services to married couples and in order to avoid the stigma, they choose to work with married couples. They were charged with violating the connecticut state law and. Ecide to challenge that ruling it goes all the way to the reme court and in 1955, 65, the Supreme Court rules in their favor. On ruling is largely based the ninth amid mentally constitution although a lot of other amendments are invoked. It is about individual rights. That is all part of the ninth amendment says. The renumeration of certain rights will not be constructed to disparage right by the people. It means that rights that are implied but not stated can also be rights. Visual peoples should have the right to decide whether they use contraception. It is a major victory in terms of access to contraception. Can prevent states from preventing use of the pill. Gives women greater access to Birth Control and serves as a forerunner to roe v. Wade, which was much more famous. A woman with the fictional name of jean ro filed roe filed a jane lawsuit. Abortion was why the illegal and that she could have a panel of doctors write you a note or approve of abortion in cases that could save the life of a woman. That did not mean women did not have abortions. Women had abortions off the books. Others went to underground providers because they were so desperate, which can be incredibly dangerous. Focused on protests better that they stay above and underground. We know that women are going to have abortions. Whether there is a market for it or not. If they are legal, perhaps they would be safer. Indiana conducted a survey and found 22 of married women had had an abortion. We dont know because of the nature of it, but it was not something that people talked about openly with their friends. These things were hidden. Of course people were having them for another couple of reasons. Maybe they are not with their partner anymore. It is bad timing. The bb may not live. When we have these conversations now, we tend to focus on extreme cases but every single case is individual. Every case is hard and should be hard, but what roe v. Wade did was decided similar to griswold versus connecticut that it was not up to the government to make these decisions. Decision, they of griswold versus connecticut, which was cited 10 times. Going to quote directly from the decision of roe v. Wade. The rights of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted government intrusion into matters fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child. Conclude that right necessarily includes the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. In terms of a legal matter, these ethical debates we have today, you saw the protests that were out. Those . Y of you saw there were a lot of conversations happening out there. They are using a certain sort of tactic. Legally, it is not about morality or religion. There is a question that individuals have to deal with but when roe v. Wade was decided, it is a question of who gets to make this difficult choice. It is not about what those people think. The law is about what individual actors think. Any questions so far . That is an incredible coincidence, not many people realize that it is decided on the same day that lyndon b. Johnson died in texas. Heres the headline for the washington post. Lyndon b. Johnson dies at 64 years old and Supreme Court allows earlystage abortion. Of course, they are also talking about the vietnam war. A pretty big news day. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. A couple of legislators who were against the act decided to insert the gender clause, thinking that would cause people to not vote for the act. That backfired. The act got passed anyway but