A Women's Lib march in Washington, D.C., 1970.
Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the 1960s and lasted through the late 1970s. Where first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal (de jure) obstacles to equality, second-wave feminism addressed unofficial (de facto) inequalities as well as official ones.
Overview
The second wave feminism came in as a response to the late 1940s post-war boom, an era not only characterised by an unprecedented economic growth, baby boom, suburbia expansion and the triumph of capitalism, being set as the standard socio-economic model that favours middle-class development, but also an era marked by a consistent effort to re-establish pre-war patriarchal social trends. This fact was clearly illustrated by the media of time, television shows such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver idealised domesticity, placing women in a closed sphere where they only had to fulfill the roles of housewives and mothers.1Although not popularised until 20 years later, in her work The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir examined, as early as 1949, the notion of women being perceived as "other" in the patriarchal society. She went on to conclude that male-centered ideology was being further accepted as a norm and enforced simply by the ongoing development of myths, and that the fact that women are capable of getting pregnant, lactating, and menstruating is in no way a valid cause or explanation to place them as the "second sex".2 Furthermore, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein notes that in 1963 Betty Friedan explicitly objected to the mainstream media image of women, stating that placing women at home limited their possibilities, horizons, and was a mere waste of talent and potential. The perfect nuclear family image depicted and strongly marketed at the time in reality did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women.3
Timeline of key events
The rise of the second-wave
- Americans realize women are disgruntled by their status in society and their inability to hold successful careers or achieve equality.
- President Kennedy makes women's rights a key issue of the New Frontier, and names women (such as Esther Peterson) to many high-ranking posts in his administration.
- Kennedy establishes a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt and comprising cabinet officials (including Peterson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy), senators, representatives, buisnesspeople, psycholgists, sociologists, professors, activists, and public servants.
- 50,000 women in 60 cities, mobilized by Women Strike for Peace, protest above ground testing of nuclear bombs and tainted milk.
- The Commission's report finds discrimination against women in every aspect of American life and outlines plans to achieve equality. Specific recommendations for women in the workplace include fair hiring practices, paid maternity leave, and affordable child care.
- Twenty years after it is first proposed, the Equal Pay Act establishes equality of pay for men and women performing equal work. However, it does not cover domestics, agricultural workers, executives, administrators or professionals.
- Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is published, becomes a best-seller, and lays the groundwork for the feminist movement.
- Alice Rossi presents "Equality Between the Sexes: An Immodest Proposal" at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences conference.
1965
- Casey Hayden and Mary King circulate a memo about sexism in Civil Rights Movement.
- The Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut strikes down the only remaining state law banning the use of contraceptives by married couples.
- The "Woman Question" is raised for the first time at a Students for Democratic Society (SDS) conference.
- EEOC commissioners are appointed to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Among them there is only one woman, Aileen Hernandez, a future president of NOW.
The Time is NOW
From Miss America protests to revolution
- Robin Morgan leads members of New York Radical Women to protest the sexist and racist Miss America Pagent of 1968.
- The first national women's liberation conference is held in Lake Villa, Chicago, Illinois.
- The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is founded by Betty Friedan and others.
- Coretta Scott King assumes leadership of the African-American Civil Rights Movement following the death of her husband, and expands the movement's platform to include women's rights. Shirley Chisholm is elected to the United States Congress that same year, the first black congresswoman.
- The EEOC rules sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers illegal, a ruling which is upheld in 1973 by the Supreme Court. Women now are able to apply for higher-paying jobs previously opened only to men.
- New York feminists bury a dummy of "Traditional Womanhood" at the all-women's Jeanette Rankin Brigade demonstration against the war in Vietnam in Washington, D.C.
- For the first time, feminists use the slogan "Sisterhood is Powerful."
- The first public speakout against abortion laws is held in New York City.
- Notes from the First Year, a women's liberation theoretical journal is published by the New York Radical Women.
- The radical organization, Redstockings, organizes.
- Members of Redstockings disrupt a hearing on abortion laws of the New York State legislature when the panel of witnesses turns out to be fourteen men and a nun. Repeal, not reform, of abortion laws is demanded.
- NOW celebrates Mother's Day with the slogan "Rights, Not Roses".
- Redstockings popularizes slogans such as "Sisterhood is Powerful", and "The Personal is Political" which become buzzwords of the feminist movement.
1969
- California adopts a "no fault" divorce law which allows couples to divorce by mutual consent. It is the first state to do so; by 1985 every state has adopted a similar law. Legislation is also passed regarding equal division of common property.
