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[[File:Leffler_-_WomensLib1970_WashingtonDC.jpg|left|400px|thumbnail|Women's Liberation March in Washington, D.C. in 1970]]
Today, feminism is an ideology/theory that most people fail to understand fully understand. Feminism has been described as having three separate waves. [[What was the First Wave Feminist Movement?|The First Wave Feminist Movement]] 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. The ‘’second wave’’ of feminism started after the women were forced out of the workplace after the 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 It was World War II that can be argued as the major primary 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>
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 a 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 placeworkplace. 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 ====
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 some 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 surveying her classmates, Friedan noticed that many of her classmates were unhappy in their marriages where their lives revolved around childcare and housework. This realization prompted her to write <i>The Feminine Mystique</i> in 1963 where she questioned white, middle -class ideals of family life and motherhood, . She focused particularly as on domestic life because she believed it 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. These successes include 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>
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>
