Timeline
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.
1963 – 1969
1963
Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique
1964
Passage of Civil Rights Act creates EEOC
Civil rights volunteers go to Mississippi for Freedom Summer and bring home strategies for social change
1967
First women’s liberation groups - The Westside Group and New York Radical Women - form in Chicago and New York
New York Radical Women develop analytic method they call “consciousness-raising”
1968
Young feminists protest the Miss America Pageant’s objectification of women
Barbara Seaman writes letter to Senator Gaylord Nelson about dangers of birth control pill, leads to Senate hearings in 1970
1969 – 1972
Phyllis Chesler demands reparations for women from American Psychological Association
First printing of Women and Their Bodies (later editions become Our Bodies, Ourselves)
Congress passes Equal Rights Amendment and sends it to states for ratification
1972 – 1973
Congress passes Title IX of the Education Amendment.
Sally Priesand is ordained as first woman rabbi in America
Debbie Friedman releases her first album, Sing Unto God
1973 – 1976
1973
Supreme Court legalizes abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision
First National Conference on Jewish Women held in New York City
1974
National Conference on Jewish Women and Men held in New York City
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso ordained as the first female Reconstructionist rabbi.
UN holds first World Conference on Women in Mexico City
1976 – 1980
E.M. Broner “Seder Sisters” hold their first feminist seder in New York City
1979
Founding of Drisha Institute, first center for women’s advanced study of classical Jewish texts
Blu Greenberg publishes On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition
1981 – 1984
Meredith Tax captures Jewish women’s labor activism in her novel, Rivington Street
Ratification period for ERA ends and the ERA expires, three states short of ratification
Deena Metzger and Hella Hamid celebrate the beauty of a one-breasted woman in the “Warrior” photograph
1984 – 1988
Marcia Falk rewrites Hebrew prayers to reflect feminist images of God
Amy Eilberg is ordained as the first female Conservative rabbi
Evelyn Fox Keller publishes Reflections on Gender and Science
1987
Marcia Cohn Spiegel gives a keynote lecture on “The Changing Jewish Family” at New Jewish Agenda conference
1990 – 1993
Judith Plaskow publishes Standing Again at Sinai, first book on Jewish feminist theology
1991
Reporter Nina Totenberg breaks story of Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas, sparking three days of Senate hearings
Sharon Kleinbaum becomes Senior Rabbi of New York City’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest gay and lesbian synagogue
1995 – 1996
Joan Snyder creates the lithograph “Our Foremothers” for The Jewish Museum’s annual New Year’s graphic
1996
Founding of Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
Helène Aylon calls attention to human interpretations of God in her art installation “The Liberation of
1997 – 1999
Ruth Messinger runs for Mayor of New York City
The preview issue of Ms. magazine, issued in Spring 1972.
Copyright 1972 Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication.
How to cite this page
Jewish Women's Archive. "Timeline." (Viewed on February 20, 2019) <https://jwa.org/feminism/timeline>.
