Three blogs ago, I mentioned 2nd wave feminism. Frankly, this is a term I only discovered during my research for my book Rain Dodging. Returning to novelist, satirist, and poet Erica Jong, I relate to her definition of feminism:
“I define a feminist as a self-empowering woman who wishes the same for her sisters. I do not think the term implies a certain sexual orientation, a certain style of dress or membership in a certain political party. A feminist is merely a woman who refuses to accept the notion that women’s power must come through men.” —Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir
Feminist history can be divided into three waves. The first wave, occurring in the 19th and early 20th century, was mainly concerned with women’s right to vote. The second wave, at its height in the 1960s and 1970s, refers to the women’s liberation movement for equal legal and social rights. The third wave, beginning in the 1990s, refers to a continuation of, and a reaction to, second-wave feminism.
From: https://www.monroecountynow.org/blog/2020/3/26/she-inspired-second-wave-feminism
http://www.ohiohumanities.org/betty-friedan-the-three-waves-of-feminism/ (Sally Ann Drucker. Ohio Humanities, April 27, 2018.)
First-wave feminism promoted equal contract and property rights for women, opposing ownership of married women by their husbands. By the late 19th century, feminist activism was primarily focused on the right to vote. American first-wave feminism ended with passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919, granting women voting rights.
Second-wave feminism of the 1960s-1980s focused on issues of equality and discrimination. The second-wave slogan, “The Personal is Political,” identified women’s cultural and political inequalities as linked. It encouraged women to understand how their personal lives reflected sexist power structures.
Second-wave feminism referred to the fight for equality between men and women in the public sectors of employment, education, and legal rights. It came about because of the realization that by the early 1960s, women had not achieved equality with men, even after winning the right to vote and their contributions during World War II. Second-wave feminism was overwhelmingly white and heterosexual, in terms of the writers and thinkers who got the most attention from the general public and government. It was criticized for not considering how interconnected race, class, and gender are, especially regarding systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
Second-wave feminist activists campaigned for women’s legal rights–especially in regard to contracts, property, and voting–body autonomy, abortion and reproductive rights–including contraception and prenatal care– protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape, workplace rights– including maternity leave and equal pay–and against all forms of discrimination women encounter.
Betty Friedan was a key player in second-wave feminism.
In 1963, her book The Feminine Mystique criticized the idea that women could find fulfillment only through childrearing and homemaking. According to Friedan’s New York Times obituary, her book “ignited the contemporary women’s movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the United States and countries around the world” and “is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.” Friedan hypothesizes that women are victims of false beliefs requiring them to find identity in their lives through husbands and children. This causes women to lose their own identities in that of their family.
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, responding to perceived failures of the second wave, especially as it pertains to diversity. The second-wave over-emphasized experiences of upper middle-class white women. It examines issues related to women’s lives on an international basis.
Rain Dodging delves into the history of the very earliest waves of feminism–17th century, in fact–particularly as they related to women writers.
Ride the wave with me!
Do you remember the early days of the 2nd wave? I’d love to hear from you.
