What distinguishes one person from another is what that person is thinking and how he or she is able to express his or her thoughts.  “The only way for for a woman, as  for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own” Friedan concludes in her book, The Feminine Mystique. In the 1960’s woman had low skill level jobs as secretaries, house maids, sales woman, nurses or stay at home mom’s, but that did not count since there was no salary attached. These jobs restricted woman from becoming independents and kept them as sex objects and mentally slow.

“The Problem” that was unspoken and kept hidden was in the homes of every woman world wide. Woman were “a man’s wife [and] is the show window where he exhibits the measure of his achievement..The woman who cultivates a circle of worthwhile people, who belongs to clubs, who makes herself interesting and agreeable…is a help to her husband.” Zinn brings this quote to show what role woman were perceived to have. It was not two partners running a house together it was a single ruler, the man, who was the face of the house with the woman running the “behind the scenes” allowing for the face, the man, to inherit the credit. Woman were essentially robots doing everyday things without any meaning. No one was there to applaud the hard work a woman put into herself. That was the unspoken problem.

During 1960s and 1970s, many changes occurred in the U.S. In fact, By 60s a variety of values were standardized by the society. For example of gender role, Men and Women’s roles are predetermined by the social gender definition. Also, education system played a role to form such a gender role. However, the socially standardized concepts changed in the 70s. After World War II, various groups began to express their needs; accordingly, the society became more complex one where the various inter-relationships were mixed together. As a variety of changes appeared spontaneously, people got confused with the standardized ideas and started to discuss in an open places.

Zinn, in his book, introduces Betty Friedan as a pioneering, strong and influential feminist at that time. In fact, Friedan was one of the representatives who led the women’s movement in the 60s by her book “The Feminine Mystique.” According to her book, the life of middle class housewives of 60s was like:

Just what was the problem that has no name? What were the words women used when they tried to express it? Sometimes a woman would say “I feel empty somehow . . . incomplete.” Or she would say, “I feel as if I don’t exist.” Sometimes…. “A tired feeling … I get so angry with the children it scares me. … I feel like crying without any reason.”

Using this quote, Zinn points out that since women in the 60s did not have choice to speak up and actively work with men, they had to give up all the dreams and concentrate on their families. Therefore, loss of meaning of life led them to feel empty and that was motivation to provoke another women movement.

Entering 70s, the women movement took place all over the places by the women who had opinion to speak up and stand up in the society and brought out the result. The movement led a lot of women to begin to decide not giving up their dreams and not sacrificing themselves for their families.  As the result, they started organizing their own union and insisted equal opportunity with men. Zinn introduces one of the women’s opinions that represented the 70s’ circumstance, Dorothy Bolden.

In 1970, Dorothy Bolden, a laundry worker in Atlanta and mother of six, told why in 1968 she began organizing women doing housework, into the National Domestic Workers Union. She said: “I think women should have a voice in making decisions in their community for betterment. Because this woman in the slum is scuffling hard, and she’s got a very good intelligent mind to do things, and she’s been overlooked for so many years. I think she should have a voice.”

As you can see, throughout her saying, how actively women started to express their needs regardless where they are and what they do. However, women’s voice was not limited in social rights. They started to express the suppressed unfairness that had never revealed for a long time for the reason of shame and embarrassment. Zinn says that one of the most influential book disclosing to the public about the women’s biological issues was “The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective called Our Bodies, Ourselves.” According to Zinn, this book contained ”an enormous amount of practical information, on women’s anatomy, on sexuality and sexual relationships, on lesbianism, on nutrition and health, on rape, self-defense, venereal disease, birth control, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause.”

Consequently, this movement brought out result in a political way. In 1967,  President Johnson signed an executive order banning sex discrimination in federally connected employment, and in the years that followed, women’s groups demanded that this be enforced.  

“The law cannot do it for us. We must do it for ourselves. Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes…. We must replace the old, negative thoughts about our femininity with positive thoughts and positive action….”

Mid-19th century, with the self-awareness of Western women, women’s groups as an independent force in the The stage of history, and set off the first feminist movement for women’s rights. After World War II, more and more women going to work instead of stay in home doing house work, the feminism movement sprout that women didn’t reconcile to be appendant to men and sacrifice to their families any more. People increasingly believe that women in a male-centered society suffer unequal treatment.

“The fight began, many women were saying, with the body, which seemed to be the beginning of the exploitation of women-as sex plaything (weak and incompetent), as pregnant woman (helpless), as middle-aged woman (no longer considered beautiful), as older woman (to be ignored, set aside). ”

The community and even the women themselves think that reproductive rights are women’s rights rather than the rights of men, women are to be masters of their own body, should not be a reproductive tool. Only the implementation of birth control in order to liberate women from having children from heavy activity out. Women’s reproductive function is the reason of male domination. Childbirth and breastfeeding lead women had to rely on the production and protection of men to seek survival. They argued that the emancipation of women, to participate fully in public affairs activities necessary requirement that they have birth control and sexual activity freedom. They believe they have right to decide to be mother and when fertility.

