Executive Order 11375

Executive Order 11375, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 13, 1967, banned discrimination on the basis of sex in hiring and employment in both the United States federal workforce and on the part of government contractors.

During the legislative effort to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "sex" was not among the categories the bill initially covered. In the House of Representatives, Southern opponents of the legislation, led by Reprensentative Howard Smith of Virginia, proposed adding "sex" to the original list (race, color, religion, or national origin). Smith had supported women's rights for decades, but others thought that the amendment would make the bill unacceptable its more moderate supporters and then lead to its defeat. Civil rights groups and even the American Association of University Women opposed the addition, but a coalition of conservative opponents of civil rights legislation and liberal civil rights advocates voted to include "sex." The bill thus eventually passed with the word.

Authorities charged with responsibility for enforcing the Civil Rights Act focused on racial discrimination and belittled sex-based discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), charged with enforcing the 1964 act, even decided in 1965 that segregated job advertising, "Help Wanted Male" and "Help Wanted Female," was permissible because it served "the convenience of readers". Advocates frustrated with the acceptance of sex bias for women's rights founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in June 1966.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., the head of the EEOC, counseled patience and pointed out that because of the way the word "sex" had been inserted into the legislation, the EEOC had no legislative history or testimony before Congressional committees to guide it through "a number of very serious problems of interpretation, implementation and jurisdiction." NOW and other women's advocacy groups and the President's Citizens Advisory Group on the Status of Women urged President Lyndon Johnson to bring government policy with respect to sex discrimination into line with other forms of bias prevention. Assistant Secretary of Labor Esther Peterson lent support as well.

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