ower due to easier scheduling).
In 1964, race discrimination was very much on the public mind, but gender discrimination was not; the modern feminist movement had scarcely begun, and the question of the rights and treatment of women in the workplace had not yet attained wide public visibility. It is thus somewhat curious that the bill addressed gender as well as race discrimination. Indeed, the language was added to the bill at the last moment, under circumstances that have led to dispute.
According to the West Encyclopedia of American Law, Representative Howard W. Smith (D VA) added the word. His critics argued that Smith, a conservative Southern opponent of federal civil rights, did so to kill the entire bill. Smith, however, argued that he had amended the bill in keeping with his support of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party with whom he had been working (National Archives, 1999).
The inclusion of gender discrimination in Title VII was
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