LEARN NC

North Carolina History Digital Textbook Project

Suffrage: The changing role of women

By Kristin Post

1.5 Using the Women's “Libbers” interview

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Introductory script

Though Dr. Boyd has specific opinions of suffragettes, she is not opposed to gaining the right to vote. She also has many firm convictions of her rights as a woman and her responsibilities as an enfranchised citizen. In the next oral history excerpt, she will express her convictions. We will also learn what she thinks about “women’s lib.”

Women’s lib is a nickname for the women’s liberation movement, which was particularly strong in the late sixties and seventies. This interview with Dr. Boyd was recorded in her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina in October, 1973, in the midst of the women’s lib movement. At this time, many women were advocating a constitutional amendment that would guarantee, among other things, equal pay for equal work, and it was known as the Equal Rights Amendment. Unlike the woman’s right to vote, this amendment never gained enough popularity to pass.

Preliminary questions

  1. What else do you know about other movements and protests occurring in the 1960s and 1970s?
  2. How would you describe the relationship between the younger and older generations at this time?
  3. How would you describe that same relationship as it exists today?

The recording

Play the Women’s “Libbers” oral history excerpt. Running time: 2 minutes 41 seconds.

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Transcript

Rosamonde R. Boyd
And so naturally when they received the vote they didn’t assume the responsibility. Some of them not even registered or voted. Some who registered and voted would have been horrified at offering for a public office.
Constance Myers
It’s a little narrow to want to restrict this activity for women, because there will always be some who do want to exercise this privilege.
Rosamonde R. Boyd
That’s why we were obliged to have status of women committees, to stimulate the women, to motivate them. They just weren’t interested; they weren’t going to do anything about it. And they resented some of the activities of status of women’s groups, too. I would say now that I really believe that the women’s lib movement is doing women more harm than good. Yes, I do. I talked to the convener of our committee who was Madame Helene Thalman-Antennen from Switzerland, and I said, “You know we have worked to advance women educationally. We have wanted more women to take higher degrees. We wanted more women to take professional training. We have wanted to advance women in policy-making posts and elective office. We have wanted to advance women in business, in industry. We wanted to have equal pay for equal work. We wanted to do away with restrictions on night work for women because some women had to work at night; it was preferable for some women to work at night. We wanted to do all this and we did it in a way that brought respect for us and support.” I said, “Then when the women libbers; began to come forth and when they decried happy marriage and were against…”
Constance Myers
Oh, this isn’t universal in the women’s movement.
Rosamonde R. Boyd
It isn’t in the women’s movement but it is with some of these people who protest and get on television.
Constance Myers
In every movement you have an extreme wing.
Rosamonde R. Boyd
But they’re the ones that you hear from. You don’t hear as much from the women who took the position that we did. You just don’t hear from them like you hear from these extreme women libbers.
Constance Myers
There’s a position taken in the women’s movement that marriage is to be encouraged but marriage of a fifty-fifty partnership.
Rosamonde R. Boyd
Well, definitely. Those of us who graduated from Randolph-Macon and colleges of similar type had fifty-fifty relationships back in the twenties.
Constance Myers
Yes, I know that my mother did.
Rosamonde R. Boyd
So we never thought of a woman having an inferior role at all.

Follow-up questions

  1. Name several ways in which Dr. Boyd says she’s helped fight for women’s equality.
  2. What is Dr. Boyd’s main complaint against the women’s liberation movement?
  3. Constance Myers, the interviewer, interjects her opinion in this discussion. How is it similar or different from Dr. Boyd’s?
  4. Do you think this conversation reflects the relationship between the younger and older generation mentioned above?
  5. What does Dr. Boyd mean when she says “You just don’t hear about from them like you hear from these extreme women libbers.” Why might it be the case that the extreme viewpoints are more often heard in the media? Is that the case today?
  6. What is your reaction to Dr. Boyd when she says “So we never thought of a woman having an inferior role at all”?