Second Wave Feminism : A Feminist Perspective

As a fourth wave feminist of color, black feminism means many things to me. It means that I have many opportunities available to me that the first, second, and third wave feminist did not have. It also means that although we as women of color have been fighting for equal pay, equal rights and equality in our relationships, that we still have a long way to go.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, feminist women in America faced an underlying conflict to find their purpose and true meaning in life. “Is this all?” was often a question whose answer was sought after by numerous women reaching deeper into their minds and souls to find what was missing from their life. The ideal second-wave feminist was defined as a women who puts all of her time into cleaning her home, loving her husband, and caring for her children, but such a belief caused these women to not only lose their identity within her family but society as well. The emotions that feminist women were feeling at this time was the internal conflict that caused for social steps to be taken in hopes of

The end of the third-wave brings post-feminist, which describes a range of reactions to feminism. Post-feminism is not “anti-feminism”, post-feminists believe that women have achieved their goals during the second-wave; and were being critical during the third-wave. The terms post-feminism was first used in the 1980s to describe the backlash against second-wave feminism. From this point on there has been a huge debate on whether or not feminism is still needed during our modern times. To draw a conclusion on whether feminism is still needed in Canada please see Appendix one. This graph shows average hourly wages for both men and women during November 2014 and November of 2015. During the year 2014 women were being paid on average $22.88 an

Beyoncé Knowles, multi-platinum Grammy award winning artist first made her debut as lead vocalist of award winning R&B group Destiny’s Child in the late 90’s. The group went through several breakups and makeups with different members in the group until they were able to establish perfect harmony with lasting members Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. The group went on to make Billboard 100 charts with number 1 songs like “Bug a Boo” & “Bills, bills, bills”. In 2002 Michelle Williams went to produce her first gospel album, Kelly Rowland produced her own R&B album and Beyoncé Knowles hit the big screen playing opposite of Mike Meyers in the Austin Powers film, Goldmember. The group got back together and produced

Talking about the British Women’s rights that focused on first wave feminism, the aim of women and also political changes affected the political lives of the women and paved the way for the future. Those who argue for or against the role of activism in the aims and goals of women are usually separated by the issue on whether women got the vote due to their struggle to gain that vote or their contribution to the war effort.

Feminism, a term that is often thrown around in today’s media and daily conversations. However, the definition of the word can change from person to person, although the connotations of a fluid definition usually tend to be of negative value, when regarding feminism; fluidity, individualizing, and an evolving definition is crucial to the very being of ‘feminism’. While it may be true that feminism is not a static term, when emotions and personal experience are involved, having a standard base to build and branch from for individuals is imperative to the cause. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary “Feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” (Merriam-Webster, 2018), though this is one of the

The idea of feminism and women’s rights have been under attack for years. Women themselves have been under attack for their entire lives. Women always have to be doing things correctly or men attack their very being. Men have expected women to be submissive to them from the beginning of time, as life has always been a patriarchy. Feminism has always been buried under the dirt but in the last 50-100 years, it has been exhumed from the grave. In this time women have been fighting for rights, especially through literature. As Amanda J. Davis explains in her essay about feminism, “Authors deconstruct such concepts as home, safety, and shelter in their respective texts and reposition them in the context of social injustices born out of the volatile intersection of race, class, and gender oppression.” (Davis) There have been many women authors who have helped define feminism, one of the most famous being Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir taught herself philosophy and then began her own teaching career and authorship. Her novel Second Sex quickly became a beacon of the feminist movement in the 1950’s. She writes about the causes and effects of the oppression shown to women all around the world, especially in the United States. Simone de Beauvoir shows in The Second Sex that there are many sources of injustice toward women including biological, social and economic, and legal.

Third wave feminists criticized the first and second wave of feminism for creating a static identity in politics and overall asserting to white privilege over its main goals. Nevertheless, third wave feminists also criticized the previous waves for its political theories. First wave feminism adopted the core values of liberal feminism. “Liberal feminism is feminism that works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure” (Kinds of Feminism). This simply meant that feminists during the first wave did not want to change the traditional society but to incorporate women and to improve society. As stated previously, first wave wanted women to be incorporated into voting decisions, political and economically. Second wave feminism adopted the theories of radical feminism. Radical feminism can be explained women who believe society must change at the core, unlike the first wave. Radical feminism wanted to overrule the male dominance and shun away from a patriarchal order. Although two distinctly different political theories, third wave feminists rejected both. Liberal feminism, like the first wave, sought only to include and improve society. Second wave feminism believed that society should change at the core and shift away from patriarchal order.