Sisterhood is Powerful
1971
- Every president has published a proclamation for Women's Equality Day since 1971 when legislation was first introduced in Congress by Bella Abzug. This resolution was passed designating August 26 of each year as Women's Equality Day:
The full text of resolution reads:
Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971 Designating August 26th of each year as Women's Equality Day
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and
WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26th, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and
WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as "Women's Equality Day," and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women's rights took place.
Rise of an ERA and Educational and Professional Equality
- The Equal Rights Amendment is reintroduced into the U.S. Congress and is passed by Congress with few members voting against it; it is then sent to the states for ratification.
The amendment reads:
"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
"In this Land of the Free, it is right, and by nature it ought to be, that all men and all women are equal before the law.
Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, to remind all Americans that it is fitting and just to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment adopted by the Congress of the United States of America, in order to secure legal equality for all women and men, do hereby designate and proclaim August 26, 1975, as Women's Equality Day."
- In Eisenstadt v. Baird the Supreme Court rules that the right to privacy includes the right to use contraceptives even if unmarried.
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, passed by Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii, states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." This revolutionary legislation ended sex descrimination in high schools and colleges.
- The National Women's Political Caucus is founded by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Myrlie Evers, several congresswomen, including Shirley St. Hill Chisholm and Bella Abzug, several heads of national organizations, and others who shared the vision of gender equality
- Headed and edited by journalist and activist Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine becomes an independent publication, and is considered the magazine of the feminist movement. (It was originally published in the New Yorker, for which Steinem was a columnist.)
- With the majority of feminists being pro-choice advocates of the legalization of abortion, pro-life women form the organization Feminists for Life to counter them.
- Shirley Chisholm (see "1968") runs for the Democratic Party's nomination for President, the first African-American and second woman to run for a major party's nomination. She was the first woman to win primaries in a Presidential election.
- The first battered women's shelter opens in the U.S., in Urbana, Illinois, founded by Cheryl Frank and Jacqueline Flenner.
New York Radical Feminists hold a series of speakouts and a conference on rape and women's treatment by the criminal justice system.
- After defeating Margaret Court in a tennis match, male chauvinist Bobby Riggs declares that men are superior to women, and calls Billie Jean King to a Battle of the Sexes tennis match, in which King easily defeats Riggs, leading to the celebration of feminists everywhere. The Battle of the Sexes remains the most watched tennis match in the history of the world.
- Argued by attorney Sarah Weddington (and earlier, Linda Coffee) the Supreme Court of the United States rules 7-2 in Roe v. Wade that abortion is constitutional in the first trimester of the pregnancy, with states reserving the right to restrict abortion later in the pregnancy.
- Battered women's shelters open in the United States (in Tucson, Arizona and St. Paul, Minnesota.
- The Supreme Court holds that sex-segregated help wanted ads are illegal. (See "1968")
- Puerto Rican women hold their first conference.
- In San Francisco, California, Margo St. James organizes Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE) to improve working conditions of prostitutes.
- Antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly attacks the Equal Rights Amendment in her newsletter and forms the STOP ERA organization. What once looked like it was on its way to easy ratification now had run into fierce opposition.
- The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits discrimination in consumer credit practices on the basis of sex, race, marital status, religion, national origin, age, or receipt of public assistance.
- In Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that employers cannot justify paying women lower wages because that is what they traditionally received under the "going market rate." A wage differential occurring "simply because men would not work at the low rates paid women" is unacceptable.
- First Lady Betty Ford moves to the front of the feminist movement as she talks candidly about her pro-choice views and feminist stances. A moderate Republican, Mrs. Ford actively lobbies state legislatures to ratify the ERA, earining the ire of conservative who dubb her "No Lady".
- Mexican-American Women's National Association is formed as a Latina feminist organization.
- Over a thousand colleges are now offering women's studies courses (with eighty having full programs) and 230 women's centers on college campuses provide support services for female students.
- Helen Thomas, after covering Washington for thirty years, is finally named White House reporter.
- Elaine Noble becomes the first openly homosexual candidate elected to a state legislature. She was elected in Massachusetts.
"Every layer of society"
- The U.N. sponsors the First International Conference on Women in Mexico City.
- For the first time, federal employees' salaries can be garnished for child support and alimony.
- The National Right to Life PAC organized to to stop women from obtaining abortions.
