Women had gained the right to vote, and the right to be employed most everywhere that men are, but there was still a glass ceiling to how high in up the corporate ladder they could advance.  Most women were stuck at the bottom of it, in menial clerical or service jobs. Worse yet, they were paid less for those same jobs than the men. To challenge that status quo Betty Friedan proposed something extraordinary in her last day as the president of the 3,000-member National Organization of Women. She proposed a one-day general women’s strike — no cooking, no cleaning, no secretarial work.

On this day, August 26, in 1970, Friedan’s strike was carried out by women across the country, gathering publicity for their cause from every major national — and international news organizations.

Tens of thousands marched down Fifth Avenue in New York with with buttons and signs like “Don’t Iron While The Strike Is Hot”; while in Washington D.C. women demonstrated on Connecticut Avenue with a banner reading “We Demand Equality.” The women of the Detroit Free Press made a statement about the inequality of restrooms in the offices (the men had two while women had only one) by kicking the men out one of theirs. Even women in Paris and the Netherlands marched in support.