“Women are not more moral than men. We are only uncorrupted by power. But we do not want to imitate men, to join this country as it is, and I think our very participation will change it. Perhaps women elected leaders—and there will be many of them—will not be so likely to dominate black people or yellow or men; anybody who looks different from us.”

The 1970s were a tumultuous time. In some ways, the decade was a continuation of the 1960s. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, gays and lesbians and other marginalized people continued their fight for equality. Economic equality of the sexes still proved an elusive goal. Even as women moved into nontraditional jobs and many companies established new job‐training programs and opened day care centers for working mothers, disparities in pay for men and women doing the same job remained significant. Businesswomen pointed to the existence of a “glass ceiling,” meaning that women could go so far up the corporate ladder but no farther. At the same time, gender stereotyping began to diminish. The use of gender‐neutral terms for certain jobs became part of the American lexicon.

Women desperately sought equality in the workplace, and wanted to assume the same responsibilities and opportunities men have had for centuries.