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.