Women During The Nineteenth Century Essay

The second-wave feminism has been the driving force behind the Women’s Liberation Movement, which is synonymous within the twenty years in the later part of the twentieth century, beginning in 1960 and ending in 1980. The movement, in the past, had an impact on various aspects of social life to men and women; and this impact is still showcased in areas including, but not limited to; women’s health, fertility trends, laws and legislations, personal believes and religious discussions, interpersonal relationships and family roles, feminist issues, and gender relations.

The second wave of the feminist movement began in the late 1960’s and continues to the present day.

The Women’s Movement also referred to as Second Wave feminism applies to the women’s movement that began at the end of 1963 and extended into the 1980s.

Waves ebb and flow. After a wave crashes, it recedes back to the ocean and gains momentum before crashing onto shore again. The feminist movement have been described as waves because it experiences similar motions. After the solidary force of the first wave, there was a recession in feminist activities that accumulated until it formed the second wave. The first wave feminist movement narrowed their principles and left a legacy of single-mindedness to the second wave feminist movement. The first wave’s focus caused the lull that is the unnamed problem and started the second wave.

After women won the right to vote, the second wave of feminism began in the 1960s and continued on to the 90’s. This wave was highly associated with the anti-war and civil rights movement and the movement started growing conscious to a variety of minority groups all over the world. Out of three waves, the second wave’s voice was increasingly radical and theoretical as sexuality and reproductive rights were dominant issues. Protest began in Atlantic City in 1968 and 1969 against the Miss America Pageant. Many activists thought it to be a degrading “cattle parade” that reduced women to only objects produced by the patriarchy. Along with fighting against sexism in cartoons and politics, second wave feminists found their voice among other movements such as Civil Rights and the Anti-War movement. While the first wave was fought by middle class white women, the second wave invited and incorporated women of color and developing nations demonstrating that race, class, and gender oppression were all related and seeking sisterhood and solidarity (Rampton).

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

Some of the major issues that broadened the debate for the second wave femanism were sexuality, family, the workplace, social issues, and reproductive rights (Foster 72). The Third-Wave Feminism challenged the second wave 's "essentialist" definitions of femininity, which was often seen as one universal female identity and over emphasized the experiences of upper middle class white women, and began to introduce women of color and other cultures in developing nations (Drake, Heywood 49). This wave is also resposible for reclaiming sexuality (Drake, Heywood 53) Both movements brought about major changes that affected women 's personal life at home, job opportunities, and culture changes, causing us to changed the way we talk and think. As a result, most of today 's women now believe that their options are/should be as open as men’s. Although femanism was present in both decades, the issues women brought foward and how those issues effected them are different. Linda Hogan 's People of the Whale and Karen

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

The Second Wave Feminism lasted from early 1960’s to late 1980’s. In addition, a lot of issues took place after the nineteenth Amendment. The women’s activism seemed to lose its devotion in between 1920 to 1960 because of the Word War- II. During this period, women were employed as workers for making war equipments and warplanes and also as nurses. They were influenced by a white woman named Rosie, for the idea she created about women taking up masculine jobs and performing strenuous labor. Soon after the war ended they were terminated from their jobs and continued their domestic lives. Then the onset of CIvil Rights movement in between 1955 to 1960 where both black men and women were discriminated by the Whites had a large impact on the feminist movement. This movement in a way or another led to the beginning of fight by the activists in the Second Wave. Equality in work, access to abortion and sexual or domestic violence were the targeted issues of this wave. One of the most remarkable magazines ,” The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan brought a significant change in the women’s activism which majorly focused on the then roles of women in the houses . It stood as a question about what they are up to. Women started joining the workforce where they were not paid equally as men as there were assumed to take care of children, husband and house. In October 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. However, the women activists were not satisfied with the secret

Feminists and the idea of feminism have both been around since the 18th century and the Age of Enlightenment, a movement that emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism, rather than tradition. Since then, the world has seen three unique waves of feminism. The first wave occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries; these were the females who fought for women’s suffrage, educational rights, better working conditions, and eliminating gender double standards. This first wave took care of basic rights that women were not granted until they stood up and fought for them. The second wave of feminism occurred between the 1960s and 1980s.

The majority who made up the first wave were middle and upper class white women. However the second wave included women of color and other minorities in this country. Third-wave is continuing to address the financial, social and cultural inequalities. In this wave, feminists have also had to maintain focus on women 's reproductive rights, such as the right to abortion.

West elaborates on the history of feminism. She explains the various waves of feminism shedding light on the current generation and reflecting on how far feminism has come. First wave feminism, as West explained was in the 19th century, a time, when women were considered inferior citizens and not allowed to vote. At this time, racism and gender discrimination was the order of the day. Remarkably, the first wave of feminism made an impact on voting rights, in addition to been allowed to vote, women can now compete in high political posts (West).

The second wave of feminism began in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement, women

The first wave of feminism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally, the goal of this wave was the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women and children by their husbands. The goal changed by the end of

The third wave that popped up in the 1990s ensured the continuity of the second feminism wave of the 1960s, in addition to reactions against its professed failures. However, the agitation for feminism or the rights of women continues to have pre-eminence in today’s societies as females’ importance in the societies hardly goes unnoticed or unmentioned. The primary emphasis of this paper