The Second Wave Of Feminism

The word feminism is defined as referring to political, cultural, and economic movements seeking greater rights and participation in society for women and girls. This word goes hand in hand with the feminist movement, which is aimed at equal rights for women. The feminist movement has had three distinct waves. The first wave took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and granted women the right to vote and practice birth control. The second wave achieved legal equality for women and began in the 1960’s and continued into the 90’s . The third wave of the feminist movement strove for social reform and began in the mid-90’s and some say it is still continuing today, or perhaps it died out

Women were denied this basic right until 1920. Without this right, women had no say in the laws that were passed and officials that were elected. The women’s suffrage movement faced a long road with many trials and setbacks. The first major setback was the wording of the 14th amendment to the constitution. This amendment was designed to ensure African American men would be recognized as citizens, and as such would be able to vote. Women had for a long time worked together with the civil rights movement in their struggle for equal rights. The authors of the 14th amendment did not want to upset the “natural order” of things too much, and thus added the specifying word “male” to the amendment to maintain that women could not vote. The leaders of the civil rights movement touted the 14th amendment as a victory which caused a rift between them and women’s rights activists. In the late 1800s a strong anti-suffrage movement came into being. They believed suffrage had a direct connection to “promiscuity, looseness, and neglect of children” (Brinkley 575). While this claim seems ridiculous, many Americans, including women, supported it. After years of protesting and demonstrating, success finally began to find the suffrage movement. In 1910 Washington granted women the right to vote. By 1918 California, Illinois, New York, and Michigan had also granted women the right to vote. The success culminated in the ratification of the

The culture classifies the society by a person's gender and sex, those two in which have many differences. The Feminist Movement resulted in the three waves of the women's rights movement. Additionally, the role of women was viewed differently by funtionalism, conflict theory, and feminist theory.

The women’s movement has been going on for at least the last two centuries. The first wave of feminism focused on voting rights, property rights, equal education, and recognition under the law for women. It started in the United States with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was an American social activist and abolitionist. In 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention a declaration of Sentiments was composed that focused on important issues for women at the time. The declaration demanded women’s voting rights, the right divorce, property rights, the right to birth control, and many others important issues of the time. Stanton believed that women were equal to men and deserved equal political rights. The convention at Seneca Falls was one of the first steps towards women’s rights.

"[Stella] backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out."(Williams 3.165-8) To Stella, this is attractive. Williams ' A Streetcar Named Desire, published 1947 between the first wave of feminism and the second wave of feminism, portrays two polar opposite ideologies regarding feminism and masculinity. Stanley represents what a man was supposed to be prior to the re-evaluation of masculinity by the first wave of feminism; men were supposed to be assertive, aggressive, and the kings of their homes. Stella, his wife, is meant to serve as an example of how women were supposed to act and ignore the behavior of their husbands. Mitch is the polar opposite of Stanley 's type of masculinity; he is

Beginning in the early 1960’s, the movement continued all the way through to the early 1980’s, the second wave of feminism brought together women in a fight for equality. During the first wave of the women’s movement, from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, women accomplished social and political growth when they achieved the right to vote in the United States; but in society and in their home lives, women were still treated as second-class citizens. While the first wave of feminism focused on suffrage, the second wave of feminism focused on other areas: gender roles, family, employment discrimination, reproductive rights, social inequalities, and education. The foundation of the second wave of feminism was born out the United

Feminism is the fight for equality among the sexes. It can be dated back to the mid-19th century with women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The first wave feminist procured the right to vote for American women. The following second and third waves built upon what the founding feminists created. The second wave of feminism was set off by the disenchantment women across America were experiencing. This disenchantment was caused by the nuclear family, and the roles that the women in the 1950s were thrust into. The second wave is said to have lasted from the 1960s-1980s. Sometime after the 1980s, most likely the early to mid-1990s, third wave feminists began to rear their heads. The third wave build on the advancements made by the first and second waves. There has been controversy regarding the thought that the third wave is actually just an extension of the second. This paper will explore the second and third waves of feminism as well as their relationship between themselves.

The feminism movement has had three waves, with the first wave starting in 1848 with first women's conference in Seneca Falls and the third wave beginning in the 1980s through to the present day. The first wave of feminism saw social figures like, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott who fought and demand women's suffrage, they also organized the women's conference in Seneca falls in 1848. Other notable leaders of the first wave include Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth. Feminist began making progress in 1860 when New York passed the Married Women's Property Act. This bill legalized property ownership, joint child custody and wage retention for women.

