Changes

The women's movement before the 1920s was characterized by the suffrage movement that led to women gaining the right to vote. From the 1890s and early part of the 20th century, much of the women's movement focused on general societal inequalities and, such as poor working and housing conditions, while also focusing on social ills such as alcoholism and prostitution. Black women in the Southwest of the United States, during the 1930s, for instance, joined labor unions such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to protest poor wages and work environments they had to endure. <ref>Ruíz, Vicki. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826309887/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0826309887&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=7979bf4a8ff003689e7f9d58a2862cd2 Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950]</i>. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987.</ref> Apart from this general social activism and gaining the right to vote, gender-specific topics, including equality in work and pay, were not a major focus areas.

In the 1940s, women gained increasing employment as men left overseas to fight in World War II. In fact, it was World War II that can be argued as the major trigger for the second wave feminist movement that occurred after the war. During the war years, the labor unions that had grown in the 1930s became even stronger as women became increasingly employed, particularly in manufacturing jobs required to support the war effort. During the 1940s, new work benefits became available to women, including maternity leave, daycare, and counseling. These benefits developed more substantially in Europe, as many countries there were devastated by war, where much of the male population was reduced.<ref> Laughlin, Kathleen A., and Jacqueline L. Castledine. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415874009/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415874009&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=6b8857f4b500c32da5bf87aac9369b9c Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985]</i>. New York: Routledge, 2011, 4. </ref> Nevertheless, in the United States, women's participation in the labor force in World War II created a feeling among many women, after the war ended, that they also deserved the same types of rights as men in jobs they filled. This was highlighted by the fact that many men who came back and retook their old jobs from women who were doing them during the war also were given higher salaries, further highlighting this inequality.<ref>Milkman, Ruth, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252081773/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0252081773&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=69155be1a38d6dea3b598cf2d3940b8f On Gender, Labor, and Inequality, Working Class in American History]</i>. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2016. Pg. 83.</ref>

In the 1950s, the economy began to expand and the height of the red scare or anti-communist sentiment began to diminish feminist organization. <ref> Laughlin, Kathleen A., and Jacqueline L. Castledine. <i>Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations, and Feminism, 1945-1985</i>. New York: Routledge, 2011, 90. </ref> However, by the early late 1950s and 1960s, as more prolonged prosperity took hold, there was greater interest to explore new ideas and movements emerged, including the civil rights movement, that began to question establish social constructs such as segregation and inequality in the work place. By the early 1960s, the social atmosphere began to be conducive for a major feminist movement.<ref>Gilmore, Stephanie, ed., <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252075390/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0252075390&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=53a802ecde3a40d4fda23475f8d008a1 Feminist Coalitions: Historical Perspectives on Second-Wave Feminism in the United States, Women in American History].</i> Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.</ref>

After a period of time, the movement gained greater traction through more authors in the 1960s. Betty Friedan was perhaps one of the most influential writers at this time. After conducting a survey of her classmates, Friedan noticed that many of her classmates were unhappy in their marriages where their lives revolved around childcare and housework. This prompted her to write <i>The Feminine Mystique</i> in 1963 where she questioned white, middle class ideals of family life and motherhood, particularly as domestic life had stifled women and their aspirations. In her book, Friedan includes interviews with women who were unhappy in their home life, debunking the ideals of the 1950s that often showed a happy family with men at work and women focused on housework. The book fundamentally questioned if the 1950s ideals were in the best interest of women.<ref> Ryan, Barbara. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415905990/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415905990&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=34aceed5c84e53b28e7bf3a238700625 Feminism and the Women's Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movement Ideology, and Activism]</i>. New York: Routledge, 1992, 42. </ref>

