University of Nebraska Omaha - Tomahawk / Gateway Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

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LIBERTY EQUALITY AND MOTHERHOOD? |AYBE IT happened when wives first watched their husbands vote, it probably began before that, when men planned the elections and asked their wives for personal opinions about candidates. Nevertheless, it happened. Women realized they wanted to share this right — the right of being an individual, of sharing an equal right of citizenship, despite the alleged handicap of being a woman. Out of these initial feelings sprang the beginnings of a feminine rights move- ment. This contagious movement began with the suffragettes of the late 19th and early 20th century. It was a long, hard struggle complicated by the fact that a married woman's sole duty was to raise children. Eventually women were not content with volunteer work for social agencies such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. They wanted more of a share in world affairs following the war. Demanding to be recognized, the suf- fragettes paraded in the streets in the name of their cause. They eventually succeeded and on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed. American women could vote. Today, 50 years later, it is quite common for a woman to maintain both a career and a family. Marriage is no longer a woman's only duty and only occu- pation. Today's equality cry centers around equal pay for equal work. Women liber- ationists use the wage difference as one of their main arguments. These women think they are victims of a male-domin- ated society and lower wages represent male dominance to them. Some of the more radical liberationists believe our whole social structure must be altered to correct the male dominance. The more conservative groups believe social prob- lems can be worked out within the present democratic system by putting women in places of power. Probably the most well known of the liberationists is the National Organization for Women, called NOW, which is said to be the most conservative. It was created in 1966 by a group of professional women, headed by authoress Betty Friedan. NOW claims a membership of about 3,000, with over 35 chapters in the country. Some of its members are men. The local Omaha NOW chapter meets at the First Unitarian Church, twice a month. Dr. Jacqueline St. John, assistant professor of history at UNO, is president of the chapter. Other officers include: vice president, Mrs. Bonnie Schoultz, who heads the Saturday rap groups in the old market's Magic Theatre; secretary. 4

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PMKING PEMIT DOES NQf From the first day of registration, students prepare to meet a variety of obstacles. A 12-dollar permit (above, left) is only a hunting license. Perpendicular parking (above) is open only to smaller cars, while some fearless parkers brave ominous signs (below) hoping they won't be towed away.

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Lois Rood, a former UNO student; and treasurer, Mrs. Lynn Mears, who is con- nected with the Women's Bureau of US Civil Service in Omaha. Right now the group is concentrating on a speai ers' bureau. Two-thirds of the membership have accepted speaking en- gagements. They are sending letters to churches in Omaha and plan to send letters to the schools. Nationally, NOW's goals are to end economic and legal discrimination against women and to encourage women to enter politics. They don't believe in altering society but merely fitting women into positions of power in the existing society. They believe in the democratic reformist ideal of America. Currently their two major issues are repeal of the abortion laws and passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. If passed, it would provide that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. NOW also wants increased child care facilities established by law on the same basis as parks, libraries and public schools. Another group, WITCH, or Women's Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, is the group famous for burning their bras in the 1968 protest against the Miss America Pageant. They claim the female image is being exploited and this image needs to be discarded. Society for Cutting Up Men, or SCUM, has a Manifesto which declares men to be biologically deficient and socially dangerous. They are one of the more radical groups with a reputation for physically assaulting males; pop artist Andy Warhol has been a victim of SCUM in the past. The Feminists, alleged to be the most radical, claim all men are the enemy. Their primary enemy is the male-female r ole system that exists in our society. They think this system always results in female oppression by the male oppressor. The Feminists are down on all the institutions promoted by role playing, and allow only one-third of their mem- bers to be married. They are enthusiastic for a future when births will be extra- uterine, children raised in communes and women free from their oppressed roles. There are other groups with names such as Redstockings, Cell 55, Female Liberation and Radical Women. The names may vary, but most of the groups have the same complaint: women haven't come a long way in the last 50 years since their voting rights were granted. In August of 1970, women marked the anniversary of the 19th Amendment by marching in the streets of New York. Throughout the country women pro- tested in numerous ways. Some wives abstained from sex. Other women refused to work. On the UNO campus, there seems to be very little liberation activity. Here, females still accept the practices of having their cigarettes lit and the doors held open by males. Students claim there are a few female instructors who openly preach women's lib in the classroom, but other than a gradual emersion of female in- structors in pant suits, the visible signs of the movement are few. This casual attitude around UNO does not mean women's lib is dead. As with other activities on this campus, things are non-radical, and the people are non- committal. But the ideas and attitudes of the liberationists are spreading to stu- dents and faculty alike. Assuming more an attitude of the NOW movement rather than the WITCH or SCUM faction, UNO women continue to work through the system. It is not unusual to see female students actively A modern day women's lib poster depicts Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst being arrested in 1906 in front of Buckingham Palace during a suffrage meeting. The poster is available from the Source Library.