Second Wave Liberal Feminism

Feminism is defined by the belief that the personal is the political. Discuss
Although not all strands of feminism advocate interference in the personal lives of women, feminism has proven to be unsuccessful in achieving full female emancipation by purely focusing on the public life of women. In this way, the only way for feminists to be successful in their aims is to concern themselves with the personal lives of women which subsequently means that feminism, in the modern sense, with the knowledge of the failure of both the first and second wave liberal feminists and socialist feminists to bring about female emancipation, has to be defined by the belief that the personal is the political. Until the 1960’s feminism was not considered its own
In this way she too believed that personal problems faced by women would be resolved once they were given an equal stake in the public sphere. However, she also differed from first wave liberal feminists in that she recognized that the cultural pressure to behave in a ‘feminine’ way in the private sphere, affected the way women behaved in the public sphere and discouraged them from being politically involved. In fact, first wave liberal feminists usually assumed that women’s inclination towards a domestic life was a natural impulse and represented a willing choice rather than an expectation brought about by society. This was particularly advocated by J.S Mill who believed that given the choice, women would chose a domestic life but that this in no way needed to hinder them in the public sphere should they wish to enter it once equal rights were achieved. Even Friedan’s The Second Stage published in 1983 has been criticized by more radical feminists for contributing to the ‘mystique of motherhood’ and upholding some of the ideas about the nature of women supported in the first wave, though many second wave liberal feminists would agree that patriarchy and other cultural constructs
In this way the only way for feminism to be successful, which in a radical feminist’s sense would be to achieve emancipation and equality both in a cultural and social sense as well as in a political sense, is to be concerned with the personal lives of women. Although for a first wave liberal feminist like Mill, perhaps just achieving legal and political status was enough. He never expected that women would chose the political life over the private and so perhaps he would have been contented with the achievements made by liberal feminists. In this case, feminism is indeed only concerned in the political lives of women. However if feminists want to achieve emancipation in the full meaning of the word, then feminism has to be concerned with the private sphere. In this sense, feminism or successful feminism has to be defined by the belief that the personal is the