Preview

Second Wave Feminism

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
930 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Second Wave Feminism
First-wave feminism was about suffrage and getting over legal obstacles like voting rights, property rights
Second-wave feminism was about much more like sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
Second-wave feminism also fought violence with proposals for marital rape laws, establishment of rape crisis and battered women's shelters, and changes in custody and divorce law.
Second-wave thought pop culture was sexist so the created their own counter-culture in which they tried to promote a positive image of a woman. Helen Reddy’s song "I Am Woman" became a feminist anthem; Reddy became the "feminist poster girl".
After world war 2, there was a renewed sense of femininity that came along with the post-war boom, which included unprecedented economic growth, a baby boom, a move to family-oriented suburbs, and the ideal of perfect marriages.
The second wave of feminism was a reaction to the late 1940s. the media of idealized domesticity (EX: Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver). in the 1940s Simone de Beauvoir wrote that male-centered ideology was being accepted as a norm and that the fact that women are capable of getting pregnant and menstruating does not make them the "second sex". Kennedy established a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt.
In 1963 Betty Friedan wrote the bestselling book The Feminine Mystique in which she protested the mainstream media image of women, stating that making all women into housewives limited their possibilities, and wasted talent and potential. This book started second-wave feminism. in 1963, Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women released a report, which revealed great discrimination against women in American life.
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act became law in the U.S., and it established equality of pay for men and women performing equal work.
In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    |Women/Feminist Movements were beginning to emerge as they fought for social and political equality (status, rights, and opportunities). |…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Third Wave Agenda Summary

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Heywood, Leslie, and Jennifer Drake. Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Print.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In addition, the second wave produced Betty Friedan a writer and feminist. The feminists of the 1960's thrived for sexuality, education,…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Many argue that women’s status in American society was improved during the Second World War through their contributions to the North American economy. During the Second World War women were “allowed” to do the jobs that were originally meant for men. However after the war ended they went back to their roles as housewives, gender roles were expected to return to the way they were once the war ended. The changes did not really begin to take place in gender equality until the 50’s and 60’s but this was due to the younger generation, the ones who were daughters of the women who took men’s jobs during the war.…

    • 2279 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hcs341 Week 2

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The equal pay act was introduced in 1963 during the World War II. It came to be an act because men were at war and the woman wanted to step up and make money. The equal pay act was designed so that men and woman would get the same pay for the same work being done. When this act was first induced into legislation it was called the Woman’s Equal Pay Act of 1945. Woman had to prove that the men got paid more than the woman, they did the same amount and quality of work, and the men and woman worked under the same conditions. All of this just to recover under the equal pay act of 1963. An employer may pay a male employee more than a female employee if the employer can establish that payment is based upon (1) a seniority system, (2) a merit system, (3) a system whereby earnings are based upon the quantity and quality of production by the employees, or (4) a differential based upon any other factor other than the sex of the employees. Although the first three of these defenses have been the subjects of litigation, the fourth exception has been litigated more frequently (thefreedictionary.com, 2012).…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With The Second Sex, Beauvoir wrote what is now considered to be the bible for second wave feminism, introducing revolutionary ideas that spurred on feminists for generations to come. Beauvoir draws parallels with oppressions of blacks and jews, with a significant difference: women struggle to create solidarity or separatist groups due to the vastness of their issue, and yet depend on men for a sense of accomplishment, companionship, and economic stability, under concepts created by the patriarchy.“One is not born but becomes a woman” She was the first to say on a broad scale that physical differences don’t explain social differences when it pertains to gender, something that is an integral and base platform for all feminism since…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within the third-wave feminism it seeks to challenge or escape what is assumed in the second wave's key definitions of femininity, which according to these feminists over-emphasize the experiences of upper middle-class white women. It can be seen within the post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to a large portion of the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on the "micro-politics" and challenge the second wave's description as to what is, or isn’t, good for females. Many black feminists, sought to negotiate a space within the feminist through the consideration of race-related subjectivities. Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates between different feminists, as some believe that there are important differences between the sexes and then there are other feminists who believe that there are no differences between the sexes and they argue that gender roles are due to social and cultural…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women were always thought of as delicate little pieces of fine china that needed to be locked away from the big, bad world because of how sensitive they were. But the twenties proved that ancient theory wrong. In the Twenties women broke old rules and began…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women's lives were massively changed because of Betty Friedan, in 1963 Friedan wrote a book called “The Feminine Mystique” this book was a non-fiction book which highlighted the widespread unhappiness in the USA about how women were being treated, a quote taken from. the book read; “A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex, but neither should she "adjust" to prejudice and discrimination” this showed that women only wanted to be equal and in no way superior to men. Other influential women such as Ti-Grace Atkinson fought for women's rights however she was much more radical – she influenced celibacy, lesbianism and female separation.…

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ever since the beginning, women have been downgraded. Many people ask the question why? Well, many people have thought that women cannot do the things that men can. Which later proves to not be true at all, as women believed they can do anything they put their minds to. With America's involvement in World War II, there was a change to women's roles. Women at the time may have not seen it but they were planting the seeds for the rebirth of feminism in the 1940s. (Writer, Leaf Group. “Feminism During the 1940s.” )…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender Wage Gap in the U.S

    • 1396 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Later, on June 10, 1963 the Equal Pay act was exposed to claim that women could not receive a lower pay than male…

    • 1396 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After World War II, women were dissatisfied with their roles and wanted equality. After the war, about two million women lost their jobs (Doc 1). They were told they didn’t want to work, and were forced to become homemakers and became separated from the workplace (Doc 1). Women began to question, “Is this all there is?” (Doc 2). They only made beds and shopped for groceries; women felt restricted and led boring lives (Doc 2). Women were also disappointed because there were only certain jobs available to them; mostly clerical work such as domestic service, retail sales, social work, teaching and nursing (RBP 983). These jobs paid poorly and no matter what, women were always made fewer wages than men. Women were also upset because they were denied easy access to education unlike men, and wanted to have a career outside of the home but could not because their lack of schooling. Women were not provided the same amount of opportunities as men and were very dissatisfied with their boring, restricted lives. Such lives led some women to organize small groups to…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Traditional gender roles have existed for many centuries. Throughout the history of humanity among various cultures and eras, there are pieces of evidence and traces of unfair treatment of women. Women have a role of a wife waiting for her husband to return from the war, a mother of the conquering hero or a great scientist, or a daughter who is destined to marry the prince of another country in order to consolidate the alliance between the two countries. Life of a woman was determined by the man, whether it be her father, husband or son. It is not surprising that such a position in society led women to fight. Starting with the suffragettes and finishing with the third wave, feminism has become an integral part of the society. Women opened…

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Multiracial Feminism

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The first wave of feminism began in the United States in the mid-late 1800’s. In this era, women were being treated more like property and trying to…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Labour feminism has broadened in focus and has in some instances taken a Marxist and Socialist position to address inequality. Mistakenly, Second Wave feminism has been thought to have concerned only the “white and middle class” women in society, when in reality many progressive unions addressed that the oppression occurred that not only because of gender but also because of race and class. Both the patriarchal and capitalistic systems come under fire as social constructed forms of oppression. The push for women’s equality remains trying but the numbers provide evidence of women’s headway in the public sphere as the female employment rises during the “Long Sixties”, a period from 1965-1975, and onwards.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics