August 26, 1970 - Women's Strike for Equality
Union Square, San Francisco
Union Square, San Francisco
On the 50th anniversary of women winning the vote, Betty Friedan and the National Organization of Women (NOW) spearheaded the Women’s Strike for Equality, a call for feminists around the country to organize, make our presence known and our demands heard. It was up to individual Women's Rights Movement groups to choose what they wanted to do. Women in New York, Washington DC, and Boston held marches. In San Francisco feminists organized a noon rally in Union Square.
It turned out to be one of the largest women’s movement rallies in the country that day, but in the lead up to the event we hadn’t known what to expect. The San Francisco Chronicle, the city's primary newspaper, had vehemently denounced the event for weeks beforehand and published a scathing editorial condemning the rally hours before it even began.
To our amazement, 2,000 people crammed into the square to hear about the importance of accessible child care, decriminalizing abortion, the toxic intersection of sexism and racism in the lives of women of color, and the need to recognize the contribution lesbians had made in the fight for equality. Aileen Hernandez, the newly elected president of NOW, invited men to stand with the Women's Rights Movement in imaging and creating a future with more equality and flexible gender roles.
It turned out to be one of the largest women’s movement rallies in the country that day, but in the lead up to the event we hadn’t known what to expect. The San Francisco Chronicle, the city's primary newspaper, had vehemently denounced the event for weeks beforehand and published a scathing editorial condemning the rally hours before it even began.
To our amazement, 2,000 people crammed into the square to hear about the importance of accessible child care, decriminalizing abortion, the toxic intersection of sexism and racism in the lives of women of color, and the need to recognize the contribution lesbians had made in the fight for equality. Aileen Hernandez, the newly elected president of NOW, invited men to stand with the Women's Rights Movement in imaging and creating a future with more equality and flexible gender roles.
As I wove through the crowd with my camera, I caught the eye of other feminists I knew from the women's movement. We looked at each other with expressions of wonder. It was hard to believe what we were witnessing, such loud cheering and so much support. It felt less like a rally and more of a homecoming.
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