“Just what was the problem that has no name? What were the words women used when they tried o express it? Sometimes a woman would say “I feel empty somehow… incomplete.” Or she would say, “I feel as if I don’t exist.” Sometimes… “A tired feeling… I get so angry with the children it scares me… I feel like crying without any reason.”

Times between 1960’s and 1970’s were very difficult for women. They were deprived of the right to vote, and of the right to freedom. It was difficult for them to decide what really they wanted to do with their lives. The life of women in those days was fixed upfront. When a woman decided to marry a man she already knew that her life would become something totally different the it used to be. She would become a housewife, and her new life would have nothing to do with normal and social life between people as it supposed to be in the society with gender equality. That’s why Howard Zinn quotes a few words from the book The Feminine Mystique written by Betty Friedan. As the women at that time would only “made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slip-cover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night” For the majority of men the kind of life that women conducted was something normal and they couldn’t notice any problems that their wives struggled with. They didn’t see that their wives were unhappy
Probably, if writers like Howard Zinn had not written about these times, people of modern world wouldn’t know about these truths and still thought that the gender inequality was something normal. Howard Zinn wants to point out that to be a woman doesn’t mean to be weaker in a political way. Men didn’t know how to talk to their wives because among other things women didn’t have the right to share their feelings because it wasn’t appropriate nor allowed to talk at home “Just what was the problem that has no name? What were the words women used when they tried to express it? Sometimes a woman would say “I feel empty somehow . . . incomplete.” Or she would say, “I feel as if I don’t exist.” Sometimes… “A tired feeling … I get so angry with the children it scares me. … I feel like crying without any reason.” (Betty Friedan) Women as individuals had lack of possibility to speak out about their problems. This fact forced groups of feminists to go out on streets and fix a social order. In 1967 feminist movements discussed the problems which were for women and their dissatisfaction arising from unequal treatment. As Howard Zinn says these kind of movements were possible because of brave and strong women who still tried to care about their freedom “Younger women- Gloria Richardson in Maryland, Annelle Ponder in Mississippi-were not only active, but leaders”(Howard Zinn) Perhaps the leadership and courage that these women had, was an advantage and a window opportunity to speak out. Zinn says about these women as examples of dignity and power to increase awareness in our heads, nowadays, about what was happening back then in 1960’s and 1970’s. In some cases women knew more about politics and surrounded world than men. However, they still couldn’t reach any other and higher job opportunities than only working as a secretary(if they were lucky enough). On the beginning of 1970’s women started to talk about topics that were uncomfortable for men, such as inappropriate treatment of women by police, problems of rapes and procurement. Also, women started to talk more about domestic problems such as “menstruation, masturbation, menopause, abortion, lesbianism.” (Howard Zinn)

1960’s and 1970’s were difficult times for women but even worse times for poor black women in white America. Patricia Robinson wrote a pamphlet called Poor Black Woman in which says “Rebellion by poor black women, the bottom of a class hierarchy heretofore not discussed, places the question of what kind of society will the poor black woman demand and struggle for. Already she demands the right to have birth control, like middle class black and white women. She is aware that it takes two to oppress and that she and other poor people no longer are submitting to oppression, in this case genocide. She allies herself with the have-nots in the wider world and their revolutionary struggles. She had been forced by historical conditions to withdraw the children from male dominance and to educate and support them herself. In this very process, male authority and exploitation are seriously weakened. Further, she realizes that the children will be used as all poor children have been used through history-as poorly paid mercenaries fighting to keep or put an elite group in power. Through these steps .. . she has begun to question aggressive male domination and the class society which enforces it, capitalism.”
Howard Zinn used Patricia Robinson’s words to show how important she is and how much she wrote about difficult poor black women’s lives.  Robinson says that there is nothing worse than being on the bottom of hierarchy; indeed poor black women didn’t have easy lives. There was no pity for them. Even when they wanted equal rights to have birth control it was impossible for them. Also, they had to raise kids by themselves without any other help. Later, those raised children would probably become workers for small wages. This order of life was reprehensible for poor black people that’s why they had to do something with this conditions and suppress rich people’s influence which they used to control poor people’s lives.

Feminist movement organized manner from the beginning of 1966, the landmark event was the establishment of “national women’s movement” organization, Betty Friedan was one of the founders and the organization drafted a constitution. In the last century the sixties and seventies, the United States stirring racial, political and gender conflict among Friedan was one of the loudest voices.
After the feminist movement developed in the universities, the number of female students in the classroom soared; On the political front, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Equal Rights Amendment,” Shirley Bridges and Tim became the first U.S. president to participate in the election black women; in culture, books and magazines on women has become hot, a lot of the feminist movement has been included into the dictionary words.
Slogan: Family is not the end

As feminist movements began to take over the 1960’s, other movements began to form as well including the Native American rights movement.

“As the civil rights and antiwar movements developed in the 1960s, Indians were already gathering their energy for resistance, thinking about how to change their situation, beginning to organize.”

