In the 1960s the women's liberation movement again came into the public consciousness and quickly grew into the largest social movement in the history of the United States. The movement primarily attracted young female college graduates, many of whom were active in the antiwar and civil rights movements and were also treated unequally within those movements. 

Some women (and men) sought equality for women within mainstream institutions such as government, employment, labor unions. Others challenged the male-dominated power structure to change personal, social, and cultural life. They focused on issues that had not been previously considered political, such as housework, beauty, reproductive rights, violence, and sexuality.

Bonnie Eisenberg and Mary Ruthsdotter write, "These various elements of the re-emerging Women's Rights Movement worked together and separately on a wide range of issues. Small groups of women in hundreds of communities worked on grassroots projects like establishing women's newspapers, bookstores and cafes. They created battered women's shelters and rape crisis hotlines to care for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. They came together to form child care centers so women could work outside their homes for pay. Female health care professionals opened women's clinics to provide birth control and family planning counseling -- and to offer abortion services -- for low-income women. These clinics provided a safe place to discuss a wide range of health concerns and experiment with alternative forms of treatment."