HISTORY
THREE WAVES OF FEMINISM
FIRST WAVE-1800's - 1920's
SECOND WAVE- 1960's to 1980's
THIRD WAVE- 1990's - present
KEY TENETS OF FIRST WAVE FEMINISM
1. Women's suffrage
2. Birth Control Movement
3. Abolitionist Movement
4. Female-led political and social movements
SECOND WAVE FEMINISM
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began
in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades.
The second wave pushed for equal opportunities in the workplace,
home, and public sphere.
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into
law. The new legislation stipulated that women could no longer be
paid less than men for doing “comparable work” at the same job.
Betty Friedan had been considered the
founder of the Second Wave movement
Wrote the book "The Feminine Mystique"
which describes the assumptions that women
could find fulfillment through housework,
marriage, sexual passivity, and child rearing
alone.
Betty Friedan
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-WAVE
FEMINISM
1. Workplace equality:
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was one of the first major
legislative victories of second-wave feminism. Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 was another victory for workplace
equality, prohibiting workplace discrimination, including
sexual harassment.
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-
WAVE FEMINISM
2. Equality at home
Second-wave feminists were critical of how women’s
household work as mothers, cooks, cleaners, assistants
remained rigidly traditional and how the work was often
unacknowledged and uncompensated labor. By seeking better
opportunities in the workplace, securing affordable child care,
and raising the consciousness of women and men alike, they
helped expand the opportunities for women across society.
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-
WAVE FEMINISM
3. Reproductive rights
One of the most emphasized priorities of second-wave
feminism was affordable, safe access to sexual health
care, including contraception, abortion, and
pregnancy support for young women. The FDA
approved the first oral contraceptive known as “the
pill” in 1960, giving many women more control over
their reproductive systems.
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-
WAVE FEMINISM
4. Education equality
In Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,
educational institutions with federal funding were
forbidden from discriminating based on gender
identity and pregnancy. This led to the integration of
many schools, especially in higher education. The
subject of feminism itself became an active area of
academic study, with women’s history being more
widely taught and discussed.
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-
WAVE FEMINISM
5. Women’s organizations
Many women found empowerment and solidarity by
joining grassroots feminist organizations with explicit
political goals. One of the most prominent, the
National Organization for Women (NOW), once led by
Betty Friedan, continues to be a powerful lobbying
force in the US.
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-WAVE
FEMINISM
6. Class
The second wave was heavily influenced by radical feminism and the
intellectual ferment of the women’s liberation movement, which was
critical of the role that capitalist class systems played in maintaining
unequal power relations between men and women.
-organizers advocated for broad social benefits that would help
make women financially independent of men.
"Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which
male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's
experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation"
7 KEY ISSUES OF SECOND-WAVE
FEMINISM
7. Race
One of the most critical issues of second-wave feminism was race. The
overlapping concerns of the Civil Rights movement led to contention over
priorities and strategies. The struggles of white, middle-class women
were different from those of Black women and other women of color,
many of whom had to work to support themselves and their families, a
situation made more urgent by the many forms of oppression faced by
Black men. This led to an emphasis on intersectionality, or the notion that
oppression works in complicated, mutually reinforcing ways.
LEGACY OF SECOND-WAVE
FEMINISM
The personal is political: This idea, popularized by Carol Hanisch,
expressed the idea that seemingly private, mundane dimensions of life—
such as home cooking and cleaning, sexual preferences, and career
choices—had deep political roots and implications.
- women talk about their life and their struggles under the
patriarchy is an extremely political act.
Family planning: The notion of women having sexual agency and control of
their reproductive system is another lasting effect of second-wave
feminism. The 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade ruled abortion as a
constitutional right.
LEGACY OF SECOND-WAVE
FEMINISM
Workplace equality: Second-wave feminism was often
characterized by images of modern, financially
independent, professional women. Progress made in
workplace equality is partly due to the efforts of activists in
the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
Institutional change: The shape of social institutions, from
the corporate to the state sector, has shifted considerably
due to changes inaugurated by second-wave feminism.
