Changes

[[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.  

Women’s history The women's movement before the 1920s is famous for was characterized by the suffrage movement and a push for a larger social safety net for the poor and less fortunate. What is not usually talked about in basic history text is that led to women did not just stop fighting for their rights after they got gaining the right to vote. Since From the 1920s there have been multiple instances 1890s and early part of the 20th century, much of the women organizing around their rights in multiple spaces '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 placesprostitution. For example in the 1930s, Black women of color in the Southwest of the United States , during the 1930s, for instance, joined labor unions like such as the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU and UCCAPAW and put their bodies on the line in ) to protest of the extremely poor wages and work environment environments they had to endure while also helping with their large extended families. <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 in lieu of as men fighting left overseas to fight in WWIIWorld 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. The During the war years, the labor unions that had grown in the 1930s became even stronger because as women became more involved as they found workincreasingly employed, particularly in manufacturing jobs required to support the war effort. It was in During the 1940s that , new work benefits became available to women successfully achieved , including maternity leave, day caredaycare, and women counselors counseling. These benefits developed more substantially in Europe, as many countries there were devastated by war, where much of the factories instead of menmale 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> The National Council of Negro Women 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 fought for deserved the same types of rights of African American women’s as men in jobs they filled. This was highlighted by the fact that were to be swiftly taken away many men who came back and replaced with domestic retook their old jobs as from women who were doing them during the war endedalso were given higher salaries, as well as fought to gain racial and gender equality concerning larger umbrella women’s organizationsfurther highlighting this inequality. <ref> LaughlinMilkman, Kathleen A.Ruth, and Jacqueline L. Castledine. <i>Breaking the Wave[https: Women//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, Their OrganizationsLabor, and FeminismInequality, 1945-1985Working Class in American History]</i>. New YorkUrbana, Chicago: RoutledgeUniversity of Illinois Press, 2011, 80-2016. Pg. 83. </ref> As the war ended, many women who enjoyed working in the public sphere were forced to back into the home and private sphere.

As In the 1950s rolled around , the economy began to expand and the Cold War was in full swing, height of the red scare or anti-communist sentiments would end most women’s organizing efforts due sentiment began to red-baiting (assuming someone or something is communist in nature) and challenging anything liberal in naturediminish 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> The four decades in between 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 1920s proved civil rights movement, that began to be a harsh climate for women to achieve any real change across race question establish social constructs such as segregation and class linesinequality in the work place. It was By the early 1960s, the social atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s that would ignite women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds began to become involved 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 effort to gain equal rights among menUnited States, Women in American History].</i> Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.</ref>

Before beginning [[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 talk about question how women in society were perceived and the actual outcomes of role they played, particularly as the movement, which provided real and tangible rights for war had shown women, it is important to understand the basic ideology behind the second wave of feminism. The ideology made valuable contributions and theory of the second wave was groundbreaking and continues in many cases performed tasks equally to be a part of contemporary feminism todayme.In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published ‘’The <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’’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 is essential in feminism theoryrepresent how society fosters the idea of what a woman should do and act, which seeks to explain that where gender is a social construct roles are learned and learned from the social environmentforced 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.

The famous After a period of time, the movement gained greater traction through more authors in the 1960s. Betty Friedan wrote ''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 so she questioned white, middle class femininity ideals of family life and motherhood, particularly as domestic life had stifled women and the seclusion of the private spheretheir aspirations. In her book, Friedan includes interviews with women who were just unhappy at in their home when society told them life, debunking the ideals of the 1950s that is was the only place they belongedoften showed a happy family with men at work and women focused on housework. This The book would begin to break down fundamentally questioned if the 1950s ideals were in the private and public sphere barriers that most best interest of women subscribed to. <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, sexual expression, which informed sex 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>

Second Increasingly in the 1960s and 1970s, second wave feminism essentially broke diverged into two separate ideological movements: Equal rights feminism and radical feminism. These movements approached feminism from very different perspectives. Under Within equal-rights feminism women , the objective sought equality among with men in political and social spheres through , where legislation and laws such as legalization of abortion and efforts to ‘’the glass ceiling’’ in make women more established on the workforce equal to men were the working worldprimary 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> The second approachRadical feminism, on the other hand, wanted much more radical feminism advocated the destruction of the patriarchal structure of change to society that oppressed women. Until this structure was destroyed, women’s oppression would continue. As long fundamentally saw it as patriarchal and needed to be altered if women were oppressed, to escape it was would difficult to eliminate any inequality because the oppression was the root of all other oppressions. <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>

Both ideologies eventually merged into ‘’Third Wave’’ == Minorities == Women of feminism. What separates color found themselves underrepresented in both the two different racial and gender movements is the distinction between discrimination and oppression. Radical feminists would choose to focus on demolishing the patriarchal oppressive structures that they saw as over-arching all other oppressionswere simultaneously fighting for greater equality. The equal-rights feminists While Black, Latina/Chicana, Asian, and Native American women were largely white, older active in agefeminist agendas at the time, and most came from affluent backgrounds. Radical there were tensions within the broader feminists movements because a large percentage of the leaders were made up younger white affluent women, and minority women of all ages who were active the agenda had some stark racial contrasts. Some non-white feminists criticized the wider feminist movement for failing to be equal in the Civil Rights movement as well's representation and incorporating racial and other issues. <ref> LeGatesWest, Lois A., Marleneed. In Their Time, <i> [https: A History of Feminism in Western Society//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, 2001, 3521997.</ref>

== 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 Across the United States, minority women began the fight of against racial and gender oppression by creating their own organizations. Some had already existed thanks due to the serge of greater women participation in the workforce during the 1940s, like such as the National Council of Negro Women. Other organizations developed during the 1960s and 1970s included , including the Third World Women’s Alliance. The Third Women's World Alliance primary goal was worked to expose the relation between race, sex, sexuality, gender, and class oppressions. This approach is now referred to as intersectionalityoppression.<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> The Such views organizations of by minority women eventually became the drivers of the major themes of proved to be influential in the ‘’third wave’’ of feminism that exists emerged later in the 1970s and into today. Bell Hooks, Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldua, as broader racial and Cherrie Morriega successfully imposed their view of feminism onto third wave feminismsocial inequality issues are now incorporated by feminist movements.

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>

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