a history of feminism

A History of Feminism

History• “Three Waves” of Feminism

– 19th through early 20th centuries – 1960s-1980s – 1990’s-Present

• First Wave:– First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the

nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It focused primarily on gaining the right of women's suffrage.

Images of First Wave Feminism

• The Seneca Falls Convention, July 19–20, 1848– Held in Seneca Falls, New York over two days.– The convention was seen by some of its contemporaries, including organizer

and featured speaker Lucretia Mott, as but a single step in the continuing effort by women to gain for themselves a greater proportion of social, civil and moral rights, but it was viewed by others as a revolutionary beginning to the struggle by women for complete equality with men.

History• Frances Willard and the Woman’s Christian Temperance

Union– Although still unable to vote in the late nineteenth century, women were far

from apolitical; the WCTU demonstrated the breadth of women's political activity in the late nineteenth century.

– Frances Willard radically changed the direction of the WCTU, moving it away from religiously oriented programs to a campaign that stressed alcoholism as a disease rather than a sin and poverty as a cause rather than a result of drink.

– In a shrewd political tactic, Willard capitalized on the cult of domesticity to move women into public life and gain power to ameliorate social problems.

– The WCTU, which had over 200,000 members in the 1890s, gave women valuable experience in political action.

History– Progressives tackled the problems of the city with many approaches,

among them: the settlement house movement, the social gospel, and the social purity movement.

– The settlement house movement, begun in England, came to the United States in 1886 with the opening of the University Settlement House in New York City .

– Women, particularly college-educated women such as Jane Addams and Lillian Wald, formed the backbone of the settlement house movement and stood in the forefront of the progressive movement; the number of settlement houses grew from six in 1891 to more than four hundred by 1911.

– Some churches confronted the urban social problems by enunciating a new social gospel, one that saw its mission as to reform not only the individual, but also society.

History– Margaret Sanger promoted a progressive new cause, birth control, as

a movement for social change. – Sanger and her followers saw birth control not only as a sexual and

medical reform, but also as a means to alter social and political power relationships and to alleviate human misery.

– Birth control became linked with freedom of speech when Margaret Sanger's feminist journal, The Woman Rebel, was confiscated by the post office for violating social purity laws, and Sanger faced arrest, forcing her to flee to Europe.

History– Women made real strides during the Progressive Era, but World War I

presented them with new opportunities; more than 25,000 women served in France as nurses, ambulance drivers, canteen managers, and war correspondents.

– At home, long-standing barriers against hiring women fell when millions of working men became soldiers and few new immigrant workers made it across the Atlantic.

– In 1918, Wilson gave his support to suffrage, calling the amendment “vital to the winning of the war” and by August 1920, the states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, granting woman suffrage.

Key Tenets of First Wave Feminism

• Women’s suffrage• Birth control movement• Jobs for women• Female-led political and social movements

such as the settlement houses in New York and Chicago

Images of Second Wave Feminism

History

• Second Wave Feminism:– The "second-wave" of the Women's Movement began

during the early 1960s and lasted throughout the late 1970s. Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on overturning legal (de jure) obstacles to equality (i.e. voting rights, property rights), second-wave feminism addressed a wide range of issues, including unofficial (de facto) inequalities, official legal inequalities, sexuality, family, the workplace, and, perhaps most controversially, reproductive rights

History– The movement is usually believed to have begun in 1963,

when Betty Friedan published her bestseller, The Feminine Mystique and President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women released its report on gender inequality. The report, which revealed great discrimination against women in American life, along with Friedan's book, which spoke to the discontent of many women (especially housewives), led to the formation of many local, state, and federal government women's groups as well as many independent women's liberation organizations. Friedan was referencing a "movement" as early as 1964.

History– Legal victories:

• Title IX and women’s educational Equity Act• Equal Opportunity Act (non-discrimination in regard to gender)• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (no discrimination in the

workplace for pregnant women)• Illegalization of marital rape• Legalization of no-fault divorce in all states• Military admittance of women • Roe v. Wade

History• By the early 1980s it was largely perceived that women had

met their goals and succeeded in changing social attitudes towards gender roles, repealing oppressive laws that were based on sex, integrating the boys' clubs such as Military academies, the United States Military, NASA, single-sex colleges, men's clubs, and the Supreme Court, and illegalizing gender discrimination. In 1982 the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution failed, only three states short of ratification, but due to the successes of the movement, however, many women felt they no longer needed an ERA.

Key Tenets of Second Wave Feminism

• Sexual Revolution• Roe v. Wade• Non-discrimination in the workplace and in

education• Women’s empowerment in the military

Images of Third Wave Feminism

History• Third Wave Feminism:

– Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other feminists of color, sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of race-related subjectivities

– Intersectionality—Third Wave Feminists argued that the discussion of feminism could not be solely a female conversation, but must also include an understanding of race, class, and sexual orientation

History– The “Third Wave” Agenda:

• the creation of domestic abuse shelters for women and children • the acknowledgment of abuse and rape of women on a public

level • access to contraception and other reproductive services

including the legalization of abortion, the creation • enforcement of sexual harassment policies for women in the

workplace • child care services • equal or greater educational and extracurricular funding for

young women, women’s studies programs

Key Tenets of Third Wave Feminism

• Intersection of gender, race, geography, and class is important

• Power to women of color• Power to women in poverty• Power to the GLBTQ community• Empowering women against gender violence

and rape

Recap

First Wave• Women’s

suffrage• Women’s voice

in politics• Reproductive

Rights

Second Wave• Sexual

revolution• Roe v. Wade• Non-

discrimination in the work place

Third Wave• The intersection

of gender, race, class, geography, language, and heritage.

• Women of color