A large proportion of those making up this movement were from the middle class. They took part in this spirit of rebellion that had a great impact on a substantial number of middle-class youth in the 1960s. In addition, the sexual revolution of the 1960s was another factor that triggered the creation of this movement. The sexual revolution period was in turn inspired by invention and sale of the birth-control pill. The legislation reform process was yet another factor why change was vehemently sought during this time.
Conservatives aimed at ensuring that an amendment was created during the 1964 debate on the Civil Rights bill. This amendment was meant to outlaw discrimination based on race and gender. The amendment passed and so did the bill itself; the women were able to gain a legal tool that ensures protection of their rights.
The women’s movement enabled the women to have a different view of the world in which they lived in hence sought to alter the boundaries that society had set for them, and consequently become free. They were able to break free from the stereotypical roles of the 1950s. Women engaged in activities aimed at empowering their lot. The women’s movement experienced various victories in relation to legislature such as the 1963 equal pay act.
The women’s movement however became dormant during the mid to the late 1970s. It did not manage to extend its appeal outside the middleclass fraternity. Moderate and radical feminists began to draw apart. Conservative opponents on a different spectrum organized a campaign against the ERA. The ERAmerica was formed to support the ratification of the ERA in 1976. During the same year, numerous professional and women’s organizations staged a boycott against all those states that were not willing to endorse the ERA.