Zinn explains that Native Americans were beginning to take action for their own rights and to declare their own destiny for the cause. He talks about how Native Americans were treated throughout history and how that there was not enough support for their own rights.

“Resistance was already taking shape in various parts of the country. In the state of Washington, there was an old treaty taking land from the Indians but leaving them fishing rights. This became unpopular as the white population grew and wanted the fishing areas exclusively for themselves.”

Many non Indians failed to respect those treaties that was supposed to help the Native Americans. Natives were still being treated as a nobody and as outcasts. They were considered to be on the same page as blacks or even at the very bottom. The Indians always insisted their territory was separate  and not to be invaded by the white man’s law.

To conclude things up, I think there was a clear cut reason why Howard Zinn included these kinds of individuals and movements in this chapter. Native Americans were clearly being taken advantage of from land, treaties, you name it.

Obviously the women’s movement was biggest picture of the 1960s, but the emergence of the Prison Abolition movement was not far behind.

“The prisons in the United States had long been an extreme reflection of the American system itself: the stark life differences between rich and poor, the racism, the use of victims against one another, the lack of resources of the underclass to speak out, the endless “reforms” that changed little.”

This movement seeks to reduce and eliminate prison systems and replace them with a more effective system than they had back then. Dostoevski even notes that : “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” These prisons reflected a society between the social classes of the rich and the poor. However, Zinn explains that minorities in the prisons were treated worse than whites. “It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail.” Zinn says that these “minorities” are more likely to end up in jail in the first place, not just because they committed more crimes, but they didn’t have the resources like the rich. They didn’t have the luxuries that the rich had like getting out on bail, or hiring good lawyers. Finally, this whole inequality within the prison system led to the movement of a more effective system

After a long-life period where women had unique duty to be perfect housewives, the sixties is an era of movements, actions, protest, and most importantly an era of change for women’s status.

“Time indeed were changing.” (Zinn) Zinn explains, in this chapter, that women, instead of only taking part of community clubs as the women would do in order to feel valuable in the 50’s, were taking part into various movements, such as Students for a Democratic Society, an antiwar group which organized a parade called “The Burial of Tradition Womanhood.” Although, he mentions that few disagreements among women and men were build on whether women should battle only in general movements such as racism, or more especially their own issues in society, the feminist movement was gaining value and was starting to be heard.

The image of women, as an object of decoration, which has been constructed for many years was finally questioned, and moreover rejected by the Radical Women in the fall of 1968. As Zinn puts it, “people were beginning to speak of ‘Women’s Liberation.’”

“There is no “joining” WITCH. If you are a woman and dare to look within yourself, you are a WITCH. You make your own rules.” Is a quote from the WITCH organization formed by NY Radical Women. This quote shows effectively how women were freeing themselves from the traditional rules and male domination by taking responsibilities and promoting the power of free-will.

Moreover, the change, in this era, did not only touch the middle class housewives from the 50’s. In fact, Zinn mentions the lower social class and African americans women by quoting Helen Howard, an organizer, who explains that through the meetings, and thus by standing up, the community was not afraid anymore.

The feminist movement gained more and more valued and popularity through publications such as women’s magazines, newspapers and books.
This led, from 68, the right of women to choose for themselves, and especially about child birth. Indeed, abortion became a woman’s rights, and thus, from justice, abortion became a private matter. Women were finally the only actors and decision makers of their own lives.

As Zinn mentions, regarding the Equal Rights Amendment, “It seemed clear that even if it became law, it would not be enough, that what women had accomplished had come through organization, action, protest. Even where the law was helpful it was helpful only if backed by actions.” In other words, women understood that they had only to count on themselves for change, and thus, this self-consciousness made them questioned the roles of gender, reject the male supremacy, and a strong union between women, also called sisterhood.

In my opinion, I think it is pretty clear why this category of individuals had to be mentioned in Zinn’s chapter. Women, instead of hoping, have created, during this period, a modernization of society by supporting and fighting against male dominance that women from today thank.

The sixties, not only focused on individuals’ movements as feminist, but also broke sexuality taboos by raising people’s consciousness through media, and liberalism.

While, in the 50’s, sexuality is a matter for silence and taboo, Zinn mentions the sexual behavior went through outstanding changed few years later with individuals revolting “against artificial and unquestioned ways of living.”
Indeed, sex between two people that were not married was spoken freely, and moreover, homosexuality, which was seen as a disease in the 50’s, was openly accepted as heterosexuality.  Thus, many individuals finally show their true self by not concealing their sexuality anymore, and organized meetings to reject discrimination, and encourage sexuality equality.
Media and literature helped tremendously to let this new insight on sexuality grow.

This whole new vision on homosexuality was one of the first steps in American history to truly show Democracy. From seeing it as a mental illness to simply sexual attraction, it has pushed people to be truer towards themselves, and among society than they ever had.
Finally, even though it took a major period of time to accept the concept of gay marriage in the United States, the homosexuals’ movements, in the sixties, were the first ones to fight for equality.