- Phyllis Schlafly organizes her Eagle Forum as an alternative to "women's lib". The forum favors support of school prayer, law and order, and a strong national defense. It opposes against busing, federally funded child care, and abortion.
- Tish Sommers, chair of NOW's Older Women Task Force, coins the phrase "displaced homemaker."
- Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will on the ubiquity of rape is published. She later becomes one of TIME's "Women of the Year" (see below).
- NOW sponsors "Alice Doesn't" Day, and asks women across the country to go on strike for one day.
- Joanne Little, who was raped by a guard while in jail, is acquitted of murdering her offender. The case establishes a precedent for killing as self-defense against rape.
- In New York City the first women's bank opens
- Time declares: "[F]eminism has transcended the feminist movement. In 1975 the women's drive penetrated every layer of society, matured beyond ideology to a new status of general—and sometimes unconscious—acceptance." The Time Person of the Year award goes to American Women, celebrating the successes of the feminist movement. 4
- For the first time in the history of the United States, more women than men enter college.
- The Pregnancy Discrimination Act bans employment discrimination against pregnant women, stating a woman cannot be fired or denied a job or a promotion because she is or may become pregnant, nor can she be forced to take a pregnancy leave if she is willing and able to work.
- ERA's deadline: Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman leads a successful bill to extend the ERA's deadline to 1982.
The 1980s and the decline of the second-wave
- The ERA fails to be ratified, with only three more states needed to ratify it; President Reagan establishes a commission to find ways to ensure equality without an ERA.
Post-feminism
- Twenty-two states add Equal Rights Amendments to their state constitutions.
- The ERA campaigan continues to this day; most supporters hold that the ERA can still be added to the Constitution if ratified by three remaining states.
- New opportunities arise for females as a generation of women become lawyers, corporate executives, doctors, professors, scientists, politicians, members of the military, and astronauts. In post-feminist america many ambitious professional women enter Yuppie culture.
- In politics the U.S. saw not only its first female UN Ambassador and Supreme Court Justice, but its first female Transportation Secretary and U.S. Coast Guard Chief-Elizabeth Hanford Dole and, in 1984, the first woman nominated for Vice President of the United States, Democratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of New York. Also, a handful of women served the Reagan and Bush cabinets and in the U.S. Congress.
Education
Title IX
______________
Coeducation
One debate which developed in the United States during this time period revolved around the question of coeducation. Most men's colleges in the United States adopted coeducation, often by merging with women's colleges. In addition, some women's colleges adopted coeducation, while others maintained a single-sex student body.
Seven Sisters Colleges
Two of the Seven Sister colleges made transitions during and after the 1960s. The first, Radcliffe College, merged with Harvard University. Beginning in 1963, students at Radcliffe received Harvard diplomas signed by the presidents of Radcliffe and Harvard and joint commencement exercises began in 1970. The same year, several Harvard and Radcliffe dormitories began swapping students experimentally and in 1972 full co-residence was instituted. The departments of athletics of both schools merged shortly thereafter. In 1977, Harvard and Radcliffe signed an agreement which put undergraduate women entirely in Harvard College. In 1999 Radcliffe College was dissolved and Harvard University assumed full responsibility over the affairs of female undergraduates. Radcliffe is now the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Women's Studies at Harvard University. The second, Vassar College, declined an offer to merge with Yale University and instead became coeducational in 1969.
The remaining Seven Sisters decided against coeducation. Mount Holyoke College engaged in a lengthy debate under the presidency of David Truman over the issue of coeducation. On 6 November 1971, "after reviewing an exhaustive study on coeducation, the board of trustees decided unanimously that Mount Holyoke should remain a women's college, and a group of faculty was charged with recommending curricular changes that would support the decision."5 Smith College also made a similar decision in 1971.6 In 1969, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College (then all male) developed a system of sharing residential colleges. When Haverford became coeducational in 1980, Bryn Mawr discussed the possibly of coeducation as well, but decided against it.7 In 1983, Columbia University began admitting women after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College for a merger along the lines of Harvard and Radcliffe (Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia since 1900, but it continues to be independently governed). Wellesley College also decided against coeducation during this time.
