The women's liberation movement was an important part of 1960s and 1970s history in the United States. By 1974, feminism had already changed many women's lives.
Here are a few important events that affected women's equality and feminism in 1974:
- The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was amended to prohibit discrimination based on sex, along with race, color, religion and national origin.
- A group of black feminists began the Combahee River Collective, to work for justice and clarify their place in the politics of feminism.
- Billie Jean King started the Women’s Sports Foundation.
- Karen DeCrow was elected president of the National Organization for Women.
- NOW called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Later, NOW and other women's group leaders met with President Gerald Ford in the White House.
- In Geduldig v. Aiello, the Supreme Court ruled that excluding normal pregnancy coverage from a disability insurance plan was not sex discrimination.
- On the night of the prestigious Gridiron Club's famous annual dinner, a group of journalists and political figures held a "Counter-Gridiron" event to protest the club's refusal to admit women as members.
- The award-winning television special Free to Be...You and Me aired.
- Ntozake Shange wrote and developed her "choreopoem" play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.
- Johanna Demetrakas' documentary film Womanhouse explored the 1972 feminist art exhibit that took place in an old Los Angeles house.
- Francoise d’Eaubonne’s book Le feminisme ou le mort brought attention to ecofeminism.