.” (CP: Women’s Liberation, p.295) Women across the board could be heard shouting statements rooted in dissatisfaction with the inequality of work and pay in America, including Ora. The National Women’s Organization addressed this issue. “The woman’s movement-not one organization-is a conscious attempt on the part of women to work out an analysis of our own and other’s oppression under American capitalism.” (CP: Women’s Liberation p.306) Ora equally disrespected the way society tried to use ridicule to keep women in submission by calling their efforts at equal rights “silly” and declaring feminists as “bra burners.” This discontent with society led to Ora’s participation in the N.O.W. International Women’s Year Conference in 1977. This event, as well as her reading of the Feminine Mystique and the Female Unit, encouraged her to express her opinions, different ways of expressing them and gave her a place where her voice was heard. Ora recollects the women’s liberation movement as having a positive effect on her friends and fellow feminists. Many women took to the pursuit of education to empower themselves. Women like Pauli Murray were preparing themselves in universities nationwide for careers previously dominated by males. Their access to quality education not always ensured by their tuition, women like Murray and Ora felt the pains of sex discrimination before they entered their respective fields. Ora recalls interviewing for jobs while still in college, that her stellar resume had landed her, only to be dismissed before the interview even began, because she was a woman. Ora credits the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (ironically not intended to benefit women or expected to) for creating better job opportunities for women and a chance for women to excel in leadership. The Equal Rights Amendment was a barrier in the women’s movemen...
