Women's Lib '75: Moderates vs. Marxists - Linda Blosser & Jeff Calkins - December 1975

Linda Blosser & Jeff Calkins

Taking a cue from .the motion picture, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," the National Organization of Women (NOW) set aside Wednesday, October 29, as a national women's strike, to be known as "Alice Doesn't." Women were asked to cancel all their normal activities - shopping, working, and even sex – to demonstrate how much "the system" depends upon them. The move resembled the theme of the ancient Greek play, Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens tried to force their menfolk to stop a war by withholding their conjugal dues. But the modern version wasn't nearly as successful: Employers and husbands across the country reported almost no deviations from the normal flow of life: It seems most women weren't even aware that they were supposed to strike. In the end, Alice did. Ironically, there was another departure from the story line of Lysistrata. The participants in the NOW campaign cancelled their activities not to protest a war, but rather to escalate a war – the war for equality of the sexes. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library