o

2. First Wave
First-Wave Feminism: The term commonly used to refer to the
nineteenth and early twentieth century European and North American
mobilization to gain voting rights and open the professions to women.
3. First Wave: British

Although individual feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft had already

argued against the injustices suffered by women, it was not until the 1850's that
something like an organized feminist movement evolved in Britain.

The key concerns of First Wave Feminists were education,

employment, the marriage laws, and the plight of intelligent middle-class single
women.

4.

They were not primarily concerned with the problems of working-class

women, nor did they necessarily see themselves as feminists in the modern sense
(the term was not coined until 1895).

First Wave Feminists, largely upper middle class white women

responded to specific injustices they had themselves experienced.

5.
Their major achievements were:
The opening of higher education for women

Reform of the girls' secondary-school system, including

participation in formal national examinations: the widening of access to the
professions, especially medicine

Married women's property rights recognized in the Married

Women's Property Act of 1870
And some improvement in divorced and separated women's

child custody rights.

o
o

Active until the First World War, First Wave Feminists failed,
however, to secure the women's vote.
6. The Angel in the House
Many British feminists during this time were fighting against a specific
ideal--the angel in the house.
See handout
7. First Wave: U.S.A.

In the United States, the "first wave" of feminism began in

1848 and lasted roughly until the 1960's. The primary gains of first wave feminists
were the right to vote and the right to practice birth control.

In, July 13, 1848, more than seventy years after the Revolutionary
War, Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Convention. Her plan was
something unheard in the U. S. at that time: "to discuss the social, civil, and
religious condition and rights of woman."

8.
At that convention a Declaration of Sentiments was issued, objecting
to the following:**
1. Women were not allowed to vote.

2. Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their

o
formation.
o

3. Married women had no property rights (and 90% of women over 25

were married at that time.)

4. Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to
the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity.
5. Divorce and child custody laws favored men, giving no rights to

o
women.

9.

6. Women had to pay property taxes although they had no

representation in the levying of these taxes.

7. Most occupations were closed to women and when women did work
they were paid only a fraction of what men earned.
8. Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or

o
law.
o

9. Women had no means to gain an education since no college or

university would accept women students.

10. With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to

participate in the affairs of the church.

11. Women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect, and

were made totally dependent on men.

10.

The Declaration of Sentiments was

roundly ridiculed in most polite

society at the time. Undaunted,

patriots like Susan

B. Anthony, Lucy

Stone, and

Sojourner Truth

traveled the country over the next

forty years, convincing people

otherwise.

11. Declaration of Sentiments

How does this compare to the original declaration of independence ?

How does this compare to Stantons later essay The Destructive

o
Male?

12. The Role of Race

Why was race important during the struggle for the vote?

o
o

Why do you think some white feminists were hesitant to align or

include race in their agenda?
13.

On January 9, 1918, President

Woodrow Wilson announced

his support of the amendment.

The next day, the House of

Represenatives narrowly passed

the amendment, but the Senate

refused to debate it until October. When the Senate

voted on the Amendment in October, it failed by

three votes.

14.

In response, the National Woman's Party urged citizens to vote

against anti-suffrage Senators up for reelection in the 1918 midterm elections .
Following those elections, most members of Congress were pro-suffrage.

On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the

amendment by a vote of 304 to 89 and the Senate followed suit on June 4, by a
vote of 56 to 25. [2]

15.

On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly, by a one-vote

margin became the thirty-sixth state legislature to ratify the Nineteenth
Amendment, making it a part of the U.S. Constitution. On August 26, 1920,
Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment's adoption.

The right to vote in America was finally granted to women in 1920.

This was 144 years after the Revolutionary War granted men that
"inalienable" right.

16.

Concurrent with the fight

for the vote was the fight

for women to control their

reproductive systems.

The birth control movement was begun by

Margaret Sanger, a public health nurse, around

1919, and continues to this day.

17.

In 1936, the Supreme Court finally declassified birth control

information as obscene. As obscene material it could not be legally publicly
distributed. Until 1936 distributing birth control was a crime under the same
classification as we now rank the distribution of child pornography.

It was not until 1965 that married couples in all states could obtain
contraceptives legally. Do not confuse the right to birth control with the right to
abortion. The famous abortion case, Roe v. Wade was in 1973.

18. Before we begin talking about the second wave, Id like to: Review of First
Wave Whats the exam going to be like?

19. Second Wave Feminism

The term commonly used to refer to the emergence in the late 1960s,
and early 1970s in Europe and North America of a new social movement
dedicated to:

raising consciousness about sexism and patriarchy,

legalizing abortion and birth control,

attaining equal rights in political and economic realms, and

gaining sexual liberation.

20. U.S.A.
In America, second wave feminism rose out of the Civil Rights and
anti-war movements in which women, disillusioned with their second-class status
even in the activist environment of student politics, began to band together to
contend against discrimination.
21.

