Tidal Wave Summary

Everyone can agree that sexism had its talons deep in the flesh of the American mindset during the 1800's and although this is an obvious fact, few people understand just how hostile an environment it was for a woman. Among those few, were the women living in this malicious medium. From corsets to kitchens, housekeeping to health, life was not easy for even the most well-to-do woman. Although not all women decried their situation, a strong-minded minority dropped their oven mits, put their fists in the air, and called out for a change. Equal opportunity, equal right to vote, equal pay, and all around equality is what they demanded. But feminism was not only found at suffrage rallys or Grange meetings, it made its way in to every medium,

The current counterculture and social upheavals of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war caused this new feminism to emerge, signaling the beginning of a transforming era in women’s history (TWE, 607). Women were tired of living in a man’s world where they

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.

As the century immediately following the American Revolution, the 19th century experienced a rise in feminism as it harbored the first feminist movement in America. Although some women chose to embrace their “roots” by retaining their domestic sphere of influence, many women began to show discontent with the limited number of rights women held. Soon enough, the fight for women’s rights resulted in women gaining more prominence in society.

While Western Civilization: Volume 2: Since 1500 by Jackson J. Spielvogal and Wikipedia overlap at certain points, Spielvogal’s book provides a large overview of the feminist movement in the 1960s to 1980s. Compared to Spielvogal, Wikipedia goes more in-depth with the people involved, the issues they were fighting for, and the laws they were able to get passed. Even though they have their differences, both are informative and give the reader an acceptable idea as to the feminist movement of the 1960s to 1980s.

In the 1940s women were called upon to help the war effort and support their “boys overseas” by stepping into factory jobs, signing up as nurses, and assisting in any way they could. Women enjoyed some of their greatest independence in these years as they did their part to support their country. The end of World War II brought many changes to the American people and women in particular. As men returned home from war women were forced back out of the workplaces they had only recently occupied, to return to the home. Not everyone had a positive view of the newfound independence of the American woman as author Arnold Green scripted in a 1956 sociology video:

Newman offers an insight on the figures such as Alice Fletcher, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Roberts Coolidge, and May French-Sheldon that helped shape American society. Her argument in this book she writes, “The history of women’s movement is that it rejects the premise that feminism, in any of its late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century incarnations, was an egalitarian movement. Instead I have argued that the discourse we call woman’s rights was shaped by the turbulent debate over race during the 1870s through 1890s and must be understood in relation to the nation’s civilizing missions and imperial projects, both at home and abroad. (181). White Women's Rights determine the ground import of US imperialism and domestic racial hierarchy to the development of (white) feminist thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the early feminists’ focal concern was women’s suffrage. During this time, most women in the United States did not have many economic and political rights. Back then priorities of women were to take care of their homes, families, and husbands. These earlier feminists, also known as the first wave feminists, simply wanted a voice and this led to the women’s suffrage movement. By 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment finally passed and gave women the right to vote (Kotef). This successful movement influenced women everywhere in the world and continued to powerfully inspire women throughout the 20th century (Kotef). By the latter half of the century, the second wave of feminism arose. It included the voice of African-American women because this wave occurred during the civil rights movement. Second wave feminism also included important issues such as sexual and reproductive rights, legal abortions, birth control pills, and the passing of the Equal Pay Act (1963). All feminists live to create ideologies and movements that support the equality of women, but it is clear that second wave feminists were substantially different in their aims than earlier feminists (Gizberg). The goal of this paper is to analyze the main elements of second wave feminism and compare it to the works of earlier feminists. This will show the multifaceted development of second wave feminism.

Because women come from all races, social classes, and age, they have been an important instrument in shaping western ideology and the world. Feminism is a broad term encompassing the entirety of the historical movement in the nineteenth century and the philosophical thought leading into the twentieth century (Zophy and Kavenik 206). Although the term wasn’t popularized until the 1950’s and 60’s, it represents the ideology into the modern era. With Woman’s History being a major thread of United States history, it is important we understand the progression of women’s rights, freedoms, and feminism throughout the Colonial Era, the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, and the rise of second and third wave

Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, Women’s rights shifted constantly. The years after the war, in which included the time between 1950 and 1960, were the defining moments that would eventually lead to increased Women’s rights in America. Immediately after the end World War two in 1945, men returning from war were interested in securing their past jobs. Because of this landmark decision, millions of women, who had been doing the men's work while they were at war, now were left penniless. the transformation of 1950’s women into feminists who looked for female self government; The most important points of the change in women’s rights between 1950 and 1960 is to understand how these housewives said no to all that was supposedly ideal and perfect, and started the fight for a better future, for a society that accepts women that live for their emancipation and individuality.

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.

America is the land of opportunity. It is a place of rebirth, hope, and freedom. However, it was not always like that for women. Many times in history women were oppressed, belittled, and deprived of the opportunity to learn and work in their desired profession. Instead, their life was confined to the home and family. While this was a noble role, many females felt that they were being restricted and therefore desired more independence. In America, women started to break the mold in 1848 and continued to push for social, political, educational, and career freedom. By the 1920s, women had experienced significant “liberation”, as they were then allowed to vote, hold public office, gain a higher education, obtain new jobs, drastically change

Kerber, Linda K., ed. Women’s America: Refocusing the Past. Eighth edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Before the 1960s, American women were contained within a rut that hindered them from living equally among American men. According to Dixon (1977), women had been without a voice to articulate the injustice and brutality of women’s place and without instrumentality to fight against their exploitation and oppression for nearly forty years. However, “[from] the late 1960s into the 1980s there was a vibrant women’s movement in the United States” (Epstein, 2001). This movement, fueled by feminism, promised drastic improvement in the lives of American women and also promised to “[…] equalize the status of all women” (Dixon, 1977). Due to the uplifting wave of the 1970s women’s movement, females in America anxiously awaited the freedom to live as

The purpose of this argumentative paper is the feminism that occurred in the early 1900s. “Now We Can Begin” written and compiled as a speech by Crystal Eastman in the United States during the 19th amendment about the inequality experienced in the society with women having limited rights and unequal treatment (Eastman). Women during that time would stay at home and watch over their children while they husbands would be the bread winners of the family. When Crystal Eastman wrote the speech in the 20’s, the roles played by each gender had begun to disappear as women were pursuing careers and leaving their homes to indulge in other outside activities. She wrote ab0out the plight of women and the challenging norms of gender experienced