The Turbulent Emotions Felt By Feminist Women

In the year 1848 America held the first gathering dedicated to women’s rights; after decades of fighting for women’s equality, the 1920’s national election was the first for women to cast their presidential vote. The feminist movement, as a unisex advocacy, has had some successes other than voting rights, such as discrimination related to equal pay, having credit cards in their own names, terminating pregnancy, purchasing contraception or “the pill”, attending prestigious schools, becoming an astronaut or supreme court justice, and many more that have now been fixed due to this movement. So the question remains: do we still need feminism? After all, there have been many successes and several women claim they “don’t need feminism anymore”; however,

The period 1940-1975 represented a time of trouble within the United States and overseas. As World War II ended in 1945, many Cold war conflicts erupted shortly after that, increasing social controversy among teenagers, minorities and especially women. During this time period, gender inequality was ongoing in many aspects of life. Women were tired of constantly staying home engaging in domestic activities and were dissatisfied in their roles as “housewives”. The rise of the women’s rights movement was spurred by the growth of women joining the workforce, resentment of being treated as inferior to men, and the rise of unity among women.

Women’s roles in the American household had been the same since the discovery of America to 1848. Women in the simplest of terms were meant to run the household, raise the children, cook, clean, etc. This began changing in 1848 when women wanted to break free from the social norms and develop a social role outside of the household. Women felt that their lives would be completely transformed if they earned the right to vote; once they earned the vote then they would earn equality across the board. This desire for social change began boiling many years before 1848 when women began reading and writing domestic novels expressing anger towards women’s dependency on men. They began attending women’s academies and formed ladies’ benevolent societies where they pursued their own personal interest and activities. Then in 1848 approximately 200 women gathered together to hold the first women’s rights convention in the United States. This convention discussed the social, civil, religious condition and rights of women. There would go on to be 10 National Women’s Rights Conventions and The National Women’s Suffrage Association along with the National Women’s Party. “Although social change was a constant in the American Republic, women were expected to be the stable unchanging element in a changing world.” Although the Women's rights movement allowed the equal treatment of men and women it did cause so much pain for so many women. The Women's rights movement created equality and justice,

Women in America were not always perceived as equals to men. It took a great deal of blood, sweat, tears, and most of all time, for women reach the quality of life in todays culture. American women had always pushed feminism, but it wasn’t until the time period around World War II, that equality for women initiated to more than a vision. From the 1940’s to the 1960’s there were several phenomena that nudged society in ways that would improve women’s life and bring forth the women’s movement.

Although the post war economy, the invention of the pill, and the civil rights movement precipitated great change for American women, feminism also failed to achieve change by not resolving tensions of raising a family and trying to hold a job and not stopping marriage from crumbling into divorce. Even though women had become pilots, Supreme Court justices and astronauts, they still failed to “have it all,” by not resolving the tension for women trying to raise a family and hold a job (Collins 393). Failing to resolve this crisis, feminism’s inability to achieve change, left millions of women struggling to “have it all,” when 1980’s television made it seem within reach with women like Clair Huxtable. In fact, women’s inability to make change

White women, considered the “pure” race during this period, were expected to follow one specific path: get married in their early 20s, immediately start a family and have kids, and devote their whole lives to serve their husbands and kids. The American Feminist Movement started in 1962 when Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique , a book that captured the frustration of a generation of college educated housewives, mostly white middle class women in that time period, who felt trapped. In this book, Friedan describes women’s unhappiness as “the problem with no name” . Middle class educated women felt depressed because they ignored the necessity to pursue their goals, misled into thinking that serving their families was the highest and only aspiration they should have. The movement focused originally on eliminating inequality in the workplace and giving equal opportunities to both sexes.

In my reflection, I realized the massive strides that have been made since the early 1900s. Society today is closer to embodying liberal feminism, where men and women should have equal rights (Source 3 page 61). Women can not only vote now, but they can also join the military, attend college, hold government positions, and work as executives—all opportunities that were either illegal or unheard of a century ago. During women’s suffrage, society more closely resembled a cultural feminism, where men and women have different images of rights (Source 3 page 61). The majority of men held the belief that they were superior to women—in the classroom, in the workplace, in the home, in government—while women were fighting to prove they were equal.