The tactics employed by Second Wave Feminists varied from

highly-published a activism, such as the protest against the Miss America beauty
contest in 1968, to the establishment of small consciousness-raising groups.

However, it was obvious early on that the movement was not

a unified one, with differences emerging between black feminism, lesbian
feminism, liberal feminism, and social feminism.

22. Race?
Why do you think race was important in the second wave of

o
feminism?
o

How was the discrimination black women faced different from what
white women faced?
Were white women intentionally othering black women?

23.

Second Wave Feminism in Britain was similarly

multiple in focus, although it was based more

strongly in working-class socialism, as demonstrated

by the strike of women workers

at the Ford car

plant for equal pay

in 1968.

Oh yeah,

there s a movie

coming out on this

soon:

Made in Dagenham

24.
The slogan 'the personal is political' sums up the way in which Second
Wave Feminism did not just strive to extend the range of social opportunities open
to women, but also, through intervention within the spheres of reproduction,
sexuality and cultural representation, to change their domestic and private lives.
25.

Second-wave feminists saw women's cultural and political inequalities

as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their
personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.

Second Wave Feminism did not just make an impact upon western
societies, but has also continued to inspire the struggle for women's rights across
the world.

26. Major Events in Second Wave Feminism

1. The Commission on the Status of Women was created by the

Kennedy administration, with Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair.

The report issued by that commission in 1963 that

documented discrimination against women in virtually every area of American
life.

27.

2. In 1963, Betty Friedan's

The Feminine Mystique

appears on bookshelves.

The book was comprised

of interview materials with

women that buttressed the

facts reported by the

Commission report. It

became an immediate

bestseller.

28.

3. Due to a combined effort from many different sorts of activists,

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

Title VII made it illegal to prohibit employment discrimination

on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national origin.

Historians note that the category "sex" was

actually included in an eleventh hour attempt to kill the bill.

29.

4. Eight years later, Title IX

in the Education Codes of

1972 was passed.

This forbade discrimination

in the field of education.

Title IX is extremely

important to young women

today, contributing to

equal provisions for women's

sports in school and feminist

campus activism, among other things.

30.

Unfortunately, it became clear early that many anti-discrimination

laws that existed in "name only."

For instance, within the commission's first five years, it received

50,000 sex discrimination complaints, but did little to investigate them.

31.

5. Frustrated by what they saw as

a blatant disregard for spirit of the law, The National Organization for
Women (NOW) was formed in 1966.

Its mission was to function as a

legal "watchdog" for women, along the lines of the NAACP for
Black Americans.

This was soon followed by other

organizations addressing the needs of specific groups of women, including
Blacks, Latinas, Asians-Americans, lesbians, welfare recipients, business
owners, aspiring politicians, and professional women of every sort.

32.
6. On January 22, 1973, Roe vs. Wade was passed by the U.S.
Supreme Court. The decision legalized abortion in all 50 states, by stating that the
right to decisions regarding one's reproductive system was consistent with the right
to privacy under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
33.

7. Inspired in part by the legal victories of the 1960's and 70's, but
still worried about de facto discrimination, feminists worked to ratify the Equal
Rights Amendment as part of the United States Constitution. The Amendment,
which came up for ratification vote in 1972, said simply this:

"Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged

by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

34.

As simple as that wording was, opponents like Phyllis Schafley

charged that passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning their families,
unisex toilets, gay marriages, and women being drafted.

Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the population

supporting an Equal Rights Amendment, when the deadline for ratification came in
1982, the ERA was just three states short of the 38 needed to write it into the U.S.
constitution.

35.
Now, depending upon who you are speaking to, the defeat of the ERA
alternately signals one of three things:

1. Proof that of a new era within second wave feminism must begin.

2. Proof that feminism's "third wave" must begin.

3. The proof that we are now in a neo-conservative "postfeminist" era, along the lines of Christina Hoff Sommer's work (Feminism is no
longer necessary.)
36. Third Wave versus Post Feminists

Please note that "post feminist" and "third

wave" feminists believe EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE THINGS. Third wave
feminism doesn't argue, as post feminists do, that the time has come to be
"done with" feminism.

Indeed, third wave feminism isn't a retraction but rather an expansion

of second wave work, with a focus in new directions.

37. Some Feminist Criticism of the Second Wave:

Many women felt that second wave feminism did not meet the needs
of a large body of women. They resented the tendency to essentialize all women as
having the same needs and desires of white upper middle class women who largely
led second wave feminism.

Black, Hispanic, and third world feminist for example have emerged
as a result with a goal of speaking for those subaltern who have long been
voiceless.

38.

In addition, as feminism moved into colleges and universities

feminism became even more splintered as different political, intellectual and
pedagogical interests became attached to it.

Psychoanalytic feminism, Marxist feminism, etc. are all developments

within feminism. Feminism has become not just a political movement, but also an
ideology with unique distinctions possible. To make it even more complicated, it is
possible for one to be an ideological feminist, but not politically a feminist.

