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“The Future is Female” slogan was coined in the 1970s by Labyris Books, the first women's bookstore in New York City. The slogan was featured on store merchandise including t shirts and pinback buttons. 

This feminist slogan emerged in the 70s within the Lesbian Separatist Movement. In mainstream culture, this movement was described as lesbians who believed they should live in their own society separate from men. They were often described as “militant lesbians” but Lesbian Separatist member Liza Cowan describes the movement as less dogmatic; instead it was a group of people figuring out how to live as women without male interference. 

The slogan gained popularity in the 1970s after Cowan photographed her then girlfriend Alix Dobkin wearing the slogan on a t shirt and featured that photo in an advert for her publication DYKE: A Quarterly. The slogan reemerged in 2015, when the instagram account @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y featured Cowan’s photo. The slogan was once again printed on t shirts as part of the feminist fashion trend. In 2016, Hillary Clinton used the slogan in her presidential campaign, solidifying its presence in mainstream culture.

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The Black Feminist movement started to appear during the late 1960s and flourished into the 1970s as the defining decade for contemporary Black Feminism. Growing tensions between the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Civil Rights Movement encouraged Black women to build their own movement. Their goal was to separate from the mainstream of white-dominated women’s liberation and establish black feminism centralized around intersectionality. Intersectionality, a term coined in 1989 by Kimberle Crenshaw, examines how multiple identity points including gender, race, and other social categories, work in concert to influence one’s life. Black feminists have to fight on two fronts, equality for gender and race. Currently, Black Feminism has focused on queer and trans black women, girls, and gender nonconforming peoples. A few of the most recognizable Black Feminist figures include: Sojourner Truth, Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisholm, and Audre Lorde.

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The feminist fist inside a biological female symbol was first featured on a pinback button at the 1969 Miss America Protests. This protest was organized by the group New York Radical Women to bring attention to how beauty competitions are damaging to women and create unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards. The symbol gained popularity and quickly became a trademark image for the women’s liberation movement. While the original design featured the fist and biological female symbol in red on a white background, the button has gone on to be produced in many color variations.

The fist symbol has a long history and has been used by oppressed groups as a sign of resistance. While its origins are somewhat unclear, early iterations are found in 1917 propaganda cartoons by the Industrial Workers of the World and during the Spanish Civil War, the fist was an anti-fascist salute used as a greeting by Republican forces fighting against Franco’s Nationalists. Arguably the most famous use of the fist symbol was for the black power movement. The Black Panther Party was known for using the fist to salute each other at meetings, conventions, and rallies. At the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, upon receiving their medals, raised gloved fists during the national anthem to show resistance and solidarity with those suffering from oppression, creating one of the most iconic photographs of the century.

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In 1971, as a response to the forming of the National Women’s Caucus, a united, multi-partisan group aimed at equal political representation for women in political offices and the championing of women’s issues in legislation, many cities and states began to form their own caucuses, including the Manhattan Women’s Caucus. The Manhattan Women’s Caucus met and elected council members in March, 1972. Under the banner of, “Make Policy, Not Coffee,” the group’s original aim was to fight for equal representation. They were urging for 50% of political delegate seats and an equal chance at appointed and elected offices. To this end, they trained women for running as delegates, as women lawyers within the group prepared a legal team in case of discrimination attempts. In addition to political equality, the group also took on women’s issues including abortion rights. One of the group’s founding members, Tanya Melich, a former Republican turned Independent, left the Republican party over women’s issues. She was later responsible for coining the phrase, “The Republican War against Women.” In 1973, after the historic Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling, the Manhattan Women’s Caucus joined up with New York Radical Feminists, The Feminist Coalition, and the NYC branch of the National Organization for Women to create a statewide “Women’s Lobby.” The group’s wishlist included: credit cards for women without reference to marital status, no-fault divorces, the designation of pregnancy and childbirth as a “temporary disability,” and removing restrictions on contraceptives.

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The diaphragm is one of humanity's oldest methods of contraception. The basic concept of the diaphragm has been used for centuries: Ancient Egyptians are said to have inventively used lemon halves or sponges to prohibit insemination. The diaphragm we know today was patented in 1882 by a German doctor Wilhelm Mesigna, and brought to America illegally by Margaret Sanger. 

In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic through which she gave the women of Brooklyn, NY access to the diaphragm. Her clinic was only open ten days before it was shut down, and Sanger was arrested for committing the illegal act of disseminating “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” information as outlined by the Comstock Law of 1873. 

Due to her influence and her legal battle, this law was later amended to exclude contraceptives. Thus, the diaphragm became one of the most common contraceptives for several decades in the 20th century. Popularity of the diaphragm began to wane in the 1960s with the introduction of oral contraception and the IUD, which were seen by many as simpler and easier methods of birth control.

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Women for Racial and Economic Equality, also known as WREE, was an organization founded by the Communist Party USA. The Communist Party USA is the oldest Marxist-Leninist organization in the United States. The organization put out a bi-monthly bulletin called “The WREE-VIEW,” which was published in New York. While some did include names, many contributors chose to remain a sense of anonymity when published in the newspaper. WREE put out statements that catered to female audiences, especially female racial minority groups. The organization’s appeal was held in the inclusivity of the group as coupled with the logical and emotional draw to audiences. Publishing poetry, articles in multiple languages, and topics relevant to women, the “WREE View of Women for Racial and Economic Equality” also published articles against the Reagan administration and calls to boycott specific companies. Alongside all of these are sometimes well-hidden pieces of Communist propaganda that praised the party and their ideals.

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"Free all undocumented workers" may promote the rights of undocumented workers and their history of past discrimination. Undocumented workers are foreign-born people who are not permanent residents of the U.S. and not U.S. citizens. Because their immigration status is unresolved, they are ineligible to work in the United States. Federal law states that it is illegal to discriminate against any workers regardless of immigration status. The Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted by federal law to protect undocumented workers. It prohibits discrimination based on immigration status. Federal law is helping all undocumented workers have employment rights and get protected as much as all other workers.

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The Parents’ Aid Society, an abortion clinic, was established by William Baird in Hempstead, New York, in 1964. The Parents’ Aid Society advertised the availability of birth control information and devices. This organization went to poor neighborhoods in Nassau County, New York, to educate and distribute all methods of birth control to people of all ages in the community. The birth control was provided for free.

Red text on white background with black and red female symbols riding a train.

The Little Engine that Could is possibly the most popular American children's story. Originally published in 1930, it tells the story of a tiny engine that perseveres to pull a train up a mountain. The engine repeats "I think I can" until it ultimately succeeds. Since its first telling, the little engine has been gendered as a "she." The tale has thus been read by feminists as an optimistic lesson in fighting for justice.

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Women USA was a grassroots women’s rights organization created in 1980 by Bella Abzug that advocated equality, women’s rights, and—what some might now call—ecofeminism. Abzug, also known as “Battling Bella,” was a pioneering Jewish feminist and political leader and one of the first women to earn a law degree from Columbia University. Prior to founding Women USA, Abzug was one of the United States’ first Congress members to support gay rights, helping to introduce the Equality Act of 1974 as well as helping to start the Women Strike for Peace (WSP) movement in the 1960s in opposition to the nuclear arms race.

In 1977, President Carter appointed Abzug to head the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year, leading to her later co-chair position for the National Advisory Committee for Women. In 1979, after openly criticizing the economic policies of the Carter administration, Abzug was fired, causing tension between the Carter administration and the feminist movement. Abzug went on to co-found Women USA the next year. Women USA eventually led to a successor program called WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organization) in 1990, and the first World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet in 1991.