Protests and Pushback: Women's Rights, Student Activism, and Institutional Response in the Deep South

Abstract

Pivoting around two sit-ins at the University of Georgia, this article examines student activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the US South. The first sit-in, at the conclusion of the spring 1968 March for Coed Equality, was part of the effort to overcome parietal rules that significantly restricted women's rights but left men relatively untouched. The second occurred in 1972 when the university responded to salacious allegations of immorality in women's residence halls by replacing progressive residential education programming with the policing of student behavior. This article centers student efforts for women's rights, demonstrates how students and administrators shifted tactics in reaction to external stimuli, and explores the repercussions of challenging the entrenched patriarchal power structure. In so doing, it joins the growing literature complicating understandings of student activism in the era by focusing attention away from the most famous and extreme cases.

“Gay People Pay Activity Fees Too”: The Committee on Gay Education’s Pioneering Legal Victories at the University of Georgia

“…It hosted a national meeting of the Southern Students Organizing Committee against university administrators' orders and contributed to the May 1968 March for Co-ed Equality, which called for an end to regulations that restricted women students' rights. The event included a mass sit-in of the administration building, produced national headlines, and helped lead to a dramatic equalization of rights and regulations, though it did not foster a vibrant, large-scale social movement for which its leaders had hoped (Cain & Dier, 2020;Huff, 2010). Protests peaked on campus in the aftermath of the Ohio National Guard killing four young people at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.…”

“…The nine most senior residence life staff members resigned. When students protested the changes, the university had the students arrested and aggressively pursued legal action against them (Cain & Dier, 2020). It was in this institutional context of intermittent activism against entrenched conservative interests that two students founded CGE in fall 1971.…”

Strengthening Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in India

“…Within this partnership there was an expectation for women to obey their husbands and agree with them to ensure a stable and happy marriage. However, there were some topics that caused disputes, one of which was women's right to education, consequently leading to protests (Cain & Dier, 2020). It was only the daughters of wealthy parents that were able to acquire formal education for a large monetary value situated within their home environments.…”