Feminism In The 1960s

Women of the 1950’s through the 1960’s are ridden with male oppression and self-esteem issues. The book Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and an episode of Mad Men titled The Shoot have a lot in common. The differences and similarities between the leading women in both of these stories from the 1950’s show that times are different today. The women of the 1950’s had a dream for the future and their dream has finally become a reality for American women. From Mad Men, Betty Draper’s dream of becoming a model and in Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler’s dream of traveling the world are actual realities for women today. Their dreams show similarities, differences and the “American Dream” that every woman has.

During, the 1960s and 70s American Feminist Movement, women had begun to protest for the same human rights as men. The main areas of protest in The United States of America were Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City. There were many ways to protest, including writing, art, and organizations. There were many writers who wrote about feminism during this time, some include Betty Friedan, Robin Morgan, and Kate Millett. Art also encouraged feminism, specifically the paintings by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. There were many feminist groups that protested for equal rights, some of which were The National Black Feminist Organization, The National Organization For Women, Bread and Roses, and The Chicago Women's Liberation Union. In the 1960s and 70s,

During the 1960s women were confined to one lifestyle, they were not acceptable in the public eye and were limited in their family lifestyle as well as the workplace. Women were expected to marry the traditional young marriage and then devote their time to raise the family and take care of their husband. Due to restriction women became activist and voiced their opinion to become equal in the workplace.

The family shows both continuity and changes which can be seen by looking at nuclear families and single parent families respectively. Before 1940s, marriage was considered an important part of society and thought to be a social institution essential for order. Divorce and single parent families were considered dreadful, sex outside marriage was not acceptable, it was a moral offense. The tempo of divorces was very low, but this social behavior soon ended in the post war era. By 1960s, this was no longer the case, as women started to work. They became much more independent, laws were changed and increase in divorces and cohabitation rates had shown that marriage was not compulsory in one’s life.

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

The second-wave feminism has been the driving force behind the Women’s Liberation Movement, which is synonymous within the twenty years in the later part of the twentieth century, beginning in 1960 and ending in 1980. The movement, in the past, had an impact on various aspects of social life to men and women; and this impact is still showcased in areas including, but not limited to; women’s health, fertility trends, laws and legislations, personal believes and religious discussions, interpersonal relationships and family roles, feminist issues, and gender relations.

the house becoming the homemaker once the war was over. The 1950s has also been

Early feminism was typically focused only on white women, likely because racism was still extremely prominent at the time feminism began emerging. It was not until Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term “intersectionality” in 1989 that feminism started to look at oppressed group’s needs (Nash, 2008, 2). Intersectionality is a way of thinking that acknowledges that when a person has identities that belong to more than one oppressed group, it impacts their quality of life more negatively. In this paper, I will argue that intersectionality is important in the discussion of feminist theories and activism because it ensures that feminism is for all women, not just a select group of them. Intersectionality has changed the way the feminist movement handles the overlapping of different identities, which has helped feminist theorists understand the experiences of women of colour much more clearly. While intersectionality has a very important role in the conversation and practice of feminism, there are certainly critiques of the concept that should be brought up. These critiques, however, can offer a way to improve the study of intersectionality.

Underlying the feminism movement of the 1960s and 1970s was the “white racist ideology.” The women’s movement of the 1960s was in fact the white women’s movement. It was an opportunity for white feminists to raise their voices, but they only spoke about the plight of the white woman and excluded themselves from the collective group of women across all races and social standings. White women assumed that their experience was the experience of all women. When black women proclaimed that the movement was focused on the oppression of white women, the white feminists asserted “common oppression” and retorted with “oppression cannot be measured.” Ironically, feminists in the 1960s compared their oppression to the oppression of African Americans as

Lingering inequalities and other social trends from previous decades brought forth the modern feminist movement in the 1960s. These feminists campaigned for gender equality with causes such as equal pay for equal work, abortion rights, and social parity. In 1963, author Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which contained reports from a study conducted on female college graduates during the 1950s and early 1960s, which uncovered that most women labelled themselves exclusively as mothers and housewives, and were unsatisfied with the roles forced upon them. Friedan argued fervently that women needed to discover their own identities outside the roles of a wife and mother. Many believe that the arguments made in The Feminine Mystique marked the start of the modern feminist movement (Loveday, 1)

The number of women returning to higher education has greatly risen since the 1970’s. They have returned for a number of reasons. Some being, employment opportunities, retirement or becoming a widow and dealing with grown children who’ve left the home. Typically these women returning are older; have more responsibility than the traditional-aged student; are usually married, and are mothers (Teachman & Paasch, 1989)

The 1960s was a decade of Civil Rights Movements, including the Feminist Movement which still affects modern day life. The economic stability post WWII allowed for more attention to be focused on Civil Rights. Because of the financial stability, there was more time to think about the future and for exploring the lack of equal rights among different groups. During World War II, women were trained to do jobs traditionally held by men because the men were at war. Rosie the Riveter was an important figure during the war encouraging women to join the work force and do "men 's work." After the war, women were expected to return to homes and continue to be housewives even though many would have liked to have kept their war time jobs. This is when Rosie 's propaganda was taken down and the government closed many of the daycare centers that supported working mothers. Women felt it was unfair that they had to return to being a housewife when the men came back from the war. The Feminist movement blossomed soon after and women united to fight for gender equality.

Second wave feminism first emerged in the wake of World War II in the late 1940’s. It originated as a response to the post war boom. After World War II, the United States’ economy flourished, the population soared, capitalism emerged more triumphant than ever, and suburbia expanded like never before. The socio-economic state of the U.S. at this time lent itself spectacularly to middle-class familial expansion. During this time there was also a marked and, many would argue, a conscious effort to return to the patriarchal gender roles in place prior to World War II. That is to say, the nuclear family was in its glory days with the man being the undeniable head of house, and the woman his subservient housewife. The social movement toward female domesticity was heavily advocated through media propaganda which depicted the woman as a wife and mother exclusively, in the closed sphere of the home. We have previously seen with the emergence of first wave feminism the rise of feminist agenda that comes out of woman’s subordination at the hand of her husband, and misogynistic government policy and paradigm. It is this same sentiment that triggered the need for another wave of feminism, that is to say, the second wave. (Brownmiller, 36-38.)

The 1960s is an era notorious for its rights movements; a decade of chaos and eventually, one of change. One of the rights movements that occurred in the 60s was Second-Wave Feminism and despite it beginning towards the end of the decade and continuing well into the seventies, it still had a prominent impact on the counter-culture of the 60s. In Sarah M. Evans article “Sons, Daughters and Patriarchy: Gender and the 1968 Generation,” Evans focuses primarily on the year 1968 and analyses the international gender norm crisis that occurred in both sexes, male and female. In doing so, Evans successfully convinces her audience that 1968 was the year that gender dynamics was globally revolutionized.

Social issues happen across the world, they leave lasting impressions on the world. Social movements are organizational structures and strategies that have a goal at the end that the organization or person wants to meet, They can be large, sometimes formal and informal but they all focus on specific political or social issues. They can be see all throughout time such as, the Women Rights Movement in the 1970s. A lot of women gathered up and began to fight for their rights until they got them. Now we are able to see similar movements being pushed here in 2017, the Black Lives Matter movement they are fighting for their rights and their movement is being heard. Throughout America there will always be new social movements that are happening causing change to the country.