[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[women chanting] Sisterhood is powerful! Join us now!
Sisterhood is powerful!
[female narrator] August 1970.
Fifty thousand feminists take to the streets across America
on a one-day strike for equality.
[woman] No, we just want what men have had all these years,
equal rights to have a job, to have respect,
to not be viewed as a piece of meat.
[narrator] But not all the spectators are on board.
Excuse me, do you agree with this women's liberation movement?
-No, I don't. -Why not?
Because I like my life the way it is.
[narrator] Since those early years, the feminist movement
has brought about huge changes in society.
In the US and Europe,
more women now graduate from college than men.
Nearly half of doctors in developed countries are women.
And by 2019, more than 70 nations have had female leaders.
[applauding]
But the goal of winning full equality remains elusive.
Worldwide, women hold less than a quarter of seats
in national legislatures.
And women and men have the same guaranteed legal rights
in just eight countries.
It's been more than a century since New Zealand
became the first country to give women the right to vote.
[chanting in Spanish]
But today, the movement is still fighting for the rights of women
around the world.
Putin, go to hell!
-[chanting in Spanish] -[narrator] Feminism, simply defined,
is the belief that women should be allowed the same rights,
power, and opportunities as men.
Why is it still an issue,
and how much further do we have to go?
[man] This is a war in which women hold responsible military positions
on an equal footing with men,
submitting to the same discipline,
earning the same pay.
[narrator] World War II dramatically changes
women's role in society.
[man] Instead of cutting out dresses,
this woman stamps out the patterns of airplane parts.
Instead of baking cakes,
this woman is cooking gears.
[narrator] With the men away fighting on the front lines,
women take on traditionally male jobs at home.
They work as engineers and mechanics...
building weapons...
ships...
-[ship horn blows] -...and planes...
-drive buses, trains... -[horn honks]
-...and fire engines... -[siren wailing]
...and serve in the Land Army...
[birds chirping]
...bringing in the harvest...
and as loggers, known as Lumber Jills.
But when the men return,
women are encouraged to focus on their domestic duties.
Well, I don't mind my wife working, but who's gonna run my home?
[narrator] By the 1950s,
as popular TV programs like Leave It to Beaver make clear,
a woman's place is once again in the home,
taking care of her family.
I think the nicest life is certainly at home.
It's much nicer than sitting, punching books
and horrid things like that, don't you think?
[narrator] With World War II firmly in the past,
in 1960, the average American woman is married by the age of 20.
A bank can refuse to issue her a credit card
without her husband's signature.
[alert beeping]
Professionally, fewer than four percent of lawyers
and seven percent of doctors are women.
If any female employee gets pregnant,
it's perfectly legal to fire her.
And for every dollar a man makes,
a woman doing equal work is paid only 60 cents.
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
But the early 1960s
is when the modern feminist movement begins trying to change all that...
[chanting continues]
...especially after the introduction of a revolutionary little tablet,
the birth control pill.
For the first time in human history,
women have an easy, discreet, and reliable method of contraception.
[indistinct shouting]
The pill quickly takes off in the US, Australia, Germany, and the UK.
By 1962,
1.2 million American women are using it.
The day that you start taking your pill is determined by when your period starts.
[narrator] Now, women can choose to put off having children
and instead focus on getting an education
and establishing their own careers.
But when they do,
they quickly discover that traditional expectations
of gender roles are hard to shake.
[Kennedy] We want to be sure that women are used as effectively as they can
to provide a better life for our people, in addition to meeting
their primary responsibility, which is in the home.
[narrator] Some women beg to differ.
There's a terrible contempt for women
implicit in this glorified insistence
that women's fulfillment is motherhood and only motherhood.
[narrator] In 1963, journalist Betty Friedan
publishes The Feminine Mystique.
It reveals the silent unhappiness of many American housewives
and reassures women who desire more than marriage and motherhood
that they are not alone.
The book quickly becomes a best seller,
a spark that ignites a new wave of feminism,
not just in America, but across the Western world.
The time is ripe for revolution.
[rock music playing]
As America grapples with the civil rights movement,
women begin speaking out for their rights as well.
[man] The Civil Rights Act of 1964
is signed at the White House by President Johnson.
[narrator] Feminists lobby to add the word "sex"
to the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
and at the last minute, they succeed.
This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us...
to go to work in our communities and our states,
in our homes and in our hearts...
to eliminate...
the last vestiges of injustice.
[narrator] The Civil Rights Act makes it illegal
for a woman to be passed over for a job or fired
simply because she is a woman.
So, equality at last?
Not so fast.
For some men,
change isn't so easy.
Yesterday, I spent an hour and a half
teaching one of our girls what she needed to know.
[narrator] Companies have to produce training videos like this one
to help them adjust to women in the workplace.
Marriage, absenteeism,
personality problems...
aren't they really just a part of life?
Part of a woman's life, maybe.
It seems to me
that whether the gal adds up to trouble or not
is pretty much up to you.
