The Women's Liberation Movement

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Recommended: The impact of the women's rights movements

Free twenty-four-hour community run day care; abortions on demand; wages for housework were the radical demands of the early women's liberation movement. The book Dear sisters: Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement contains a collection of broadsides, cartoons, manifestos, songs and other writings from the early years of the women's movement (1967-1977) which is beaming with energy and the intense spirit of the movement that drastically altered American society.

The editors Rosalyn Baxandall and Linda Gordon have done an incredible job establishing the roots and depth of the second-wave feminist movement. By collecting all the materials into one volume, which were once spread thin among private collections, university archives and out of print anthologies and journals the editors show a diverse movement. It has reminded me how far we have come for not to long ago that domestic violence against women was kept quite, that abortions were done in the shadows, pregnancy and childbirth were thought of as sicknesses, and girls had restricted chances to participate in sports and education defining what women¡¯s liberation embodied. Women¡¯s liberation was just that, setting women free from all these social and political restrictions on their lives. The ideal of the ¡°feminine mystic¡± only applies to a certain class of women, a stay at home mother who also is a sexy wife who pleases her husbands every need. This ideal left many women out, and unable to obtain. Even when this ideal was obtained, many were left unfulfilled. Women then were able to get together...

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... in schools. Feminism changed how women look at themselves, and what is considered feminine. Lesbian and gay couples can show affection in public places without being ostracized. We all see women doctors today without question. I believe that women have come a long way thanks to the women's liberation movement. However, I do believe we still need to keep the anger and energy. There is still no communal childcare, the ideal of the family still exists, and a harsh, unrealistic maternity leave is still in place. We need to keep the movement alive to achieve their goals, with new purposes in mind. Our society needs these changes and I believe with every new generation we will, hopefully, obtain everything we set out to do. Women have the power to make their lives better, and only together we can achieve anything and everything.

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