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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 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>
== Lead up to == Ideology that Shaped the Second Wave Movement ====[[File:The_Second_Sex.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|<i>The women's movement before the 1920s was characterized Second Sex</i> by the suffrage movement that led Simone de Beauvoir]] After World War II, some writers began to question how women gaining the right to vote. From the 1890s in society were perceived and early part of the 20th centuryrole they played, much of particularly as the war had shown women's movement focused on general societal inequalities made valuable contributions andin many cases performed tasks equally to me. In 1949, such as poor working and housing conditionsSimone 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>, while also focusing on social ills such as alcoholism a groundbreaking book that questioned how society viewed women and prostitutionthe role in which they played. Black women in the Southwest of the United StatesIn her work, Beauvoir writes, during the 1930s“One is not born, for instancebut rather becomes, joined labor unions such as a woman.” This quote represent how society fosters the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to protest poor wages idea of what a woman should do and act, where gender roles are learned and work environments they had to endureforced upon women. <ref>RuízVasilopoulou, VickiAngeliki. "Woman by Choice:’ A Comment on Simone De Beauvoir’s Famous Phrase ‘One Is Not Born a Woman, but Becomes One'" <i>Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950Journal of Research in Gender Studies</i>4, no. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press2 (2014), 1987489-490.</ref> Apart from this general social activism and gaining Where World War II showed that women could break out of their gender roles as was required; the right book questioned then why should women's roles that saw them as secondary to vote, gender-specific topics, including equality men in work the workplace and pay, were home be perpetuated when this was clearly not a major focus areasthe case during the war.
<div class="portal" style= Minorities == Women of color, especially during the Civil Rights movement, were finding themselves underrepresented in both racial and gender movements that were simultaneously fighting for their equality. Black, Latina/Chicana, Asian, and Native American women were all active in feminist agendas but wary of the whiteness that seemed to dominate the organizations that were dedicated to the destruction of patriarchal structures. All over the United States, minority women began the fight of racial and gender oppression by creating their own organizations. Some had already existed thanks to the serge of participation in the workforce during the 1940s, like the National Council of Negro Women. Other organizations developed during the 1960s and 1970s included the Third World Women’s Alliance. The Third Women's World Alliance primary goal was to expose the relation between race, sex, sexuality, gender, and class oppressions. This approach is now referred to as intersectionality.<ref>Aguilar, Marian. "Third World Women's Alliance.width:85%;" <i>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> The views organizations of minority women eventually became the drivers of the major themes of the ‘’third wave’’ of feminism that exists today. Bell Hooks, Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldua, and Cherrie Morriega successfully imposed their view of feminism onto third wave feminism.
== Conclusion ==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==== The ‘’second wave’’ was an extremely important time for women who no longer wanted to subscribe to *[[What is the traditional public and private spheres significance of societythe 1968 East L. They no longer accepted the housewife role as mandatory, they fought for the right to do what they wanted with their bodies, they fought to end sexual and gender oppression, and some began to fight against racism within the feminist movement itselfA. Walkouts?]]*[[Why Did Helen Keller Become a Socialist?]]*[[The contribution to feminist theory and ideology is enormous, and the concept of intersectionality is now one of the most important key terms when learning about feminism todayRabbi's Atheist Daughter: Interview with Bonnie S. Ultimately, the ‘’ second wave’’ gave women Anderson]]*[[Why was France defeated in 1940?]]*[[Why did Germany lose the opportunity to start conversations about how to fight against inequality and begin to think about gender, identity, sexuality, race, and class as all equally important factors. The ‘’third wave’’ is now informed by and constantly rethinking and dismantling some Battle of the ‘’second wave rhetoric, but is undeniably grateful to the fight the ‘’second wave’’ continued.Stalingrad?]]</div>
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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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