The book and politics in the 1960s led to some initial victories for the emerging second wave women's movement. This includes the establishment of the National Organization for Women, where Friedan joined the organization, and the first great legislative victory, which was the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This made it law for women to have an equal right to equal pay for the same jobs that men did. It made it now possible for women to now not be prevented from joining the labor force due to depressed wages.<ref>Herman, Alexis M, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0788189824/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0788189824&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c95c84f3c729e211488024345b3d47c5 Equal Pay: A 35-Year Perspective].</i> (Place of publication not identified: Diane Pub Co, 1998.</ref> Other changes, including the introduction of the contraceptive pill and introduction of abortion in Europe began to have political ramifications. The pill, on the one hand, allowed women to delay childbirth and establish careers in many cases. Abortion also gave women greater choices about rearing children.<ref>Norgren, Christiana A. E., <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691070059/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691070059&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=bf43bcb707350c972852ae8f8c2c3e1a Abortion before Birth Control: The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan].</i> Studies of the East Asian Institute. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2001.</ref> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691070059/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0691070059&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=bf43bcb707350c972852ae8f8c2c3e1a">Abortion before Birth Control: The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan.</a><img src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dailyh0c-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0691070059" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> In 1969, Katy Millett wrote <i>Sexual Politics</i> and wrote about the patriarchal structure of society that controls sex, sexual expression, and ultimately politics and the narrative of political discourse. Sex and gender oppression are common because of political discourse found in society. Millets argued that before any other type of oppression existed, elite men first oppressed people based on sex and gender, extending later to race and class. <ref>LeGates, Marlene. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415930987/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415930987&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=62b570a5374aa4b505b21eaac8d210d2 In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society]</i>. New York: Routledge, 2001, 361.</ref>

Increasingly in the 1960s and 1970s, second wave feminism diverged into two separate ideological movements: Equal rights feminism and radical feminism. Within equal-rights feminism, the objective sought equality with men in political and social spheres, where legislation and laws such as legalization of abortion and efforts to make women more established on the workforce equal to men were the primary goals. <ref> LeGates, Marlene. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415930987/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415930987&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e53f80fa20839cdc10f02dea9ceef4a7 In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society]</i>. New York: Routledge, 2001, 347.</ref> Radical feminism, on the other hand, wanted much more radical change to society that fundamentally saw it as patriarchal and needed to be altered if women were to escape it oppression.<ref>LeGates, Marlene. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415930987/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415930987&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e53f80fa20839cdc10f02dea9ceef4a7 In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society],</i>. New York: Routledge, 2001, 357. </ref> There were age and racial differences within the wider feminist movements at the time. The equal-rights feminists were largely white, older in age, and most came from affluent backgrounds. Radical feminists were made up younger white affluent women, and minority women of all ages who were active in the Civil Rights movement as well. <ref> LeGates, Marlene. In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society. New York: Routledge, 2001, 352.</ref>

Women of color found themselves underrepresented in both the racial and gender movements that were simultaneously fighting for greater equality. While Black, Latina/Chicana, Asian, and Native American women were active in feminist agendas at the time, there were tensions within the broader feminists movements because a large percentage of the leaders were white and the agenda had some stark racial contrasts. Some non-white feminists criticized the wider feminist movement for failing to be equal in the movement's representation and incorporating racial and other issues.<ref>West, Lois A., ed., <i> [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415916186/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415916186&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=bcbac0f9737db4403babf8c44b46d2c7 Feminist Nationalism]</i> (New York: Routledge, 1997.</ref>

Across the United States, minority women began the fight against racial and gender oppression by creating their own organizations. Some had already existed due to greater women participation in the workforce during the 1940s, such as the National Council of Negro Women. Other organizations developed during the 1960s and 1970s, including the Third World Women’s Alliance. The Third Women's World Alliance worked to expose the relation between race, sex, sexuality, gender, and class oppression. <ref>Aguilar, Marian. "Third World Women's Alliance." <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231138113/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231138113&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a77dfd3c3570e2d6b8f931caf2af94bc Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History]</i>. Edited by Colin A. Palmer. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, 2191-2192. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 June 2016.</ref> Such views by minority women proved to be influential in the ‘’third wave’’ of feminism that emerged later in the 1970s and into today, as broader racial and social inequality issues are now incorporated by feminist movements.