The Reagan Years: 1980s: Advancement & Backlash for Women’s Movement

In this photograph, a woman from the Bay Area Chapter of the Women's Party for Survival carries a papier-mache dragon, a Chinese symbol of power and protection, during a parade for International Women's Day in San Francisco's Union Square. The organization was founded by international peace activist Helen Caldicott, an Australian pediatrician and cofounder of Physicians Without Borders. During the 1980s, California's feminists were greatly alarmed by President Reagan's nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. In 1982, the state voted in favor of a nonbinding ballot initiative calling for bilateral nuclear weapons freeze between the major powers.