Freedom in the 1970s

 

The Definition of the American Freedom

The definition of American freedom during the time was freedom through woman's rights. Women wanted the rights to vote, to work, to be their own free person with rights in the American Constitution and in the daily world. Freedom was defined as recognition and place in this decade. It was the time to fight for women's rights and allow them to have the certain liberties and rights that men have had all along. It is changing the stereotypes that fuel the discrimination and sexism that women faced by the government, by the work force and by other fields that held them back.

Amend Episode 4 and Episode 5

During the fourth episode a big theme was the fight for women’s rights and the expansion of the 14th amendment to have the government accept that the constitution can include women.  In this episode, there is a big aspect of society and nature where men were consistently sexist against women, so much so that men in higher government positions were using that power to remove rights and not accepting that the constitution also serves to protect women.

A big person in this episode was Pauli Murray, the civil right attorney in 1963 that pushed the women’s rights movement. She pioneered the field to legally fight for the suffrage movement. She worked on Brown vs. Board of Education and fought against gender-based discrimination and fought to extend the 14th amendment. She was also one of the first women to champion fighting for black women and the healthcare of women. She was denied testosterone on multiple times, fighting identity issues. Another big person in this episode is Myra Bradwell, a women from Illinois that wanted to be a lawyer. Pushing her case all the way to the Supreme Court, fighting for women to be able to be lawyers. Intersectionality is also a big topic in this episode, the fight of battling multiple kinds of oppression because of the identity of multiple oppressed groups. 

A big focus of this episode is the 14th amendment. They talk about the importance of the case of Loving vs. Virginia. This case fought against the laws that did not recognize marriages between white people and nonwhite people. Loving wins this case and the supreme court begins to recognize both these marriages and the discrimination against interracial marriages. This change was called the Equal Protection Clause. It allows the conversation of equality used against the law to be heard at this time. Same Sex Marriage being legalized is also a big topic. Marriage is a theme in this episode, and specifically marriages that have been discriminated against.

Links to Episodes:

Amend Ep. 4 and Amend Ep 5

Chapter Question:

The Vietnam War and the Water gate scandal affected how the people of this country trusted in the country majorly. It made people question the government and actually look into what their intentions were. During the Vietnam War, many people sent their family and children to go fight in Vietnam, so when it was revealed what we were really doing in Vietnam and how many soldiers died just to play part in a political ploy. This began the war on terror and having the peace movements begin. You would see big hippy demonstrations near the White House at the time, this led to a push for peace. 

After the Watergate scandal, it was just more proof in where the intentions of the government lies, and how they don't put people at the forefront. During this time, the government lied often about who knew about and why this happened, this led to even more unpopularity with the government and it's politicians.