The Second Wave of Feminism:
America in the 1960s was followed by the housewife oriented 1950s, were it was expected that a woman’s role was to be supported by her husband, have children, and maintain the home. Women across the nation and the globe began to express opinions on their own societies that had a stark contrast of what have been expected of them in the past. This moment in history is known as the Second Wave of Feminism. The second wave of feminism marked a rejuvenation of women’s rights, with the ideas expressed in feminists’ books like Betty Friedan (also known as the mother of the moment) and by prominent feminists emerging at the time. Women began to have stronger demands and desires to change the standards beginning in the early 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, 80s and present time. This included the remake of standards between the genders. The primary goals of the first wave of feminism were suffrage and gender equality. On the other hand, the second wave of feminism brought about the attention to a wider range of problems like family, sexuality, official legal inequalities, and reproductive rights. It lead to capturing the attention of massive problems in the society which was domestic violence, marital rape, a must change in custody and divorce laws, and battered women’s shelters.
Around the time of the 1960s, the nation had accepted that the primary duty of women was to tend to the demands at home and care for their families. At this time women spent an average of about 55hours a week primarily attending to shores around the home. This left little time to hold a job and a place in the work force would simply put on the back burner for many women at the time; yet there were still working women present. The 1960s followed WWII that took place from 1939 to 1945. When many job opportunities opened, as men were shipped off to war and demand for goods increased, this gave much more women the chance to go to work. During the time following WWII, women that worked topically occupied the jobs of nurses, teachers and secretaries. Working women were automatically paid less than men , earning 58 cents compared to the man’s dollar in1963, as they were expected that they would bear children while holding the job or just quit to tend to the duties at home. Women applying to a job had to sign on quitting on the age of 30, cannot wear pants, cannot be married, cannot have children, even gaining weight would get them fired.
The typical standards for the typical women would be challenged with the second wave of feminism. In 1963 Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. This book stem from her past experiences from attending collage to finding work as a reporter in New York and losing her job to her pregnancy of her second child. In the Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan wrote a crushing critique of the modern women’s situation; she wrote «Women, as well as men, can only find their identity in work that uses their full capacities. A woman cannot find her identity in the dull routine of housework.” This brought attention to the wide spread unhappiness of women during that time. This book questioned women’s role and the district separation of spheres between women and men. It spread the ideas of new feminism across the nation. The ideas expressed in Betty Friedan’s book Vought massively and rapidly into the society. It was with no doubt a large contributor to this monumental movement.
The women of the 1960s followed a strict set of beauty standards. They were expected to wear skirts and dresses, keep their hair in fashion, and have make up that would elegant. However, the younger people at the time began a counterculture to these standards. Hippies began to arise challenging society’s norms with their style and beliefs. They wore scandalously short miniskirts, colourful clothing, big hair, psychedelic patterns, and the liberal use of make-up came to dominate and symbolize the 1960s. Throughout the 1960s and 70s women and men across the nation united together for a string of protests regarding equal rights for women. Large groups of feminists who gave Vought the second wave fever gathered together at 1968 Atlantic City Convention centre for the annual Miss America pageant. These women, newly invigorated by feminist sentiments, set out to defy the BB standards of women said at the time through tossing items into the famously nicknamed Freedom Trash Cans. These women hoped for a change as monumental as the 19th amendment that had been passed just 50years earlier.
Many second wave feminists tossed aside the idea of having select leaders of the movement while the various forms of media at the time picked and chose who they thought the leader should be. Gloria Steinam was a feminist in the 70s that had a significant present in the media of the time. She had worked undercover for the Playboy Bunny as a waitress. She uncovered that the waitresses were mistreated and misused in order to gain male customers. They were supposed to wear scandalous uniforms to hold the attention of the male. Steinam created Ms Magazine a feminist magazine that empowers women and still stands tall in the newsstands to this day. The US government made several attempts to achieve equal rights for women. By 1968, she had become one of the most influential figures of the moments for her hard work and support to for legalizing abortion and to create a federal funded day-cares which had become the leading objectives of feminists. In 1970 the food and drug administration approved the use of birth control pills. Women across the nation saw this as a call for more rights for women and more notable government action followed. In 1961, president J.F.Keneddy attempted to address the equality problems regarding women of the time by creating the Presidential Commission on the SAS of women and put former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as the first head of the operation. The Commission addressed the discrimination of the nation’s women in certain fields of the US culture at the time. President Kennedy aimed to close the gender wage gap between men and women by signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963. These monumental strides and legislations marked many wins for women, yet there was still much to be done regarding inequality. On March 22nd, the United States Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment which put an end to discrimination on the basis of gender. 35 out of 50 states would ratify the amendment not reaching the required ratification of 38 states by the official cut off in 1982. Today women are able to participate in sports, advance to high-level jobs in all fields, and receive equal opportunities. The gender wage gap was narrowed by twenty percent in the four decades following the 1970s with women earning 79 cents to the man’s dollar as of 2014.
The second wave of feminism was massively criticised for deviating from the original course of action that strives for abolishing the discrimination against all women in the U.S society and to gain equal rights and treatments similar to that of men. It was described as a whitewashed movement that concentrated mainly on the rights of white, East Coast, and predominantly middle-class women; while neglecting the huge contributions and the experiences of others such as women of colour, working-class, and lower-class women, as well as lesbian women. Chela Sandoval have labelled the movement as a “ hegemonic movement” as it restricts the feminist historiography to a particular group of women, which claims that all women share the same oppressions as white, East Coast, and middle-class women. This lead to disregarding the oppressions that women had been facing according to their race, class, and sexuality. Thus, it gave a spark that lead to an emergence of women of colour feminisms such as Black Feminism, Africana Womanism, and the Hija de Cuauhtémoc, which took a separate direction than the women’s liberation movement.