In the mid- to late-1900s, a hegemonic feminism dominated by white, middle class women was prevalent in many feminist movements. However, lesbians, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and black/ African Americans were all necessary to the progression of feminism. The 1970s attested to women of color working with white-dominated feminist groups; forming women’s caucuses in existing mixed-gender organizations; and developing autonomous Black, Latina, and Native American feminist organizations. These autonomous organizations were imperative to the furthering of the plight of each minority group because each group has a distinct culture, shares a common heritage, and has developed a common identity within a larger society that subordinates them.

Alice lived during a time when the second wave of feminism was going on. Alice was very affected by this and as she was slowly gaining freedom, she was losing herself. Alice along with every other woman in this time period, dealt with some very unfair situations and circumstances. One of the main issues with the second wave of feminism was abortions, women could not get them at some point. It was not up to them if they wanted to get an abortion, rather up to the government. If anyone did end up getting pregnant, they would either have to live with having a baby, even if they weren’t ready, or they had to get an abortion on the side, which was not always said to be safe. So, for example, if Alice ended up getting pregnant, she would have no

The unprecedented scale of World War II revolutionized societies around the world, and by doing so, revolutionized women’s roles in society. America was perhaps one of the countries most distinctly changed by it. This revolution albeit phenomenal, was short lived; Husbands and sons returned from war and went back to their peacetime occupations, reverting many of the changes in women’s societal roles. It was not until after the war that the role of women in society was truly revolutionized. The 1960s marked the birth of ‘second-wave’ feminism, a reignited movement that pushed to resolve many issues women faced in society, most notably in the working and domestic lives of women. Due to the very magnitude of the changes and the rapidity with which they were

The Second Wave of feminism was interrupted with the oncoming turn of the century, the 80s. In the political sphere you see the election of President Ronald Reagan who passed policy that discriminates against the middle class, minorities and women. During his presidency, it sparked the ongoing trend of anti-feminism which we still see in politics today. At the same time you see Hollywood becoming a larger more streamlined entity that narrows its focus to broader themed movies that don’t necessarily carry important messages as well as showing shallow themes. Hollywood at this point was looking to make blockbuster films that appealed to the greatest amount of audiences, and that means abandoning any sort of heavily political rhetoric.

The first and second wave feminist movements have led to a revaluation of the dominant patriarchal values perpetuated by the media, which is evident as ‘representations of women have changed greatly in the last 20 years alone to accommodate the changing role of women in society.’ This chapter seeks to explore the validity of this statement through content analysis of top-grossing feature films from the 1950s to the present day to determine whether ideals surrounding love and gender roles have been deconstructed in film over time.

The word feminism originated in the 1800’s from the French word “feminisme”. So what is feminism exactly? Feminism is usually defined as an active desire to change women’s position in society (Kolmar pg.27). There are many ways that feminism can be described as it is a number of theories, social movements, cultural and political movements. These movements are shedding light to the inequalities and equal rights for women and also equality for everyone. Feminism is a way for women to be heard and to fight for their right for equality. “It is feminism that recognizes individual diversity, and freedom, and equality, defined through and beyond north/ west and south / east dialogues” (Hooks pg.47). There are considered two waves of feminism or three according to who you talk to. The first-wave feminism focuses on power and women’s suffrage this wave of feminism also puts the focus on absolute rights. The second-wave feminism developed its own epistemological practices in the process of consciousness raising, a model for generating knowledge from the authority of individual women’s experience (Tong pg.55). Women in the second-wave also used their academic knowledge when discussing feminism to bring more knowledge about the topic of inequality. With the third-wave feminism I start to see more openness to allowing more women in these movements. I start to see how more lesbian women and women of color are more active in this wave. I however believe that third-wave

There was a strong and invigorated feminists’ movement in America from 1960s into the 1980s which was later spread into Europe and parts of Asia. Compare to first-wave feminism in which advocates sought for women suffrage, this feminist movement, which had a broader and deeper influence, focused on dealing with issues which hindered legal sexual equality, rights to reproduce as well as family roles. This feminism movement is named the Second-wave feminism. It was politically powerful and influential that it obtained significant gains including the pass of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, Title IX of the Educational Amendments in 1972 (Title IX prohibited discrimination by sex in educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance), and in 1973, the Roe v. Wade case which disallowed state laws prohibiting abortion during the first three month of pregnancy, and slowly equalized the balance between two genders in workforce positions. Women gain tremendous power: women’s share of lawyers more than quadrupled, of economists more than tripled, and of police detectives more than doubled. This women’s movement opened up public discussion of issues previously seen in the “grey area”, and therefore out of the reach of public scrutiny. In the mean time, the Congress sent the Equal Rights Amendment(ERA), which would benefit women, to the states for ratification on March 22, 1972. Within a year, thirty states had ratified the ERA.