Second Wave Of Feminism Analysis

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When women gained their right to vote after the passage of 19th amendment, which is well known as the first Wave of Feminism, the feminists’ political activities became less visible. The Second Wave of Feminism arises to question the gender inequality and domination of patriarchy in 1960s and 1970s along with rise of the Civil Right Movement and other social movements in seek of equality (Thomas West). The Second Wave of Feminism was a powerful political and social movement, which many see it as this era in America as ending in the early 1980s with the intra-feminism disputes of the “Feminist Sex Wars” over issues such as sexuality and pornography. Second Wave of Feminism broadened the debate to a wide range of issues, and established more equality and freedom for women in all walks of life and bettered their lives. …show more content…

Betty Freidan was one of the forerunners of the movement. Her book “The Feminine Mystique” was published in 1963; publishing her book was a pivotal moment in this movement because it gave women a new vision. Women were forced to look at their own lives more closely and they felt what Freidan observed. Women were unhappy and tired because of their limited options in their lives. Women were the “second sex”; they had no control over their lives, their bodies, and their decisions. Education and employment opportunities were confined to men, and all the decision making for them would be done by male

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