Feminism 101: Second-Wave Feminism

By: Kerry Rork

There are certainly some women to thank for the foundations of feminism in the United States. Yet, first wave feminism was definitely lacking, particularly in its conversations of intersectionality and racism permanently ingrained in U.S. culture. Attempting to redress the failures of its predecessor, second wave feminism propelled women’s rights, particularly reproductive rights, to the center stage of political debate. I am sure some of you want a career, hope for equal pay, or maybe even take birth control. It is then all the more critical for you to understand the history of second-wave feminism in the United States. While some of these goals were not fully realized, their pursuit came to a head in the 1960’s.

It began with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. This monumental piece described women’s discomfort and unhappiness with their lives as suburban housewives, or as Friedan put, “the problem that has no name.” In many senses, it furthered the two-sphere discussions that were already happening in academic spaces into the public arena. The domestic sphere argument claimed that women exist in a sphere of life outside the world of men. By 1966, Friedan was named the president of the newest feminist organization, the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Following this work, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed, and 1973 revolutionary court case Roe V. Wade granted women rights over their bodies. 38 percent of women in the 1960’s worked as teachers, nurses, or secretaries, limited in their career paths. Friedan also inspired women like Carol Hanisch who wrote the famous essay, The Personal is Political, a slogan that has carried on to this day.

At the same time, domestic violence, particularly marital rape, was gaining recognition as a legitimate threat to women’s bodily sovereignty. Marital rape was finally outlawed in all fifty states by 1993. Additionally, we see a rise in shelters for women fleeing from violent situations. 

1961 also marked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an oral contraceptive, again allowing women to choose a different path in life.

Perhaps some of the most monumental changes in second-wave feminism can be summarized as a pursuit for physical legal protections, that is rights over one’s body. More and more works were published, from Bell Hooks’s Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism (1981) to Catharine Mackinnon’s Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1979).

As occurred during first-wave feminism, women of color found themselves excluded from the central conversations. While some women received reproductive freedom, others, particularly women of color and those with disabilities, faced coerced sterilization, in other words, eugenics. These federally funded programs were created to mitigate and ultimately, eliminate “undesirable populations.” This may sound like something out of 1984, but unfortunately, it is a disturbing chapter in the history of our nation. In California alone, over 20,000 men and women were sterilized. This is an important reminder that, while valiant efforts were made towards equal rights for men and women, we still witness these horrifying steps backwards.

This period of second wave feminism is considered to have ended with the Reagan era in the 1980’s. It led to a simultaneous convergence and divergence of women in feminism. Women came together on the issue of equality but how that equality manifested itself created monumental rifts and the emergence of radical feminist groups, like the socialist feminists in the post-WWII era. Third-wave feminism even further radicalizes the movement, as will soon be discussed.