The First Wave Of The Second Wave Movement

However, during this wave the economic independence for women was also a central concern because at this time, American women could not own property. The second wave, also known as the liberation movement, was in the late 1960s to early 1970s. This is when the term “feminist” emerged. Many achievements were made during this wave such as the Equal Pay Act, the Women’s Educational Equity Act, and Title IX. This helped gain gender equality in universal sports, and on an economic and educational standpoint. Although this was a successful time period for women, some argue that the movement did not speak for women of minorities. The third wave is generally dated from 1980 to present time. Third wave feminists continue to fight for many legal and institutional advances that second wave feminists aimed for. While second wave feminists commonly consisted of upper-class, heterosexual white women, the third wave feminists are more diverse (Healey 2003).

Some accomplishments of the second wave were the reform of states divorce laws and federal legislation that mandated equal pay and equal education opportunities. Furthermore, this wave is split into two branches: liberal and radical. Radicals sought to address causes of the oppression of women. Liberal feminists worked in existing institutions systems under the assumption that the institutions themselves were not useless. Thus, their goal was to equalize, not to replace or transform. During WWII especially, women replaced nearly six million men who were across the ocean. Women appeared in factories and manufacturing places and even organized a national baseball league. This is right about when the figure “Rosie the Riveter” became a

Women now were educated, voting, and even aiding their states during war times. In the U.S. many activists were fighting for similar issues addressed by the predecessors, however they were able to take things further, since there was a precedent. Instead of just gaining access to higher education, Second-Wavers were pushing for Women’s Studies classes and departments, and for prominent historical women to be included in academia. Women in the U.S. were also beginning the enduring battle of saving the environment. “Second-Wave feminists brought internal attention to the problems caused by violence against women and by poor environmental practices.”

The Second Wave Feminist movement was to increase the rights of women in the workplace, politics, reproductive rights, and violence against women. They created the Equal rights Amendment (ERA) which did not pass and won Roe v. Wade which made abortions legal (Staggenborg 2016). Although the movement embodied issues that affected many women it was still perceived as a movement that was for a certain group of women that being White middle-class. The movement had a lot of support and in turn had a great victory in the reproductive field, with legal abortions and birth control that allowed women to be in control of their body. The ERA was not passed and that led to the decline of the movement, but because these issues are always an issue in women’s’ lives the movement continued to exist just in a less visible

The Third Wave was also seen as originating from the 1990’s post-feminist movement. The goals of the First movement were met, such as voting and property rights, as well as the Second Wave’s goals of equality in the workplace and reproductive rights. Thus, the goals of feminists were seemingly accomplished, and the movement was considered dead.(Page 64) This caused an increase in activity from people who still felt that there were injustices that needed to be surfaced, in regards to the interconnectivity of race, class, and sexuality with feminism. The feminist movement isn’t dead yet, but where its goals and aims will lead it into the future is unknown.

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

This third wave recognizes that society is unique politically, economically and culturally in comparison to previous waves of feminism. However, the third wave represents an increase in the variant of attitudes toward gender equity as well as an increase in the number of individuals who are willing to participate actively in the third wave movement.

Third-wave feminism is the most current movement of feminism, it is characterised with women’s right to sexuality (especially concerning sex workers), the wage gap and the intersectionality of the movement. Former feminist movements have been criticised for not

“First wave” of feminism in 1920 advocated women’s suffrage, whereas the “Second wave” targets the societal issues that women in the 21st century are facing. Betty Friedan wrote The Feminists Mystique after World War II exposing female repression and later founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) which ignited the second wave of the feminist movement. Consequently, it became noticeable that women were in multiple wars, as a result branches of feminists were formed (i.e. Liberalist, Marxist, and Socialist). Misogyny’s evolution has its own significant role in the feminist movement, stirring conversations today that affect feminist ideologies. However, in order to fully comprehend what affects second wave feminism along with the tactics utilized by feminists, one must first become acquainted with the many forms.

People have many misconceptions about feminism. A main problem is that the media misrepresents feminism. The media bases the information it releases about feminism on the second-wave feminist movement that took place from the 1960s-1970s. Due to this distortion, there are myths that feminists are only fighting to make women more equal to men and that feminism liberates women at the expense of men. However, the truth is that feminism not only liberates women but also liberates men. Feminism breaks down standards that are put up for both men and women by society and fights for people of every “[color, class ethnicity, nationality, religion, and cultural background]” (McCarty, 467). Early last year, the Fawcett Society designed a t-shirt that read, “This is what a feminist looks like” as a movement to empower women.

"I want to walk alone and feel safe. I don’t want to be discriminated against on a daily basis because I am a woman." (Lindlar,2014), Showcase how feminism had changed rapidly since the 1990's. This quote is in other words conveying that specifically and only women feel unsafe and discriminated against by men. Although Lindlar fails to include the numerous charges of assum at towards men and the daily discrimination men can experience as well as women. The rebukes of the interview revealed that when interviewees were asked if they thought feminism can be radical 100% of them answered yes. This supporting evidence proves that the feminism movement has changed from the 3rd wave movement in the 1990's to 2017 in a negative way as it has become more radical and focuses more on women's rights and problems rather than both men and women's rights as a whole in

After the rise of feminism in the 1970s, an era known as “post-feminism” washed over America. Post-feminism, according to Levine, is simply “characterized by a belief that the goals of the feminist movement of the 1970s have been accomplished and thus that there is no need to continue a fight that has already been won.” Third-wave feminism, however, remains “invested in collective feminist activism and in the fight against a

3: The first obvious difference between 2nd and 3rd wave feminism is time: 2nd wave occurred mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, while 3rd wave is generally considered to take place in the 1990s and later. Additionally, 3rd wave focuses more on the individual experience and possible intersectionality, as opposed to 2nd wave, which focused more on women receiving legal rights. Chapter 1 of Women’s Studies discusses the advances the 2nd wave movement brought about, particularly in the cases of Roe v. Wade, adding Gender and Women’s Studies to a number of colleges and universities, the Equal Pay Act in 1963, Title VII, as well as a commission to enforce these anti-discriminatory laws (Shaw and Lee, 7). While this did make a difference in the lives of many women, legal change without societal change (as those who enforce the legal system are still socialized in our culture) can be unproductive.

Throughout the last century, women have had to fight to have the same opportunities as men. Women have had to earn the right to vote, the right to have a career, and the right to autonomy. However, these are all rights that men have simply been given, which is why today’s feminists work to promote equality. Despite these efforts, feminism is often misunderstood and is interpreted with a negative connotation. According to a study conducted by Precopio and Ramsey (2017), “feminism is commonly recognized as a movement driven to grant social, political, and economic equality to both women and men.” The participation of others besides women is crucial to the spread of equality among the genders. Furthermore, the stigma and negative feelings surrounding feminism must be reduced in order for the ideals of feminism to have a greater impact.

This wave supposedly has a bad name and is considered “unserious”. This could be the result of the third wave not having many specific goals. The first two waves focused on a few specific problems: the first wave was women’s sufferage and the second wave was breaking the stereotype about the roles of women. This cannot be said for the third wave. Instead, third wave feminist focus of gender equality on a broader scale. Amy Richards had made a general list of the goals that the third wave of feminism would be trying to achieve.