The amendment needed 38 states to ratify it by 1979. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which ensured that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex” was approved by Congress in 1972, but the approval came with a deadline. It really was a man’s world, and something had to change. Women couldn't get their own credit cards, serve on a jury, had limited access to birth control, and there wasn't any workplace equality. That's because, in 1960, women's freedom was severely limited and being a black woman made the issue even worse. In the early days, the women’s movement was primarily focused on discrimination against women. The movement caught on and grew in leaps and bounds in the US and spread to other western countries. Women's Liberation – that’s what the movement was called then – activists Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded Ms. She was one of the 28 founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966. The modern – or second – feminist movement began in the 1960s when The Feminine Mystique written by Betty Friedan was published and lasted for roughly two decades. Feminism was still in its formative years, and while women were making gains, there was still a long way to go. The United Nations declared 1975 as International Women's year and the official anthem was Helen Reddy's "I am Woman," but it was a premature celebration.
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