Second-Wave+Feminism

Jared M. Park ** Second-Wave Feminism ** Second wave feminism was a mvement founded in the 1960s and 1970s. Women were discovering new ways of entering the public discourse field by challenging previous structures which society was built on. Sexuality was becoming more prominent in their lives as they were seeing themselves as liberated people fighting for an equal role in society. Figures such as Helen Gurley Brown and Carol Hanisch were examples of females taking the stepping-stones of first-wave feminism and redefining what it meant to live as a woman in the 1960s society. The new notion was founded upon social change, specifically in education and the workforce. Women were looking to break away from the traditional family hierarchy and fight for actual social change. **Second-Wave Definition** Second Wave feminism was an ideal that was defined by its context. It represented a shift in past belief. A political “wave” can be defined as “Allowing one both to identify and disidentify with the past” (Scanlon, 2009, pg. 130) Identifying with the past created a link to relevance so that new ground can be covered. Activist women had become dissatisfied with the inferior status role they had been placed in. Women embraced the diversity of womanhood by producing plays, mini novels, self-health manuals, satiric sketches, comics, and parodic advertisements (Flannery, 2001, pg. 115) Their motive was progressive social change by breaking down the structure system they existed in. An effective action they took was through the mode of discourse and analysis. They critically analyzed policy in by realizing that “bias, power, and values drive the identification, labeling, and legitimization of problems and the methods seen as useful for studying and solving them” (Biklen, Marshall, & Pollard, 2008, pg 455). There was a barrier to be overcome by activist women that kept the public affair of gender politics in the private sphere. They saw men with the power to control women through structures in family, sex, and violence (Biklen, Marshall, & Pollard, 2008, pg 456). Men controlled gender identity and women felt that they could and would change that. **Second-Wave History** It is a general consensus that the second-wave began after World War II as a response to the return of soldiers from war. They were re-entering the workforce, shoving women out of the worker role and back to domestic roles. It was not until about 1961 that women really felt that they could enter the public arena with hopes of social reform. President Kennedy formed the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 1961 (Hewitt, 2002, pg. 414) The commission and all involved in its business fought for workplace rights for women such as childcare services, paid maternity leave and other “comparable work” ethics. This also created the National Organization for Women, a.k.a. NOW in 1966. Women, with the formation of state-official organizations such as NOW and PCSW, began to feel that they had the opportunity for more support. Women began to fight for relevance in society by using intellectuality to free themselves and argue for social change. “Women can join together to work towards social justice if we can examine our assumptions about whose experience counts, and whose locations might be more valuable at certain moments to enable deeper understanding of particular inequalities” (Biklen, Marshall, & Pollard, 2008, pg 465). Women found strength in their own identity, which is the foundation of which the movement presided. The movement gained momentum from other humanitarian movements such as the Social Rights movement and anti-war protests. Not only were women breaking ground in gendered politics, they were making new achievements in discovering their own sexual identities. Women were arguing against the “housewife” role in society. The movement became a sexual awakening for women and their identities. They were more than just objects of reproduction. **Second-Wave in Action** What made it difficult for women and their sexuality was what can be summed up by a phrase made popular by Carol Hanisch: “The personal is political”. What this phrase implies is that personal problems experienced from men were not just merely on a personal level, but on a political level as well (Hanisch, 1969). Hanisch advised women to stop blaming themselves for the misfortunes they encounter. “Women as oppressed people act out of necessity (act dumb in the presence of men), not out of choice.” She also goes on to say “…it is no worse to be in the home than in the rat race of the job world” (Hanisch, 1969). What Hanisch is saying is that women should not playing into the male-hierarchical structure of the corporate world. Women should stop blaming themselves for failures and only “settle” for something. They should explore their own identity, politically and sexually. Women would create what they called a “freedom trash bucket” which bras would be thrown into exercising their right to shed enslavement to unrealistic standards of beauty (Whelehan, 1995, pg. 6). This fueled the media’s misconception of the movement itself. Women were refusing to bow down to patriarchy-controlled sexuality and legitimizing themselves as sexually independent women. One woman that became a forerunner in embracing the identity through womanhood was Helen Gurley Brown. Brown took the magazine Cosmopolitan and made it more socially relevant to the empowered woman. While many women were rejecting fashion and freeing themselves from the patriarchal system and sexuality, Brown was expressing herself as a “Lipstick Woman” (Scanlon, 2009, pg. 131). She found that fashion “was not only an important economic enterprise, but also, for women, an undertaking that provided fun as well as self-affirmation” (Scanlon, 2009, pg. 130). She described herself as a feminist, but that she “really enjoys wearing makeup, not so much for the effect it has on other people, but because it makes her feel more alive and exciting…” (Scanlon, 2009, pg. 131). This was important for women and sexuality in this time period. It defined the whole movement: discovering the diversity of a woman’s identity and realizing its self-worth. **References** Biklen, S, Marshall, C, & Pollard, D. (2008). Experiencing Second Wave Feminism in the USA. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 29(4), 455-65. Flannery, K.T. (2001). The passion of conviction: reclaiming polemic for a reading of second-wave feminism. Rhetorical Review, 20(1/2), 115. Hanisch, C. (1969, February). //The personal is political//. Retrieved from [] Hanisch, C. (Artist). (2006). //The personal is political//. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html Hewitt, N. A. (2002). //A companion to american women's history// [Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.]. Retrieved from [] Patell, Initials, & Waterman, Initials. (Producer). (2008). //"don't iron while the strike is hot"//. [Web]. Retrieved from http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/NYCmarch8261970.jpg Scanlon, J. (2009). sexy from the start: anticipatory elements of second wave feminism. Women's Studies, 38(2), 128-131. Stewart, D. (Producer). (2008). Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/#!5045886/the-truth-is-bra+burning-feminists-never-actually-burned-a-bra Whelehan, I. (1995). Modern feminist thought: from second wave to "post feminism". Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.