Women’s Bid for Equality in the United States in an Era of Backlash: Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

Women in the U.S. have made great strides in achieving equality and human rights as a result of activism and the political climate of the late 1960s. This paper will recall that progress but then show that a counter-reaction has set in, a reaction that is being paid for by mothers and disproportionately by women who are at the lower economic levels and among poor members of minority groups. This reaction is called backlash.