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[[File:Leffler_-_WomensLib1970_WashingtonDC.jpg|left|400px|thumbnail|Women's Liberation March in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Warren K. Leffler]]Today, feminism is an ideology/theory that most people fail to fully understand. Feminism has been described as having three separate waves. The first wave of feminism started in the mid-19th Century and culminated with the women's suffrage movement. Second wave feminism started in the late 1950s moved into the 1980s. Historians and feminist/gender scholars describe today’s feminist theory, ideology and social/political movement as the ''third wave'' of feminism. Second wave feminism started in the late 1950s moved into the 1980s. This The ‘’second wave’’ of feminism started after the women were forced out of the workplace after end of World War Two and essentially ended with the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Second-wave feminism splintered after criticism grew that the movement had focused on white women to the the exclusion of everyone else.
== Lead up to the Second Wave ==
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>[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, 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>
== Ideology that Shaped the Movement ==
[[File:The_Second_Sex.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|<i>The Second Sex</i> by Simone de Beauvoir]] After World War II, some writers began to question how women in society were perceived and the role they played, particularly as the war had shown women made valuable contributions and in many cases performed tasks equally to me. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307265560/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307265560&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=f9a9c302f5b6ddd567059a2383502e0d The Second Sex]</i>, a groundbreaking book that questioned how society viewed women and the role in which they played. In her work, Beauvoir writes, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” This quote represent how society fosters the idea of what a woman should do and act, where gender roles are learned and forced upon women. <ref> Vasilopoulou, Angeliki. "Woman by Choice:’ A Comment on Simone De Beauvoir’s Famous Phrase ‘One Is Not Born a Woman, but Becomes One'" <i>Journal of Research in Gender Studies</i> 4, no. 2 (2014), 489-490. </ref> Where World War II showed that women could break out of their gender roles as was required; the book questioned then why should women's roles that saw them as secondary to men in the workplace and home be perpetuated when this was clearly not the case during the war.
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> In 1969, Katy Millett wrote ''<i>Sexual Politics'' </i> and wrote about the patriarchal structureof society that controls sex, which informed sex sexual expression, and ultimately politics and the narrative of political discourse. Sex and gender oppressionare 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 and then it extended , 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> In the 1970s, the second wave feminist movement expanded and continued to gain momentum. Carol Hanisch published an essay in 1970 titled “The "The Personal is Political.” Hanisch argued that everything was political, including division of household labor, gender roles, and other day-to-day activities. Whether If a women decided to have an abortion and get a job as a woman in a male dominated industry, each of these decisions was ultimately a then that decision has politicalconsequences and became politicized in society. She determined that women needed Women had to bring their ‘’private sphere problems’’ to private, household problems into the ‘’public public sphere podium’’ in order to be heardbecause issues were politicized and had consequence far outside of an individual. <ref>Lee, Theresa Man Ling. "Rethinking the Personal and the Political: Feminist Activism and Civic Engagement." <i>Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy </i> 22, no. 4 (2007): 163-79. doi:10.2979/hyp.2007.22.4.163. </ref>
== One Movement or Two? ==
== Conclusion ==
The ‘’second wave’’ was an extremely important time feminist movement proved to be a major social transition for women who no longer wanted to subscribe to Western countries and the United States from the traditional public 1960s and private spheres of societylater. They no longer accepted the housewife role Major social change, such as mandatory, they fought for women's participation in the right to do what they wanted with their bodieslabor force, they fought to end sexual and increased prosperity forced a major social awareness movement that questioned the roles of gender oppression, and some in society. Major works of literature began to fight against racism question perceived traditional gender roles and exposed social problems created by such roles on women. Two movements emerged within the broader second wave feminist movement itself, which were the more mainstream and radical elements of feminism. The contribution While one worked to feminist theory change society from within, using legislation and social pressure, the other, radical movement questions fundamentally if society's hierarchical and ideology patriarchal nature were the main problem. Both these movements made major contributions, however, through their influence on society in general, where today many things we take for granted, such as women in the workforce, only became increasingly acceptable after the 1960s. Today, a woman delaying raising a family is enormousnot often questioned by society for such a choice, but this was not the norm in the pre-1960s US and parts of Europe. Later, the concept merger of intersectionality is now one racial and other social inequality was seen as part of the most important key terms when learning about feminism todaywider social struggles in society. Ultimately, the ‘’ second wave’’ wave feminist movement gave women the opportunity to start conversations about how to fight against their social inequality and begin to think about gender, identity, sexuality, race, and class as all equally important factors. The ‘’third wave’’ is now so-called third wave, more greatly focused on gay/lesbian and racial issues, in fact can be argued to be informed by and constantly rethinking and dismantling some of the ‘’second second wave rhetoric, but that had emerged late in the 1970s as race and broader social inequality issues emerged.{{Mediawiki:Amazon Student}} <div class="portal" style="width:85%;"> ==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==*[[What is undeniably grateful to the fight significance of the ‘’second wave’’ continued1968 East L.A. Walkouts?]]*[[Why Did Helen Keller Become a Socialist?]]*[[The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter: Interview with Bonnie S.Anderson]]*[[Why was France defeated in 1940?]]*[[Why did Germany lose the Battle of Stalingrad?]]</div>
===References===
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[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Women's History]][[Category:Feminist History]] [[Category:Civil Rights History]]
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