[narrator] It soon becomes clear that, if women are to change the culture,
they'll have to organize.
[woman] A new movement for women's liberation is launched
to support their demands for total freedom,
economically, politically, socially.
[narrator] In 1966,
NOW, the National Organization for Women,
is born.
NOW's goal?
Quote, "To break through the silken curtain of prejudice
and discrimination."
But many critics insist that women are already equal to men,
so what's all the fuss about?
[man] A woman can now control the destinies of 500 million people
or influence the fashions that millions will wear.
Sheila Scott, record-breaking solo pilot.
But nowadays, not even the sky's the limit.
The first girl in space, Valentina Tereshkova.
A woman in charge of millions, bank manager Margaret Reid of Edinburgh.
[narrator] The truth is, those examples are exceptions that prove the rule,
and even they aren't necessarily allowed on the same stage as men.
That female bank manager is running a ladies branch.
[man] In fact, this bank is a cross between a woman's club
and a beauty parlor.
The pink powder room provides all mod cons,
and there are mirrors for freshening up.
After all, madam may have to try her husband's bank manager next.
[narrator] Throughout the '60s,
the feminist movement continues to gain momentum,
and the Miss America pageant proves a ripe target for protest.
In 1968,
demonstrators unfurl a banner inside the pageant.
Outside, they crown
-their own Miss America... -[bleats]
...a sheep.
[smooches]
And they set up a Freedom Trash Can
for "instruments of female torture":
wigs, makeup, curlers,
Playboy magazines, and bras.
Nothing is set on fire,
but media outlets later dismiss the protest
as feminists burning their bras.
The myth sticks to this day.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic,
British women take up the fight.
[man] It was in 1968
that the Ford's machinists first went on strike.
[narrator] In Dagenham, England, female machinists
bring the Ford factory to a standstill,
striking for equal pay.
[man] They said then that a company grading scheme,
introduced in 1967, discriminated against them.
[narrator] They win both their case and the promise of legislation,
which will become the UK's Equal Pay Act.
In the United States,
equal pay has been enshrined in law since 1963,
but women working full-time
are still making 40% less than men.
-[indistinct chanting] -By the 1970s,
American feminists realize that they'll have to do more
than protest in the streets.
They need to run for office.
We are going to be running ourselves and electing ourselves
so that it will not take 50 years to get 50 women in the US Senate.
[narrator] In 1972,
there are only two women in the US Senate
-and 13 in the House... -[applauding]
...making up just three percent of Congress.
That year,
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
becomes the second woman and the first African American
to run for a major party's presidential nomination.
It is time that other peoples in America,
besides white males,
run for the highest office in this land.
[narrator] Congresswoman Chisholm is one of the biggest supporters
of a controversial proposal,
one that will enshrine women's rights in the US Constitution,
the Equal Rights Amendment.
Feminists have been pushing for the law since 1923,
but now they finally have the momentum
and the organization
to put it to a vote in Congress.
The debate is fierce.
The hysteria created by bra-burning
and other freak antics
is not a justification
for the action taken by the House of Representatives.
[narrator] But in a huge victory for feminists, the proposal passes.
Now, if two-thirds of the states ratify it within ten years,
the Equal Rights Amendment will be added to the Constitution.
But despite their political progress,
American feminists are lagging behind their counterparts in other nations
when it comes to electing a woman to the top job.
Sri Lanka, Ceylon at the time,
is the first nation to elect a female leader...
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, in 1960.
In 1966, Indira Gandhi begins the first of four terms
as prime minister of India.
Golda Meir takes charge of Israel in 1969.
And in 1979,
Margaret Thatcher is chosen as the prime minister of the UK.
In America, the 1970s does see progress in the form of a raft of new laws
guaranteeing women equal access to education,
to bank credit lines,
as well as the right to terminate unwanted pregnancy.
By the end of the 1970s,
more women are enrolled in higher education than men.
On TV, Mary Tyler Moore's independent career woman
reflects feminism's gains in the workplace.
[indistinct chattering]
But as women begin to infiltrate male-dominated careers,
it's clear sexist ideas are not just held by men.
We're worried for our husbands' safety.
-[man] Why? -Why?
Because a woman cannot do a job of a man.
[man] Are you afraid your husband is in some sort of danger, then?
Absolutely.
[man] Do you think that some of the wives of officers who are protesting
about the mixed pairs have any, uh, grounds for worry?
That premise is so silly that I don't even like to speak about it.
[narrator] The boys-club culture in the executive boardroom
isn't much better.
There are situations in which you feel that it--
when you're on an equal basis with men,
in a committee meeting or something like that,
uh, in which you feel they don't have much regard for your view.
I've also become aware, in the last two or three years,
that a lot of men really don't like working for a woman.
[narrator] As for the paychecks of regular working women,
they're actually less than they were 20 years earlier
compared to men.
Still, for two decades,
the modern feminist movement has been on a roll...
until, perhaps inevitably, a backlash sets in.