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

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.)

Women of America, whether they are minorities, or white middle class Americans, have often faced struggles with their ability to express who they are and understand what it means to be individual and to have freedom, especially expressive freedom and the freedom to work and vote. Because of the many obstacles women have faced throughout history, since the civil war, women’s understanding of these concepts have changed dramatically through the times. From being defined as housewives, and pawns of the household whose sole purposes were to breed, be pure, pious and submissive, to gaining the right to vote and work and taking control of the workforce, to once again regressing to similar household issues, women have finally progressed to where we are today, a closer definition to freedom and individualism that didn’t exist in the female population before. Women living in America have shaped an understanding of what freedom, community, and individualism mean as a result of the many plights they have faced since the civil

The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed changes in almost every aspect of women’s lives of from the domestic realm to the public, especially during post-war America between the years of 1945-1960. Throughout history, women’s lives were limited to bearing and raising children, they were left oppressed and without a voice. Roles of women have changed over the decades and they have gone from being the property of their husbands to achieving independence in all areas of American culture.

The late nineteenth century was a critical time in reshaping the rights of women. Commonly this era is considered to be the beginning of what is know to western feminists as “first-wave feminism.” First-wave feminism predominately fought for legal rights such as suffrage, and property rights. A major hallmark of first-wave feminism is the concept of the “New Woman.” The phrase New Woman described educated, independent, career oriented women who stood in response to the idea of the “Cult of Domesticity,” that is the idea that women are meant to be domestic and submissive (Stevens 27). Though the concept of the New Woman was empowering to many, some women did not want to give up their roles as housewives. These women felt there was a great

In the 1970’s Judy Brady sparked controversy when her essay, “I Want a Wife” was published. Taking a new look at the role of a wife in a marriage, Brady inspired feminists all over the United States and all over the world. Today, the feminist movement is a worldwide movement that challenges men and women to work together with the ideal end result being gender equality. While Judy Brady definitely influenced the feminist movement, she certainly did not start it. The first wave of the feminist movement occurred in the late 19th century. At this point, women were supposed to be stay-at-home moms with no need for an education or a job. They also were not allowed to vote, which was one of the things that they fought very hard for. In the early 20th century, specifically the 1920s, women were given the right to vote. This time period was known for feminists breaking boundaries because not only were women given the right to vote, but the number of working women increased. While all of these things were changing for the good of women, men were still considered superior. The second wave of feminism was in the late 1960s. This portion of the movement was also known as the Women’s Liberation Movement. During this time, the feminists fought for reproduction rights and also focused on discrimination in the workplace, domestic violence, rape, and abortion. During the third wave, which was in the 1990’s, the feminists focused on sexuality. While society as a whole continues to progress,

Women’s rights have evolved over time; beginning with being homemakers and evolving to obtaining professions, acquiring an education, and gaining the right to vote. The movement that created all these revolutionary changes was called the feminist movement. The feminist movement occurred in the twentieth century. Many people are not aware of the purpose of the feminist movement. The movement was political and social and it sought to set up equality for women. Women’s groups in the United States worked together to win women’s suffrage and later to create and support the Equal Rights Amendment. The economic boom between 1917 and the early 1960s brought many American women into the workplace. As women began to join the workplace they became progressively more aware of their unequal economic and social status. Homemakers, many of whom who had previously obtained college educations, began to voice their lack of personal fulfillment. They had an awakening, they realized their lives were not fulfilled and wanted more than what the restraints of society would offer them. Many literary works were born from the feminist movement; each enabling women to achieve more than what society expected of them and to push the societal limits. The Awakening is a prototype of the feminist movement.

In 1776, the then First Lady of the United States was the first to raise her about women’s rights, telling her husband to “remember the ladies” in his drafting of new laws, yet it took more than 100 years for men like John Adams to actually do so. With the help of half a dozen determined, and in this case white upper-middle-class, women the first-wave feminism, which spans from the 19th century to the early 20th century, finally led to their goal after 72 years of protesting. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the rights for women to vote finally passed in 1920. This grand victory brought other reforms along, including reforms in the educational system,