Fifty years after the vote, tens of thousands strike for equality

Fifty years to the day after the Nineteenth Amendment gave American women the vote, the National Organization for Women called a nationwide strike to mark the anniversary. On August 26, 1970, somewhere between ten and twenty thousand women filled Fifth Avenue in New York City, chanting and carrying signs, while thousands more marched in Boston, Washington, San Francisco, and dozens of other cities. Betty Friedan, who led the New York rally, framed the day around three demands: free abortion on demand, equal opportunity in the workplace, and free childcare. Police had expected a modest crowd confined to one lane. Instead it spread sidewalk to sidewalk…