The Equal Rights Amendment:
The ERA is something that the US still has yet to ratify. It is a simple amendment to the constitution that focuses primarily on women’s rights. Surprisingly and according to the US constitution, women still do not have the same rights as men and they merely possess the right to vote with no other rights has been extended to them within the constitution. While, it is odd to say that you can still constitutionally pass a law saying that women are not allowed to be in public gatherings, speak in rally, write for a newspaper, or own a gun. Therefore, the ERA sought to elevate women to the status of men; but it has failed many times. The amendment has three simple lines that, if has been ratified, would have succeeded to put women right where men is. It says
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
The congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”(thequalrightsamendment.org)
These lines are the basic pillar of this amendment which was first introduced in 1923 and has made it to the Congressional Committee every year since then and still hasn’t passed.
The Equal Rights Amendment is a set forth amendment to the US constitution that strives for equal rights to all citizens regardless of gender. This means that women should be treated similar to men in regards to divorce, employment, and property. The amendment was very popular in the second wave of feminism as they fought for equality between the genders. It also gained a massive approval in both houses of the congress in 1972, yet it faced an opposition surprisingly by other women. The working-class women argued that the amendment would let women become in some state of distress as she has to work the same amount of hours as men; while she needs some sort of protection regarding the working conditions and employment hours. Because women have also to care of their homes and families, get married and have children; the amendment will deprive her of the little time she had to enjoy the small freedoms. The ERA was written by both Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. It was proposed for the first time in 1923 to the congress which lead to a massive argument regarding the true meaning of equality between men and women. The amendment was then introduced for the second time by Martha Griffiths in 1971 and passed both houses of the congress and then pushed for ratification. The congress had set a 7 years deadline for the amendment to be ratified, it needed 38 states approval; although by 1979 it only gained 35 out 38 states which made the Congress extend the deadline for another 2 years which actually did not help anything as the needed number of states for the ratification never came to be.
After the failed ratification, The ERA was introduced many times by didn’t even get passed the Committee. It forged a great deal of arguments in the society of why the equal rights amendment hasn’t been passed. The society broke into groups of “yay” and “nay” and both groups have had strong arguments for their position. The opposed group lead by Phyllis Schlafly understood the amendment and considered it thoroughly. Phyllis Schlafly was a constitutional lawyer who led a strong and effective campaign against passing and ratify the ERA. She was against feminism and abortion . Phyllis Schlafly ‘s principal of traction to the ERA was the unfortunate consequences that would have on women which feminists didn’t realize. The opposition took that the ERA won’t provide for women anything new as one of their strong arguments. But, on the other hand, it would take away from women some of the important rights, benefits, and exemptions they already have. Some of these rights or exemptions that would be gone is that women would be obliged to sign up for the draft, would no longer be listed as dependents when they are stay-at-home moms, and accept equal treatments in the court system (child custody). While the other group saw it as an extension to the civil rights and that women should not be considered above or beneath men in the legal status; therefore, they should all be equals in the eyes of the law. Betty Friedan saw that the draft should be seen as women taking responsibility and honour in serving their country. This is for the reason that accepting the Equal Rights Amendment means having the same rights and duties as men and a huge part of becoming equal.
Modern American Women:
– The evolution of women’s roles from the early 19th century to the 1970s:
The 1800s was a staggeringly hard time for women. They were a subject of some of the unhuman treatments of all time. Although, it was a tile of fashion yet only for wealthy women who dressed elegantly; while the lower class women often wore rags. Women were not viewed as human being; they were viewed as property. Before getting married, they were owned by theirs fathers and after marriage by their husbands. They had no saying in almost all aspects of their life especially politically; because they were merely a property and had no role they could have played as an economic factor. Everything they owned belonged to their fathers and husbands. Not to mention that rape and martial rape had no legal place in court and many women lived with domestic abuse and women who fled or tried to flee from an unhappy marriage would be captured and punished by law. Women at that time were stripped away of their rights including sex-life. A woman did not only have to be a virgin to get married, she also had to remain innocent from any seductive thoughts concerning sexuality until she received a proposal of marriage.
“The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this…They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family?” (Austen, 281)
On the other hand, men were allowed the have freedom to engage in premarital relationships. At that time, Women were deprived of many of the simple pleasures that we today take for granted like physical activity; which was considered dangerous and inappropriate for girls. They were taught to reserve their delicate health for the purpose of giving birth healthy children.
– The differences between women in the 20th and 21st century:
The 20th century was considered as the simple minded century due the status of the household. Men were considered to be the alphas that made the decisions, went to college, run businesses, and provided the food. Meanwhile, women were handed the submissive end of the stick being expected to stay home, cook, clean, and watch over the children. Their highest option for education was attending Finishing School, which is a school for young American women that focuses on teaching the social aspects of life and prepares them into the society, and even then marriage was yet pushed onto them to become their own main aspiration. Women who wanted more for themselves were claimed to be insane. Be that as it may, some women fought and aspired for more than just Finishing School or marriage. So, they strove for getting their God giving right for education and this meant challenging all aspects of life and social conventions that saw women as a simple minded being that belongs at home.
On the other hand, the 21st century is considered everything but simple minded. The women in this century are far more different than those in the previous one. Women become more independent and more equal to men than ever. The previous century conventions have rendered most women uneducated and, therefore, unaware of the most important aspects of the universe concerning their history, health, and body. Yet, the 21st century women are educated on the similar basis to men which provides for women the right perspective to reject any sort of psychological or physical abuse. Women today are more open to the world; they can have, aspire, dream, and do almost anything they want as long as they put their minds to it. The US in the this century is not restricted by sex; anyone who strive to made his dream come true will certainly do so regardless of gender, race, or sexuality.