Feminist Movement Research Paper
From Humble Beginnings
Historians have sorted the American Feminist movement into three distinct “waves,” the first of which began before World War I. Although World War I should not be credited for the beginning of the Feminist Movement, it led to its triumph.
First-Wave Feminism merely began as women’s desire to be granted political, social, and economic liberties; this being represented by the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the first time a discussion of women’s rights had taken place. It was not until World War I that the dream of gaining rights became a reality. Due to many men being drafted to fight in the war, women were needed in the workforce to compensate for the vacancy of men, who generally occupied those jobs and because of …show more content…
Second-Wave feminists were mainly divided into two groups, the first being more radical than the other. The first group organized what was called “Consciousness Raising” which assembled groups meant to investigate injustices within the workforce, school system, and government. Additionally, many radical Feminists believed that the patriarchy only hindered Feminist efforts and advocated for separatism, which was the idea that women should be isolated from men. On the contrary, the less radical group formed the National Organization of Women meant to be run similarly to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with respect to their specific target group. What both divisions agreed on, however, was the criminalization of rape and to stop the criminalization of abortions. This led to a push for the Equal Rights Amendment passed in 1972, which signified solely the beginning of a long fight. As Casey Hayden and Mary King, two second-wave Feminists noted in their excerpt, A Kind of Memo, “the caste system [of the patriarchy] is not institutionalized by law,” and thus policies are not the only thing required to combat the innate sexism embedded within
Historians have sorted the American Feminist movement into three distinct “waves,” the first of which began before World War I. Although World War I should not be credited for the beginning of the Feminist Movement, it led to its triumph.
First-Wave Feminism merely began as women’s desire to be granted political, social, and economic liberties; this being represented by the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the first time a discussion of women’s rights had taken place. It was not until World War I that the dream of gaining rights became a reality. Due to many men being drafted to fight in the war, women were needed in the workforce to compensate for the vacancy of men, who generally occupied those jobs and because of …show more content…
Second-Wave feminists were mainly divided into two groups, the first being more radical than the other. The first group organized what was called “Consciousness Raising” which assembled groups meant to investigate injustices within the workforce, school system, and government. Additionally, many radical Feminists believed that the patriarchy only hindered Feminist efforts and advocated for separatism, which was the idea that women should be isolated from men. On the contrary, the less radical group formed the National Organization of Women meant to be run similarly to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with respect to their specific target group. What both divisions agreed on, however, was the criminalization of rape and to stop the criminalization of abortions. This led to a push for the Equal Rights Amendment passed in 1972, which signified solely the beginning of a long fight. As Casey Hayden and Mary King, two second-wave Feminists noted in their excerpt, A Kind of Memo, “the caste system [of the patriarchy] is not institutionalized by law,” and thus policies are not the only thing required to combat the innate sexism embedded within