The Women’s Movement
First Wave Feminism: 1
1840: World Anti-Slavery
Convention, London:
women excluded from
participation
1848: Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Lucretia Mott and others
organize Women’s Rights
Conference, Seneca Falls,
NY
1850s: alliance between
women’s rights and
abolitionist movements in
US
First Wave Feminism 2
1866: passage of 14th amendment: illegal to deny
citizenship to any male over 21. Women’s movement
splits over whether or not to work for ratification. Lucy
Stone, Quaker, supports it, Stanton and Anthony refuse
to work for it.
1869: National/American Woman Suffrage Associations
reflect this split
1890: NWSA and AWSA unite but both employ racist and
anti-immigrant arguments on behalf of woman
suffrage
1918: 19th amendment, woman suffrage, passes
Congress, 1920, ratified
Accomplishments of First Wave
Feminism
Spread of feminist
consciousness, especially
among middle class women
Legal victories (Married
Women’s Property Act)
Advances in entry of women to
higher education and to
professions
The vote
But: the women’s movement
collapses after the vote is
won
Lucy Stone
1920-1960
Pretty much a vacuum in terms of
feminism
During World War Two many women take
jobs in industries and in positions
previously reserved for men
Black women, and poor white women, had
always worked outside the home
After World War Two a government
campaign urges women to return to
their homes
During the fifties popular literature warns
women of the dangers of not being
sufficiently feminine
The Liberal Wing of Feminism
1963: Betty Friedan, The Feminine
Mystique
1963: Congress debates civil rights
bill, Howard Smith, southern
Democrat, puts forward
amendment adding “by sex” to
section on employment
discrimination. Amendment
passes.
1964: Civil Rights Act passes (with
women included), partly due to
efforts of women. Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission created.
1966: National Organization for
Women founded, Betty Friedan
president.
The National Organization for Women
NOW presses for equal rights for women: equal
wages, equal access to education, to professions,
to health care. Government funded day care,
pregnancy leave. Equal Rights Amendment
(opposed by trade union women).
Membership: mostly white, middle class,
professional, mostly 30s and above. Core:
women involved in Democratic Party.
Men included in membership and leadership.
The Emergence of Radical Feminism
1964-5: two papers by white
women in SNCC address position
of women in the movement
1966: women’s liberation raised at
SDS conference: received with
anger and mockery
1967: National Conference for New
Politics:
women’s caucus told to be quiet
1967-8: Women’s Liberation groups
formed in Chicago, Boston, New
York, elsewhere
Varieties of radical feminism
Radical Feminism: The Feminists,
Redstockings, Radical Women
Analysis: oppression of women the
basis of all other forms of
oppression. Left the left.
Socialist Feminism: Bread and
Roses (Boston), BerkeleyOakland Women’s Union,
Women’s Liberation
Analysis: oppression of women one
aspect of a social structure also
including oppression by class and
by race. Remained connected to
the left.
Radical Feminism in Practice
Small groups, focus on consciousness-raising
Rejection of leadership, especially intense among
Radical Feminists, somewhat less so among
Socialist Feminists.
Assumption that we (young, white, collegeeducated) could speak for all women.
Many women fled the left, but similar problems in
the women’s movement: different doctrines but
similar tendency toward the doctrinaire.
Despite these problems the radical wing of
feminism spread like wildfire.
Black Feminism
Shift from Civil Rights to Black Power brought
decline in involvement of women, especially in
leadership
Black women writing/organizing on women’s
issues:
1968: Third World Women’s Alliance
1970: Toni Cade, The Black Woman
Many black women continued to work in mixed
organizations (National Welfare Rights, Panthers)
1973: National Black Feminist Organization
Organizations in Chicago, Boston, Bay Area
Sources of Second Wave Feminism
Entry of women (white, middle class) to
universities and to workforce in 50s, 60s
Tension between conditions of women’s lives
(education, work outside home) and accepted
conceptions of women’s role (confined to
home, dependent on/subservient to men)
Feminism emerged out of women’s role in other
movements of the time, especially civil rights
Accomplishments of Feminism
1969: WEAL challenges discrimination in higher education:
files complaints against hundreds of universities,
medical schools
1971: National Women’s Political Caucus
1972: Congress passes Equal Rights Amendment, refers it
to states
1973: Supreme Court decision: Roe v. Wade, right to
abortion
Overall: extension of women’s rights in employment,
education, the professions
Rapid spread of feminist consciousness
Major impact on US culture
Association of women’s rights with rights of blacks and
other minorities: rejection of racism of past
Problems of the Women’s Movement
Suspicion and hostility between liberal and radical wings
(issues actually quite similar)
Difficulties in sustaining organization: anti-leadership
attitudes, rapid growth leading to ephemeral
organizations
Many women fled the “mixed” left for the women’s
movement but some similar problems appeared
(different doctrines, but same tendency toward the
doctrinaire)
Excessive confidence that the movement could speak for
all women: challenged by blacks and others