Early Twentieth Century Feminist Analysis

Second-wave feminism was a social movement that began in the 1960s and continued through to the end of 1980s. As opposed to the first wave of feminism, which focused primarily on women’s suffrage, second-wave feminists brought up a wide range of issues such as women in the workplace, sexuality, reproductive rights, and place in a family. In the book House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there is a lack of rights and respect for women. Cisneros embodied second-wave feminism by writing the book, in order to help empower women in Chicano communities.

In this paper I will be going over issue 17, “Has the Women’s Movement of the 1970’s Failed to Liberate American Women?”. Sara M. Evans and F. Carolyn Graglia each voice their opinions about the issue. They talk about the history of the women’s movement throughout time and the effects it had in our country.

Women’s Rights were the great unfinished business of the 20th century. This movement saw two waves in the 1900s, the second wave coming in the 1960s.

"I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back" (Yousafzai, 1). It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be able to live in this world as a woman, let alone a woman who wants things to change because a woman’s silence will not protect her. Throughout society today, the idea of feminism stirs up many different types of emotions and views of exactly what feminism is. A lot of people think that women's rights have already been accomplished. For example, yes, we've earned Title IX and laws against gender discrimination. But people fail to understand that there are still so many forces against women's rights, such as reproductive

Women in early mid-1800s started to fight for equal rights more than ever. Since American males have been granted more rights since the American independence, women started to question the reasons behind why they are not getting the same rights as men. This started a generations of women fighting for their equal rights. From the arguments presented by first wave feminists for women’s right and the evidence against inclusion by their detractors, the first wave feminists for women’s right had a better convincing argument because they did not over exaggerate their arguments and evidence to the arguments that they made. Whereas the men who wrote about why women should not have rights like men exaggerated their arguments too far. They made

Feminism is described as the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. The suffrage movement began in the mid-1800s, and has continued to impact our lives ever since. Women wanted the right to vote, but they also wanted what came after the right to vote. Women expected the right to vote transform their social standing with men.

The Women’s movement in the 1960s or the “Second wave of feminism” stemmed from every women’s limitations in almost every aspect of life. After the first wave feminism which focussed solely on gaining women’s suffrage, the second wave moved on to different every day discriminations. From family to work, a woman lived by her expectations. She was to marry in her early 20s, so that she could start a family early and devote her life to being a housewife, no chance at a career, that was considered a mans job. It was rare for an American woman living in this era to be in the workforce, and those that did work were very limited as to the jobs they could do, whether they be a teacher, nurse or office assistant/secretary.

I believe that second-wave feminism began as a result of the fundamental conflict between Americans wanting the comfort of home after World War II and women who were in the workforce during the war.

Feminism is not about making women gain strength, they are already strong, it is about changing the mindset of society. Women have the ability to achieve anything a man can, so why are women limited of their potential to succeed in life? The fifties was a time where the only ideal role for women in life was to become a housewife, because that is what the social norms were. With that case, there were many women that were dissatisfied and felt incomplete, since they had no voice and control over their life. During the 1950’s women faced patriarchal oppression which impacted their family life, job opportunities, and mental health.

The first wave feminists may have been classified as ‘Wowsers’ by some, due to people’s perceptions in the way they used the ideas of society, and behaviour of men, during the late 19th to early 20th century to oppose their exclusion from social and political life, and to improve society’s views of women and women’s rights. This essay will argue that the first wave feminists were not ‘Wowsers’, and that the women’s movement needed to act against the behaviour of men and society’s ideologies to improve women’s rights. This will be demonstrated by examining the social construction of gender role expectations and masculinity. While also focusing on societies views of sexuality and sexual morality and the impact this had on women and young girls

First-wave feminism refers to the period of feminist activity towards the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, predominantly in the United Kingdom and the United States. First-wave feminism initially focused on the “promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands.” The beginning of first-wave feminism was a form of activism, which focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly for women’s voting rights. Yet, early feminists such as Voltairine de Cleyre and Margaret Sanger tackled another issue way ahead of their time by campaigning for women's sexual, reproductive, and economic rights. British Female suffragists protested by pestering politicians at political events,

Feminists have irrefutably accomplished tremendous achievements in the historical struggle for women’s rights. From the suffrage movements all throughout the 20th century to Nobel prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, feminism has secured the basic civil rights denied to women for most of human civilization, whether it be the right to vote,

According to an Arizona Law Journal from 1994, “Feminism is the set of beliefs and ideas that belong to the broad social and political movement to achieve greater equality for women” (Fiss, 512). This quote is salient because feminism is a “broad social and political movement” meaning that striving for gender equality can be achieved in a plethora of ways. In the novel Sula, author Toni Morrison utilizes characters like Hannah and Sula Peace to create a feminist novel as both characters are the antithesis of conventional women who are oppressed and dependent upon men. This novel takes place in a town in Chicago referred to as The Bottom from 1919-1965 during a time of racism and sexism when women were seen as property. Sula refuses to accept

From the outset, literature and all forms of art have been used to express their author’s feelings, opinions, ideas, and believes. Accordingly, many authors have resorted to their writing to express their feminist ideas, but first we must define what feminism is. According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, feminism is “the belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to achieve this state”. As early as the fifteenth century is possible to find feminist writings. Centuries later, and although she never referred to herself as one, the famous English writer Virginia Woolf became one of the greatest feminist writers of the twentieth

The first wave of feminism has been a revolutionary social movement in terms of that it could lead to an overcoming of the previous social order (Newman, 2012 p. 487) through its social agents and create, through this, a new social ordering of time and space. Moreover, through reaching their previously described aims, the first wave of feminism has been able to literally “overthrow the entire system itself, (…) in order to replace it with another one.” (Skocpol, 1979, as cited in Newman 2012, p. 487). Thereby, one can even state that a new ordering of time and space by which routines and routinised behaviour has been challenged as well as changed took place. The interactions influenced the way how societies work today. (Allan, 2013, p. 323).