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Women's Issues
1. Housewives' Meat Boycott (Reader's Digest 1974 Almanac and Yearbook)
As angry as hungry tigers, American housewives put on a nationwide demonstration throughout the first week in April [1973] that made earlier protests against the Vietnam War look feeble by comparison. They were outraged by skyrocketing meat prices. So they stayed away from the meat counters for a full week, feeding their families fish and other meat substitutes.
Just three days before the boycott was to begin, President Nixon, who had said that retail food price ceilings would lead to black-marketing, reversed himself and imposed price ceilings on beef, lamb, and pork.
However, most housewives felt the President had not gone far enough. They believed the meat prices should be rolled back to earlier levels, rather than being frozen at their all-time high. During the first quarter of the year food prices had been climbing at a rate equivalent to 50% a year, with meat prices largely responsible.
As a demonstration of the power of the housewife, the meat boycott was a success. Most supermarkets and butchers throughout the nation reported that meat sales fell close to zero during the week. By week's end labor-union officials reported that about 20,000 meat-plant workers had been idled by the boycott.
But, so far as the goal of lowering the cost of meat was concerned, the boycott was a failure. A few supermarket chains lowered meat prices by as much as 10% during the last days of the boycott, but in the weeks afterward they climbed back to their earlier ceilings.
Boycott leaders from across the country met with congressmen in Washington on April 11, presenting petitions with thousands of signatures asking for a rollback in prices. However, congressmen from farm states mustered enough strength to prevent any such legislation from being passed. A Democratic measure to roll back prices failed in the House of Representatives on April 16 by a vote of 258 to 147.
Later in the year, in August, beef disappeared from the stores as ranchers withheld cattle from market awaiting the end of price ceilings. As year's end approached, however, both prices and supplies began to stabilize.
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