39.

There is also criticism

that as feminism becomes

increasingly an academic

discipline it loses the ability to

connect to the lives of the average woman in

language, accessibility, and content. mainstream

feminism is that popular culture area of the media

that claims to speak for these women.

40. Third-Wave Feminism:

In the 1980s and 1990s, third wave feminism was powered by middleclass women in their twenties and thirties concerns expressed concerns with
retaining second-wave feminist agendas and tried to create new projects focusing
on issues of race and sexuality and fighting the new backlash against feminism.

They incorporated the diversity of feminisms that emerged by the end

of the century, created a new activist terrain, and challenged the focus of older
feminists on the agendas of the second wave.

41.

When Rebecca Walker, daughter

of author Alice Walker and godchild

of activist Gloria Steinem, published

an article in Ms. entitled "I Am The

Third Wave," it drew a surprising

response. Young women from all

over the country wrote letters informing the magazine of

the activist work they were quietly engaged in and

encouraging older feminists and leaders of the women's

movement not to write them off.

42.
The front page of the Third Wave Foundation web site explains that
the organization strives to combat inequalities that [women] face as a result of
[their] age, gender, race, sexual orientation, economic status or level of education.
By empowering young women, Third Wave is building a lasting foundation for social
activism around the country.
43.

One of the biggest problems facing third wave feminists (particularly

from those who want to revive the second wave) is the charge that third wavers
"do nothing" to change things politically.

To some degree, this comes from their involvement in what Nancy

Fraser calls "counter public spheres," places not usually understood as
linked to rationality and change.

44.

Though they may go to a demonstration from time to time, third

wavers are far more likely to be active in arenas like queer theory, cultural studies,
and critiques of popular culture.

For example, they wear make up and acknowledge their participation

in beauty culture even as they criticize it. In essence, where second wavers argued
"the personal is political," third wavers are now arguing that "the
pleasurable is political as well."

45.

It perhaps stands to reason then that third wavers are often more
influenced by the work of "entertainment" writers like bell hooks than
by "political" writers like Susan Faludi.

Indeed, hooks is considered a key figure for many third wavers

because her complex analyses of entertainment forms other people consider
"not political" reveal issues of race, globalization and desire central to
young women today.

46.

The fact that many third wavers are well aware of the important
criticisms launched at the second wave for being too closely allied with "white
women's politics" complicates matters further.

The split is even further complicated by a division between between

academic and mainstream feminism can be seen in your readings from hooks
and Faludi, who are both considered academic in contrast to Ms. Magazine.

47.

This is not to say that third wavers are apolitical,

but that the political struggles that interest them

are not always directly tied to traditional concern

within the American feminist movement. For

example, third wavers are interested in "women's

musicians" like Ani Difranco,

Tori Amos and Missy Eliott while

concurrently voicing concerns about

the "no transsexuals" policy at the

Michigan Women's

Music Festival.

48.
In addition, many third wavers describe themselves as "pro
pornography" and/or in favor of women's rights as sex workers, concerns that
weren't addressed by second wave feminism in anything but a pejorative way.
49.

Finally, many third wavers see women's issues more as global issues,
applauding the Beijing Conference on Women but concerned about China's human
rights violations. Perhaps even more important they understand that their own
participation in culture industries often puts others in the world at risk.

One example of this is of course the sweatshop phenomenon, but

perhaps an even more pernicious one is the massive trafficking in diamonds (most
popular use: engagement rings) that supports a de facto Apartheid for many
workers in African mines.

50. Challenges to the Third Wave

A CONSERVATIVE BACKLASH. (Susan Faludi) This has come in at least
two separate reactions: a. THE FEMINAZI CRITIQUE. Especially among men over the
age of 35, there is a belief that the gains of second wave feminists have gone too
far; so much so that women now effectively rob men of rights under the guise of
sexual equality. The conservative critic Rush Limbaugh's term,
"Feminazi" is an example of this belief.
51.

b. THE POST FEMINIST CRITIQUE. Especially among women under the

age of 35, there is a belief that second wave feminism, though perhaps once useful,
has committed a sort of hari kari by way of its own "victim mentality."

"Post feminists" maintain, accordingly, that women have

all the social and legal protections they need in order to function on equal footing in
contemporary society. They assume that radical feminism, a particular branch of
second wave feminism that actually died out by the mid- 1970s (the bra burners at
the 1968 Ms. America pageant) represent all feminists.

52.

They also mistakenly assume that feminism is un-feminine or

borderline lesbian or somehow irreconcilable with a desire for marriage, family and
traditional values. It should be noted that Ms. Magazine founder Gloria Steinem,
along with many other leaders of the feminist movement then and now, is happily
married.

Rather than discussing the difference between de jure and de facto

rights, post feminists instead exhort women to understand their place within culture
through such de-historicized notions such as "freedom,"
"individualism" and "power."