Feminism in 1970s

Role of women in society
In the 1970s the role of women was rapidly changing. This was the decade where feminism was beginning to grow across the world. There was an obvious and significant rise in the number of women as heads of state outside of monarchies and heads of government in a number of countries across the world during the 70’s. The first woman President in Argentina was Isabel Martinez de Peron. Elisabeth Domitien was the first woman Prime Minister of the Central African Republic. Indira Gandhi continued as Prime Minister of India until 1977 and took office again in 1980. Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979 who also remained an important political figure in the 1980s. Golda Meir was the Prime Minister of Israel. Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo was the first female Prime Minister of Portugal in 1979.
Feminism
The Feminist Movement in the United States initially began in the 1960s and continued on in the 1970s. The 50th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1970 was commemorated by the Women’s Strike for Equality and other protests.
Feminism began to gain a larger audience in the 1970s with the anthology “Sisterhood is Powerful” and “Sexual Politics” being published at the beginning of the year. Additionally, the women’s right movement was brought into the national political spotlight after the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision of Roe c. Wade that constitutionalised the right to an abortion.
Many movements of the 70s, such as the repealing of the remaining oppressive sexist laws, were successful. Job opportunities were increasing for women and lead to unheard success in business, politics, education, science, law and even the home. Although the majority of the aims of the movements were successful there were some that failed such as the, failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, it only needed 3 more states to ratify it. Another failure was the attempt to close the wage gap. This wasn’t completely unsuccessful as there was a smaller gap between wages.
The original feminist movement largely ended in 1982 with the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment, and with new conservative leadership in Washington, D.C. a third wave was created in the early 90’s which addressed sexual harassment and violence against women.
Feminist art
The feminist art movement in the 1970s was introduced to bring to light the developments of feminism during that decade. Art historian, Linda Nochlin published a groundbreaking essay in 1971 called, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”. This essay researched the social and economic factors that had prevented talented women from achieving the same status as their male counterparts.
It was questioned by art historians Griselda Pollock and Rozika Parker, as to why men and women were represented so differently. Critic John Berger concluded in his 1972 book, “Ways of Seeing the Marxist”, that men look at women. While women watch themselves being looked at.
Judy Chicago’s, The Dinner Party between 1974 and 1979, was one of the great iconic works of this phase. It was a triangular table which each place setting featuring a table runner embroiled with the woman’s name and images or symbols relating to her accomplishments, with a napkin, a glass of a goblet, and a plate. Many of the plates had a butterfly sculpture. The purpose of the project was to “end the ongoing cycle of omission in which women were written out of the historical record.” The project celebrated female accomplishments, such as textile arts, and china painting, these were considered as craft of domestic art, as opposed to the more culturally valued, male dominant fine arts.
Later feminist artists rejected this approach and attempted to reveal the origins of our ideas of femininity and womanhood. They persuaded the idea of femininity as a masquerade, a set of poses adopted by women to conform t o social expectations of womanhood.