The+New+Feminism

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CHE—Second-Wave Feminism

In the early twentieth century, the fight for women’s rights focused mainly on suffrage rights. This first-wave feminism movement was successful in that in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the United States Constitution and allowed women to vote; however, women were still discriminated in the work force which was demonstrated through low employment rates and unequal pay for female employees. In the nineteen-sixties, there were still obvious social inequalities between males and females; thus, the second feminist wave emerged. While the first-wave focused on women’s legal rights, the second-wave’s concerns were mainly directed toward societal liberties. In 1968, activists paraded on the Atlantic City Boardwalk and protested the Miss America pageant, stating that the contest was degrading and clearly displayed female subjugation. During this movement also emerged the symbol of the male chauvinist pig to describe those men who felt that their sex was superior and used their assumed power to subjugate women. Though Margaret Sanger had advocated the use of contraceptives years prior to this movement, “The Pill” was a hot topic. Women felt that it was their right to control whether or not they had children, as well as express their sexuality freely. With birth control, women could have sex without risking unwanted pregnancy. The picture above shows African-American women rallying for their rights. Civil-rights activists Casey Hayden and Mary King made a connection and pointed out that unjust white superiority to blacks and unfair male dominance over women were very similar. This not only emphasized the sexual inequality that women had but also brought together two civil-rights movements, similarly to what had happened with Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

4/3/2011

SL:

Despite the fact that the term "first-wave feminism" was coined after it actually occurred in the 1920s, both the first and second waves had significant impact on women's roles and rights in America. Similar to the Civil Rights Movement, the first wave concentrated on changing legislature. As civil rights activists attempted to excise Jim Crow Laws, women such as Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott and Cady Stanton pushed for a Constitutional Amendment that would allow women to vote. The passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 became a hallmark in the first wave, yet was only the beginning in feminist action. Despite a brief return on the "cult of domesticity" during the 1950s which encouraged women to stay at home and take care of children instead of becoming educated or self sufficient, the 1960s ushered in the "second wave of feminism". The second wave is significant because it delved further into "de facto" rights, and through organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) focused on earning women equal status with men through equal wages, education and employment opportunities. Conservatives who argued that American women had nothing to complain about since they had more rights initially rejected this idea of women becoming equals to men then women in other countries, yet Feminists remained unsatisfied. This push toward complete equality was significance because it resulted in the Equal Rights Amendment’s proposal to Congress, Title VII (which gave women equal employment opportunities) and the legalization of abortion in 1973, which finally gave women complete control over their body, an idea initially proposed in the first wave of feminism by Susan B Anthony. Although the first wave of feminism was effective, it was the second wave that truly moved women to more equitable platform with men during the 1960s.


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