eBook

The Politics of Women's Rights

Christina Wolbrecht

2010

Overview

Here Christina Wolbrecht boldly demonstrates how the Republican and Democratic parties have helped transform, and have been transformed by, American public debate and policy on women's rights. She begins by showing the evolution of the positions of both parties on women's rights over the past five decades. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Republicans were slightly more favorable than Democrats, but by the early 1980s, the parties had polarized sharply, with Democrats supporting, and Republicans opposing, such policies as the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights. Wolbrecht not only traces the development of this shift in the parties' relative positions--focusing on party platforms, the words and actions of presidents and presidential candidates, and the behavior of the parties' delegations in Congress--but also seeks to explain the realignment. The author considers the politically charged developments that have contributed to a redefinition and expansion of the women's rights agenda since the 1960s--including legal changes, the emergence of the modern women's movement, and changes in patterns of employment, fertility, and marriage. Wolbrecht explores how party leaders reacted to these developments and adopted positions in ways that would help expand their party's coalition. Combined with changes in those coalitions--particularly the rise of social conservatism within the GOP and the affiliation of social movement groups with the Democratic party--the result was the polarization characterizing the parties' stances on women's rights today.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 1977 National Women's Conference / Abortion debate / Activism / Affirmative action / Amendment / American Association of University Women / American Woman Suffrage Association / Americans / Antifeminism / Betty Friedan / Child care / Civil Rights Act / Civil Rights Act of 1964 / Cleavage (politics) / Concerned Women for America / Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues / Culture war / Employment / Employment discrimination / Equal Employment Opportunity Commission / Equal Rights Amendment / Feminism / Feminism (international relations) / Feminist Initiative (Sweden) / Feminist movement / Gender equality / Gender pay gap / Identity politics / International Federation of Business and Professional Women / League of Women Voters / Left–right politics / Legislation / Liberal feminism / Lobbying / Mary Louise Smith (civil rights activist) / National American Woman Suffrage Association / National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year / National Organization for Women / National Woman Suffrage Association / National Women's Political Caucus / Party platform / Phyllis Schlafly / Policy / Political agenda / Political campaign / Political party / POLITICAL SCIENCE / POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Campaigns & Elections / Politician / Politics / Pregnancy discrimination / Public policy / Radical feminism / Ratification / Right-wing politics / Second-wave feminism / Sexism / Sexual harassment / Sisterhood is Powerful / Social conservatism / Social feminism / Social movement / Suffrage / Two-party system / Violence against women / Voting / Voting bloc / Women's liberation movement / Women's rights / Women's Strike for Equality / Women's suffrage / Women's Trade Union League
• ISBN: 9781400831241, 1400831245