The Evolution Of Feminism In The United States

The birth of the feminist movement in the progressive era paved the way for tackling complex women’s issues into the 1930s. Securing basic rights such as the right to work, vote, and participate in the public sphere were the essential goals of this generation. The early feminist movement ended with the 19th amendment and new issues of equal pay, birth control, and equal treatment were the introduced in the mid-twentieth century. Despite their downfalls, “…this generation of women… led the way in demanding that white women be treated differently than they had in the past” (Burge,

One of the most well-known entertainers of the world, Beyoncé, is part of the best singers in the music industry. She is, somehow, considered to be a great example of the Feminist movements for showing off the talents of the femininity. The Feminist Movement started in the 1840’s, but it didn’t really expand until the 1960’s after Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique was published. In that book, Betty encourages women to change the way society view them as the ideal employment for them is to stay at home mom and wife voice their opinions and fight for equality of the sexes. Feminism, in fact, is groups that fight for women’s right and equality between the sexes. According to the article “Betty Friedan: Feminist Icon and Founder of the

Ursula Le Guin wrote all types of books such as novels, short stories, and children’s books. She also wrote a speech entitled the Left- Handed Commencement Address. This speech took place in Mills College Class of ’83 in 1983. When this speech was written it was during a time when men were revolved around everything. Men had the opportunity of getting a superb education, receiving any job, and were viewed as superior to women. Women were restricted in the workplace, and had to do house chores and take care of their kids (“1960 American Feminism”). Also around this time the second wave of feminism was taking place. The second wave of feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the 1960s and lasted through the early 1980’s(1960 American Feminism”). During this period women were targeted at trying to get reproductive rights, workplace rights, having equal sexuality, and focused on family”1960 American Feminism”).

The Feminist Movement was a series of campaigns for changes on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The Purpose of the Women's Liberation Movement was to recognize a woman’s dignity and worth, and to enable women to enjoy equal rights with men in the workplace and to allow women to have more more control of their lives.

Women in the Progressive Era began with little to no rights at all. They didn't have any other role in society especially for poor white women except to stay at home and do what their husbands tell them to do. Over time women began to give themselves an identity, and rights through feminism, icons, and taking action. They began to make a change and make a bang culturally.

According to Eastern Kentucky University on women and gender studies, “feminism is the issue of equality based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism”. Feminism

Many societies are progressing forward to the new era of gender role equality. The long-overlooked notions of women belonging in the kitchen and being unqualified for masculine jobs, are now brought to light for discussion. The words, “feminist” and “feminism”, rose to attention during the discussions of gender equality. It was first officially listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1852. Feminism refers to someone who is supportive of equality between the sexes. Although there might have been minor feminist activities throughout history; it was not recognized fully until the early 20th century, which marked the first wave of feminism throughout the world (DeFonza). Gender roles are embedded in many cultures, and to this day some

For long, women were considered inferior to men. Before the start of the women’s rights movement, people thought that females were destined for a life of cleaning, taking care of kids, and being a good; submissive wife. They couldn’t own property, couldn’t vote, couldn’t attend school nor college, couldn’t work, couldn’t even take care of their own money; it was as if they were objects, destined for reproduction. In medieval times, women were even considered the devil’s work. This was such a common belief that even St. Jerome (who was a saint) once said: Women is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the sting of serpent, in a word a perilous object”. It took women, a long time before they finally had

First Wave Feminism, or Liberal Feminism, is often times summarized as the Women’s Suffrage Movement, but it fight for much more than the right to vote. First Wave Feminism is better summarized as political and financial equality for women, but it also helped and fought for civil rights. Women’s suffrage was the major accomplishment from the First Wave but isn’t the movement itself. Alice Paul stated after the ratification of the 19th Amendment; “It is incredible to me that any woman should consider the fight for full equality won. It has just begun.” Alice Paul inspired Second Wave Feminism, or Radical Feminism, which started approximately 40 years after Liberal Feminism. Radical Feminism shifted the gear from political rights to social equality. Radical Feminism starts with the premise that women’s oppression is the most fundamental oppression. In particular, the movement asserts that males are always privileged in comparison to females. So Radical Feminism proposed the Equal Rights Amendment, which never passed. Moreover, it challenged the compulsory heterosexuality, a woman can only be successful in society if she is married to a man and be a good ‘housewife,’ which consolidates patriarchy. Radical Feminism challenged many social ideas from reproductive rights to workplace which inevitably led them to examine the traditional gender roles. Finally, Third Wave Feminism, or Transversal Feminism, ultimately seeks to overthrow essentialism, that there exists a single definition of man-ness and woman-ness. Instead, gender is a spectrum of

According to Wikipedia, “Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social rights for women”.

This theory can take different forms. It has suggested by Storey (1993) there are four forms of feminism, these are: ‘Radical’ (reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts); ‘liberal’ (it focuses on women's ability to maintain their equality through their own experiences and actions. Its main aim is on making the legal and political rights of women equal to men) (Storey,1993, p125). ‘Marxist’ (women’s domination that results from capital’s dominance) and finally ‘dual system’ (this brings elements from both Marxist and radical

The first wave of feminism began in the nineteenth century and carried on till the early twentieth century. The focus of the first wave was to gain political power with the main objective of obtaining the right to vote. The woman suffragette movement began in the United States in 1848 during a women’s rights convention held

Feminism in its broad sense is a movement that aims at establishing and achieving equal political, economic, cultural and social rights for women. It believes that both men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. Feminists call for the right of women to receive education, to have equal opportunities in work as well as equal pay. Additionally, they believe that women should be self- determined and have the right to vote. Feminism actually emerged as a reaction against the unjust treatment and subjugation of women; it aims at the emancipation of women from all forms of oppression. It sought for the equality of women and change of the existing gender relations prevalent in patriarchal societies.

In this article, we will be discussing how feminism is still needed as there is a lack of gender equality. Till this day there are still women that are not given the opportunity to be educated like men, females’ salaries are less than males’ salaries and women are treated as if their job is to serve men. Women and men should have equal rights because no one is more superior to the other gender. Sexism is still a struggle in our society that has to be tackled as it makes us as women feel unworthy and not capable of things that we can actually do. We are all human beings therefore we all have the same abilities as well as we all have goals we want to achieve but it is a struggle for women more than it is for men.

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).