On The Second American Feminist Movement: Origins, Manifestations And Impacts

The second feminist movement broke out in the United States forty years after the first movement ended and soon reached a scale that was unprecedented in history. The movement sprang in a favorable political atmosphere conducive to reform and developed at such a dazzling speed that it became a nationwide movement within a very short time. With various feminist groups putting forth a barrage of women's issues and taking different strategies and tactics to challenge women's inferior status in society, the second movement gained great momentum in the late 1960s, capturing intense attention from the public and the government, and achieving huge progress in improving women's conditions in their private and public life. It left no aspect of women's life untouched and its far-reaching influence can still be felt in women's life in today's America.Large scale feminist movement had sunk into silence for forty years after the first feminist movement ended in 1920. However, the simmerings of the second movement began well during the Second World War. WWII changed women's economic status, leading to the growing demand for redistribution of sex roles in family life. But the traditional idea that prescribed women's role as stay-at-home mother and wife still held a firm ground, hampering such fundamental changes in women's lives. This tension became increasingly obvious as more and more women joined the labor force. The sentiment for change of the condition was brewing.But the viability for another organized women's movement didn't come until the 1960s, when the political atmosphere in the United States became increasingly liberal and the mindset of the whole country was geared to reform to correct the social problems. In the wave of the Civil Rights Movement, New Left Movement, Anti-War Movement, women emerged as an independent force and began to organize to claim their own rights. Comparing their conditions with those of the black people, women realized that they were second-class citizens in society without equal rights in social, political, economic and cultural life. They were therefore determined to organize to change the situation. As a result, NOW and Women's Liberation Movement emerged as two leading forces, the former being the liberal or moderate wing and the latter the radical wing. With different approaches to tackle women's issue, the two forces put forward different theories, helped make the women's issue a national topic and pressured legislature to enact new laws to protect or acknowledge women's rights. Millions of American women's lives have been permanently changed because of the movement.The thesis first probes into the origins of the second feminist movement by discussing three major factors, namely the impacts of WWII on women, the theoretical preparation and the leading organizations for the movement. Next, it discusses the many manifestations the second movement displayed in its development. Thriving under a different social circumstance different from that of the first movement and dealing with a much wider range of women's issues, the second movement revealed its own kind of manifestations. Finally, the thesis discusses the impacts of the movement. Based on the detailed description and careful analysis of the several campaigns feminists launched, the thesis tries to demonstrate that it was due to the efforts of movement activists that American women could enjoy much more freedom and equality than they had ever dreamed before. In order to bring out the changes in full relief, this part also provides a reexamination of the traditional criteria for womanhood in American society, pointing out that these traditional criteria increasingly conflicted with women's changing and changed roles, which furnished an important catalyst for the outbreak of the second movement.By and large, the second feminist movement legitimated women's participation in American social life, making them not only an indispensable force in American economy, but also a powerful group in American politics. The feminists'struggle, courage and determination as well as achievements made in the movement have fundamentally changed American women, transforming them from margin to mainstream in every aspect of American life.