Women's movement

Women's movement (feminism) After the achievements of the ‘first wave’ of twentieth-century feminism – suffrage – the ‘second wave’ emerged from women's participation in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s and the new left. What separated this from earlier movements was the strategic insight that the ‘personal is political’. In France, the writer Simone de Beauvoir was highly influential, whilst in the USA, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) played a key role in unleashing a critique of the constraints of ‘Mom-and-Apple-Pie’ America. Friedan helped to found the National Organization for Women (NOW), a movement ‘toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes’ (Statement of Purpose, 1966). NOW worked to achieve an end to sexual discrimination in employment and to promote other issues, such as reproductive rights (legalization of abortion) and paid maternity leave. Despite the movement's considerable support, and some successes, the income gap between men and women actually widened during the 1970s and an equal rights amendment passed by Congress in 1972 was never added to the constitution, being ratified by only thirty-five states, three less than the minimum required.

From the 1970s, various women's movements have shifted their attention to issues outside traditional politics: the fight against prostitution, pornography, and the exploitation of women's bodies, either publicly (e.g. in advertising) or privately (e.g. date rape). Feminism has also focused on changing social and cultural attitudes to women, particularly through the medium of language (i.e. by trying to make language gender-neutral). This latter attempt, in particular, has been resisted by the charge of ‘political correctness’ in the context of an emerging predominance of conservative values in Western society. However, feminism continues, enriched by an increasing diversity of voices, as demonstrated by the UN 1995 Conference on Women at Beijing.

women, emancipation of; suffragettes; Thomas, Clarence