Mississippi University for Women
In 1982, in a 5–4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan that Mississippi University for Women would be in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause if it denied admission to its nursing program on the basis of gender. Mississippi University for Women, the first public or government institution for women in the United States, changed its admissions policies and became coeducational after the ruling.8
In what was her first opinion written for the Supreme Court, Justice O'Connor stated, "In limited circumstances, a gender-based classification favoring one sex can be justified if it intentionally and directly assists members of the sex that is disproportionately burdened." She went on to point out that there are a disproportionate number of women who are nurses, and that denying admission to men "lends credibility to the old view that women, not men, should become nurses, and makes the assumption that nursing is a field for women a self-fulfilling prophecy."9
In the dissenting opinions, Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Warren E. Burger, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist suggested that the result of this ruling would be the elimination of publicly supported single-sex educational opportunities. This suggestion has proven to be accurate as there are no public women's colleges in the United States today and as a result of United States v. Virginia, the last all-male public university in the United States, Virginia Military Institute, was required to admit women. The ruling did not require the university to change its name to reflect its coeducational status and it continues a tradition of academic and leadership development for women by providing liberal arts and professional education to women and men.10
Mills College
On May 3, 1990, the Trustees of Mills College announced that they had voted to admit male students.11 This decision led to a two-week student and staff strike, accompanied by numerous displays of non-violent protests by the students.1213 At one point, nearly 300 students blockaded the administrative offices and boycotted classes.14 On May 18, the Trustees met again to reconsider the decision,15 leading finally to a reversal of the vote.16
Other colleges
Pembroke College merged with Brown University. Sarah Lawrence College declined an offer to merge with Princeton University, becoming coeducational in 1969.citation needed Connecticut College also adopted coeducation during the late 1960s.
Careers
While women's education was improving, career prospects for women were also widening thanks to such organisations as ALSSA (Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association) who fought a long battle to get equal rights in employment. Airline stewardesses were fired once they were married; since the average age of a woman getting married was 20, this did not provide a very long career for air stewardesses. Dusty Roads and Nancy Collins campaigned for age restrictions on air stewardesses to be removed, and this coincidentally brought about the battle for equal rights in the work place.citation needed
Media
Media representations of women have been much discussed by advocates of second-wave feminism. Some have argued that popular magazines during the 1960s represented a repressive force, imposing damaging images on vulnerable, impressionable American womencitation needed. Many magazines defined the role of a housewife as exciting and creative and often featured articles on baking. Magazines also had positive influences on the movement, and published articles that encouraged women to live a fulfilled life. Reader's Digest, Ladies' Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion, and Life Magazine, are just some of the magazines that influenced women during the 1960’s. There were also a few African American magazines, such as Coronet, which featured articles on strong black women who balanced a career and a family.
Success
It is argued by manywho? that second-wave feminism saw a transformation of consciousness and changed how most American women saw themselves and the world around them. Through organizations such as NOW, WEAL and PCSW, discrimination in the work place on the basis of sex was made illegal. The impact of media allowed the spread of feminist ideals through articles, newspapers, television and books, and this made it acceptable to talk about women's issuescitation needed.
See also
References
- ^ Knuttila, Murray, 4th ed. 2008. Introducing Sociology: A Critical Approach. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949.
- ^ Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. 1988. Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender, and the Social Order. New Haven: Yale University Press
- ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947597,00.html
- ^ "Mount Holyoke:A Detailed History", mtholyoke.edu.
- ^ "Smith Tradition", smith.edu.
- ^ "A Brief history of Bryn Mawr College", brynmawr.edu.
- ^ Redirect
- ^ "Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan", 458 U.S. 718 (1982)
- ^ MUW - Planning and Institutional Effectiveness
- ^ "Venerable School for Women Is Going Co-ed", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-04).
- ^ "Mills Students Protesting Admission of Men", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-05).
- ^ "Disbelieving and Defiant, Students Vow: No Men", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-06).
- ^ "Protest Continues at College Over Decision to Admit Men", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-08).
- ^ "College to Reconsider Decision to Admit Men", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-12).
- ^ "Women's College Rescinds Its Decision to Admit Men", nytimes.com.com (1990-05-19).
External links
- Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. Action TV: Tough Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks. London: Routledge, 2001.
- Press, Andrea L. Women Watching Television: Gender, Class, and Generation in the American Television Experience. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
- ——— and Tery Strathman. "Work, Family, and Social Class in Television Images of Women: Prime-Time Television and the Construction of Postfeminism." Women and Language, 1993 Fall, 16:2, 7–15.
- Roth, Benita. Separate Roads to Feminism: Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
- William, Chafe, The American Woman: Her Changing Social Economic, and Political Roles, 1920–1970, Oxford University 1972
- M. Carden, The New Feminist Movement, New York 1974
- F. Davis, Moving the Mountain: The Women's Movement in America since 1960
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