Nineteen eighty sees Ronald Reagan sweep to power
on a promise to bring back traditional family values.
[crowd cheering]
[Reagan] Restoring the American Dream
requires a return to spiritual and moral values.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] Many conservatives believe that women are already granted
equal rights under the law.
There's no need to change the Constitution.
Be it resolved that we oppose the ratification
of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
All in favor, say "aye."
[all] Aye!
-[singing "America the Beautiful"] -[narrator] By the 1982 deadline,
the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified by 35 states,
three short of the two-thirds required, and it fails.
Defeated,
it falls off the political agenda for decades.
In America, feminism starts to be considered passé.
After elections in 1988,
exit polls show that only 18% of women
would call themselves strong feminists.
And in 1990,
that number drops to 14%.
The label of "feminist,"
it puts women off.
How do you overcome that?
Well, it doesn't put us off if we look in the dictionary
and see that it just means a person, male or female,
who believes in the full equality of women and men.
Actually, the only alternative to being a feminist
is being a masochist if you're a woman.
[laughs] Because, you know,
either we're full human beings or-- or-- or we're not.
[crowd roaring]
[narrator] Despite the backlash against feminism, '90s pop culture
celebrates strong women,
from Thelma & Louise
to the women-only lineup of the Lilith Fair festival.
And the decade does see American women elevated
to high-profile political positions.
But it's most often because they're appointed by a man.
By 1998, just 11% of Congress is female.
And while that persistent pay gap does start to narrow,
it's far short of equality.
But that's not what reignites feminism in the new millennium.
What does is the Internet.
Just as Betty Friedan reassured '60s housewives
that they weren't alone,
the Internet allows women to share their stories and experiences
beyond their immediate communities.
[chanting in Korean]
-[singing] -And a new, more inclusive brand
of feminism emerges,
embracing women with diverse racial and cultural identities.
[chanting]
Long-buried stories of minority women are highlighted
in movies like Hidden Figures,
about the black women behind America's race to space.
[indistinct chattering]
[woman] I never thought I could dream to be a rocket scientist. [laughs]
When I found out it was true, I was like...
I was angry because I was like,
-"Somebody stole a dream from me." -Mmm.
"Somebody stole an option from me. They lied to me."
[narrator] Now, feminism develops a truly global outlook.
Quality education for girls is not just learning books,
passing exams, and getting jobs.
It is empowerment,
freedom, and nourishment.
[narrator] In post-Soviet Russia, dramatic protests
of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot go viral.
[women in Russian] Putin will teach you to love the Motherland!
[narrator] Especially when they're met with harsh reprisals.
[shouting in Russian]
[screams]
-[shouts in Russian] -[screams]
[narrator] And in Europe, the activist group Femen uses the Internet
to spread their naked appeal for equality.
Putin, go to hell!
[shouting]
We're a bunch of angry women
who choose their strategy,
as a feminist strategy, to take off their tops
and to write on their body that was for so long objectified.
[narrator] But while the Internet has given new voice to feminists,
it's also emboldened their detractors.
Social media trolling is particularly vicious against women.
[woman] I've used the Internet for brilliant things,
but I've had rape threats.
I've had huge swarms of, uh, trolls
all attacking me at once.
Um, it's very tiring. It's very time-consuming.
It's about somebody saying, "I can make you feel scared.
I can say anything I want to you, and there's nothing you can do about it."
-[chanting in Korean] -[narrator] As feminists around the world
continue to fight for equality, it becomes clear
how much work needs to be done in far-flung places,
where women are still treated as second-class citizens.
Around a quarter of girls in the developing world
do not attend school.
Each year, 15 million girls around the world are married
before the age of 18.
That's 41,000 every day,
or one every two seconds.
And there are 18 countries, as of 2015,
where husbands can legally prevent their wives from working.
[indistinct chattering]
In 2016, Hillary Clinton comes closer
to winning the American presidency than any woman has before.
I know we have still not shattered
that highest and hardest glass ceiling,
but someday, someone will,
and hopefully sooner
-than we might think right now. -[applauding]
[narrator] Her narrow defeat energizes the women's movement,
inspiring millions to converge on the streets of Washington
and around the world.
We march today for the moral core of this nation.
-[applauding] -[narrator] One year later,
a tidal wave of new female representatives
is sworn in to Congress.
The House becomes 24% female,
the Senate, 25%.
-[applauding] -And by early 2020,
the Equal Rights Amendment is back in the headlines,
as Virginia becomes the 38th state to ratify it.
If the original deadline can be overturned,
Congress may yet finally adopt the amendment
nearly 100 years after it was first proposed.
And the ERA would help ensure
equal pay for women.
[narrator] It's getting better, but that stubborn pay gap is still there.
And if nothing changes,
it will take another 40 years
for women to receive equal pay for equal work.
-[chanting in Spanish] -Clearly, as a movement,
feminism is far from done...
-[chanting] -[shouting]
...and won't be until everyone has the same opportunities,
the same freedoms,
and the same human rights.
[electronic music playing]