They drew nationwide media attention when they unfurled a banner inside the 1968 Miss America pageant displaying the words "Women's Liberation".
The protest group was founded in New York City in late 1967, by former television child star Robin Morgan, Carol Hanisch,[1] Shulamith Firestone,[2] and Pam Allen.
Early members included Ros Baxandall, Pat Mainardi, Irene Peslikis, Kathie Sarachild, and Ellen Willis.
[3][4]: 318 New York Radical Women were a group of young friends in their twenties who were part of the New Left, who had grown tired of the male-dominated civil rights and anti-war movements, and men who they saw as still preferring their female counterparts to stay at home.
[7]: 405 Members of the group led an alternative protest event, a "burial of traditional womanhood", held in Arlington National Cemetery.
These included mops, pots and pans, Playboy magazines,[8] false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, curlers, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras,[9] items the protestors called "instruments of female torture."
It said "as the bras, girdles, falsies, curlers, and copies of popular women's magazines burned in the 'Freedom Trash Can'..."[11][12] [4]: 57 Dobbins was arrested for spraying Toni permanent wave solution around the mayor's box.
Along with tossing the items into the trash can, they marched with signs, passed out pamphlets, and crowned a live sheep, comparing the beauty pageant to livestock competitions at county fairs.
While 1967 Miss America, Debra Barnes Snodgrass, was giving her farewell address, four protestors unfurled a bed sheet from the balcony that said "Women's Liberation" and began to shout.