Feminism is something that has played with Literature since the beginning of time. Novels and poems were a way for women to express themselves in ways that they never could at home. I chose pieces of Literature from the three different time periods that we have covered. For the Romantic Era, I chose the differences between Barbauld and Wollstonecraft. For the Victorian Era, I chose “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”. For the 20th Century, I chose “To Room 19”.

Feminists seek to reconstruct decrepit ideas of femininity, and extinguish female oppression over the years. Feminist literary criticism, in the first and seconds waves, critique patriarchal language, by exposing

During the late 1960s and 1970s, in what is considered the “Second Wave of Feminism’, the fight for Women's Equality was seen by most as a secondary concern to racial equality. This led the Women's Movement to combine the fight for racial equality with gender equality, seeking to bring a more diverse group of women together to achieve the goals of the movement. Whether this approach led to accomplishing these goals is questionable. The Women's Movement struggled due to the very diversity it sought to capitalize on, as evidenced by its lack of consistent objectives, continued division among its members, and the varying approaches to obtaining equality.

Second wave feminism was focused on broadening the debate presented by first wave feminist. While first wave feminists sought to overcome legal

First wave feminism was a late-19th and early-20th century phenomenon that brought about a plethora of changes, most noticeably women's suffrage. Many early feminist activists became politically engaged through the anti-slavery movement (LeGates, 244). First-wave feminism focused on legal issues, primarily on gaining women's right to vote. Women’s role during the First World War reflected their social and economic position. Feminists were not satisfied with the idea that women’s work was classified as less important than men’s work. Besides, the working-class women who were the representatives of the first wave feminism promoted the ideas of feminism at work and in homes, in stores, halls and local newspapers (Boxer, 554). They believed in their rights and were focused on the promotion of collective actions aimed at realization of their agenda. However, men opposed women’s involvement into male jobs during the First World War. Male trade unions defended the division of labor based on gender. Much of the first wave feminism was led by middle upper class and upper class white women. Suffrage was one of the most important issues persisting through first wave feminism. Feminists in the nineteenth century believed that getting the right to vote would pave the way for other substantial gains in feminism (LeGates, 243). During this time women were widely oppressed and racism and discrimination were evident at every corner. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, women’s suffrage

In colleges all across the United States students are having a difficult time identifying with the feminist movement because of the negative stereotypes. Groups of teenagers gather to laugh and joke about the extreme examples pushed by feminism’s opposition portraying feminists as man-hating, bossy and unattractive. Feminism has many different forms, a couple being first and second wave feminism; first wave feminism had goals focusing on legal issues and voting while second wave feminism dealt with more social issues and various rights. With third wave feminism, a form of feminism with broad goals focusing on stamping out gender roles, on the rise it is important to know which of these stereotypes are truthful and which are complete misrepresentations. In order to form a good opinion on third wave feminism it is necessary to look past the stereotyping in the media and the bias. Additionally, it is important to focus attention to the topics deemed feminist issues and the changes they are making in some of the places most affected by third wave feminism, college campuses.

The Women’s Movement of the 1970’s and 1980’s was not led by a single figure or group, rather it was run by women as a whole. However, the movement was divided between the younger and older generations, upper and middle class and radical and conservative views. “The Second Sex” a book written by Simone de Beavoir in 1953, explains how the ideology that men are dominant, is enforced by ongoing myths. It also states how just because women are capable of getting pregnant and menstruating, does not make them inferior to men. In 1963, Betty Friedan, who was influenced by “The Second Sex”, wrote The Feminine Mystique. This book discusses how women were seen in the mainstream media, and how forcing them to be homemakers, limits their potential. In a survey Friedan conducted using her old classmates from Smith College, it was found that women who played a role at home and worked, were happier than women who only stayed at home (Napikoski). In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration approved the oral contraceptive pill (birth control) which allowed