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Follow the timeline from the resurgence of the feminist movement in the 1960s through the end of the 20th century. Travel through four decades of feminism's Second Wave, during which Jewish feminists worked to transform American society and Jewish life in America. Learn about historic moments and events in the feminist revolution from the personal artifacts and stories of key activists.
1963Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique
1964Passage of Civil Rights Act creates EEOC
1964Civil rights volunteers go to Mississippi for Freedom Summer and bring home strategies for social change
1965Jane abortion service is founded
1966Founding of NOW
1967First women’s liberation groups - The Westside Group and New York Radical Women - form in Chicago and New York
1967New York Radical Women develop analytic method they call “consciousness-raising”
1968Young feminists protest the Miss America Pageant’s objectification of women
1969First “speak out” on abortion
1969Barbara Seaman writes letter to Senator Gaylord Nelson about dangers of birth control pill, leads to Senate hearings in 1970
1970Alix Kates Shulman publishes a feminist “Marriage Agreement”
1970Founding of Chicago Women’s Liberation Rock Band
1970Phyllis Chesler demands reparations for women from American Psychological Association
1970First printing of Women and Their Bodies (later editions become Our Bodies, Ourselves)
1972Ezrat Nashim calls for change from the Conservative Movement
1972Congress passes Equal Rights Amendment and sends it to states for ratification
1972Feminist Press issues its first women’s literature reprint
1972Founding of Ms. magazine
1972Congress passes Title IX of the Education Amendment.
1972Sally Priesand is ordained as first woman rabbi in America
1972Debbie Friedman releases her first album, Sing Unto God
1973Supreme Court legalizes abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision
1973First National Conference on Jewish Women held in New York City
1973Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review publishes issue on Jewish feminism
1974National Conference on Jewish Women and Men held in New York City
1975Susan Brownmiller publishes Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape
1975UN holds first World Conference on Women in Mexico City
1976“Through the Looking Glass” women’s spirituality conference brings 1500 women to Boston
1976Lilith Magazine is founded
1976Lesbian Herstory Archives opens
1976“Seder Sisters” hold their first feminist seder in New York City
1977Jewish Theological Seminary convenes Commission on the Ordination of Women as Rabbis
1977National Women’s Conference is held in Houston
1979Founding of Drisha Institute, first center for women’s advanced study of classical Jewish texts
1980First celebration of National Women’s History Week
1980Blu Greenberg publishes On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition
1981Founding of B’not Esh Jewish Feminist Spirituality Collective
1982Barnard holds controversial conference “Toward a Politics of Sexuality”
1982Meredith Tax captures Jewish women’s labor activism in her novel, Rivington Street
1982Ratification period for ERA ends and the ERA expires, three states short of ratification
1982Deena Metzger and Hella Hamid celebrate the beauty of a one-breasted woman in the “Warrior” photograph
1983Susannah Heschel publishes On Being a Jewish Feminist
1984Merle Feld writes poem imagining women’s experience at Sinai
1984Judy Chicago imagines the birth experience in the Birth Project
1984Marcia Falk rewrites Hebrew prayers to reflect feminist images of God
1985Madeleine Kunin becomes the first Jewish woman governor in America
1985Amy Eilberg is ordained as the first female Conservative rabbi
1985Evelyn Fox Keller publishes Reflections on Gender and Science
1986Savina Teubal creates Simchat Hochmah, a Jewish women’s eldering ceremony
1987Marcia Cohn Spiegel gives a keynote lecture on “The Changing Jewish Family” at New Jewish Agenda conference
1988Agunah, Inc. and GET founded in Brooklyn, NY
1990Founding of LA Jewish Feminist Center
1990First issue of BRIDGES: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and our Friends is published
1990Judith Plaskow publishes Standing Again at Sinai, first book on Jewish feminist theology
1991Reporter Nina Totenberg breaks story of Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas, sparking three days of Senate hearings
1992Founding of HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters)
1992Sharon Kleinbaum becomes Senior Rabbi of New York City’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest gay and lesbian synagogue
1993Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the first Jewish woman to be appointed to the US Supreme Court
1995Dianne Cohler-Esses becomes the first woman rabbi from Syrian community
1995Conference on Jewish women’s philanthropy held by Ma’yan: The Jewish Women’s Project of the JCC in Manhattan
1995UN Conference on Women held in Beijing
1995Joan Snyder creates the lithograph “Our Foremothers” for The Jewish Museum’s annual New Year’s graphic
1996Founding of Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
1996Helène Aylon calls attention to human interpretations of God in her art installation “The Liberation of
1997Eve Ensler wins an Obie award for The Vagina Monologues
1997Ruth Messinger runs for Mayor of New York City
1998Ma’yan’s Miriam’s cup exhibit opens in New York City
1999Marge Piercy publishes The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme |
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