Second
Wave Feminism
and the Women's Rights Movement
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on Feminism and the
Women's Rights Movement.
Second Wave
Feminism for kids
Second Wave
Feminism - 1: In 1837, French
philosopher Charles Fourier coined the term in 1837 in
writing about the indelible link between women’s status
and social progress. The word “feminism” became strongly
associated women-led activism for equality.
Second Wave
Feminism -
2: The history of the
modern feminist movements is divided into three "waves",
the late 1800's to the early 1900's, the 1960's to the
1990's and Feminism during modern times.
Second Wave
Feminism - 3: First-wave feminists were
active in the late 1800's and early 1900's were strong
activists in the suffrage movement as they fought for women's right
to vote. First-wave feminists also interrelated with the temperance
and abolitionist movements.
Second Wave
Feminism - 4: Second-wave feminists were
active in the 1960's to the 1990's, re-awakened by the Women’s
Rights Movement they campaigned for equal pay with men and also
focused on sexuality and reproductive rights.
Second Wave
Feminism - 5: Third-wave feminists continue
activism in modern times to achieve goals related to Feminism for
gender equality and equal opportunities within what is still
perceived as a male dominated society. The pay gap between men and
women is still 20%.
Second Wave
Feminism - 6: WW2 sparked the
second wave feminists as women entered the workforce
while men were fighting the war overseas. The fictional
character
Rosie the Riveter
became a famous icon representing women workers the
numbers of which had risen from 14.6 million in 1941 to
nearly 20 million working women
Second Wave
Feminism - 7: In the 1940's women earned 50% less
than men in wages. By the 1960's American women were
earning 60 cents for every dollar a man earned.
Second Wave
Feminism - 8: The Women's
Liberation Movement, also called 'Women's Lib' and the
Women’s Rights Movement were established to combat
sexism and to gain full social and political rights and
opportunities for women equal to those of men.
Second Wave
Feminism - 9: Second-wave
feminists became Civil Rights activists and members of
the Women’s Rights Movement campaigning for equal pay in
the workplace and seeking more control and fulfillment
in their personal lives at home.
Second Wave
Feminism -
10: On May 9, 1960,
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the
first oral contraceptive, commonly known as "the Pill"
granting greater reproductive freedom, birth control, to
American women.
Second Wave
Feminism -
11: In 1961,
demonstrations by 50,000 women in 60 cities, were
mobilized by Women Strike for Peace, to protest above
ground testing of nuclear bombs.
Second Wave
Feminism - 12:
John F Kennedy became president on January 20,1961 and
began advocating and supporting Women's rights.
JFK established the Presidential
Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) to advise on
issues concerning the status of women.
Second Wave
Feminism -
13: Eleanor Roosevelt,
the influential widow of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, was appointed to chair the PCSW which
called for federal action against sex discrimination and
backed equal pay for women.
Second Wave
Feminism - 14: On March 6, 1961, President
Kennedy established the President's Committee on Equal Employment
Opportunity to investigate employment practices and on June 10,
1963, JFK signed the Equal Pay Act
to establish equal pay for equal work among men and women.
Second Wave
Feminism - 15: The Feminine
Mystique by Betty Friedan was published in 1963 and
became an immediate best seller. Friedan spoke of the
utter boredom and lack of fulfillment of the suburban
housewife who were "deadened by domesticity" but too
socially conditioned to recognize their own desperation.
Continued...
Second Wave
Feminism for kids
Facts
about Feminism and the Women's Rights Movement for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about Second Wave Feminism for kids.
Second Wave
Feminism for kids
Second Wave
Feminism - 16: The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
signed into law by Present Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.
Section VII of the act prohibited
discrimination by private employers based on sex and
established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) to enforce the provision.
Second Wave
Feminism - 17: The EEOC was unable to enforce
the gender discrimination provision so in June 1966, whilst attending the Third National
Conference on the Commission on the Status of Women in Washington,
D.C., Betty Friedan and 28 women founded the
National Organization for Women
(NOW).
Second Wave
Feminism - 18: In 1965 President Johnson issued Executive Order
11246 ordering “federal agencies and federal contractor’s to take
‘affirmative action ‘ in overcoming employment discrimination”.
Second Wave
Feminism - 19: In 1965 in the
legal case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court
struck down the remaining law that restricted access to
contraception for married couples.
Second Wave
Feminism - 20: In 1965 Anna
Pauline "Pauli" Murray coauthored an article with Mary
Eastwood in the George Washington Law Review about
sexism. The article was called “Jane Crow and the Law:
Sex Discrimination and Title VII” blasting sexism by
alluding to the infamous
Jim Crow laws.
Second Wave
Feminism - 21: Shulamith "Shulie"
Firestone became a central figure in the early
development of radical feminism and a founding member of
the New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York
Radical Feminists. "Shulie" Firestone book 'Dialectic of
Sex' was published in 1970.
Second Wave
Feminism - 22: New York Radical
Women was an early second-wave feminist radical feminist
group that existed from 1967–1969. They attracted
nationwide media attention in Atlantic City, NJ, on
September 7, 1968 when they unfurled a banner at the
1968 Miss America pageant displaying the words, "Womens
Liberation". They protested that the Miss America
pageant was a degrading "cattle parade" that reduced
women to mere objects of beauty.
Second Wave
Feminism - 23: The Redstockings of the Women's
Liberation Movement were a radical New York group
established in February 1969 after the breakup of New
York Radical Women. The name 'Redstockings' combinined
the term bluestocking, meaning intellectual women, with
"red", for its association with the revolutionary left.
Second Wave
Feminism -
24: The Redstockings
staged a counter pageant in which they crowned a sheep
as Miss America and threw "oppressive" feminine
artifacts such as bras, makeup, girdles, high-heels and
false eyelashes into the trashcan. This action led to
the "Burn the bra" Women's lib slogan.
Second Wave
Feminism -
25: In May 1969, NOW
activists marched in Washington D.C. for Mother's Day,
demanding "Rights, Not Roses."
Second Wave
Feminism -
26: Australian author Germaine Greer
became one of the major voices of the second-wave
feminist movement when her book, the Female Eunuch, was
published in 1970.
Second Wave
Feminism -
27: In 1970 a U.S.
Court of Appeals ruled in Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co.,
that jobs held by men and women need to be
"substantially equal" but not "identical" to fall under
the protection of the Equal Pay Act. This meant that an
employer could not change the job titles of women
workers in order to pay them less than men.
Second Wave
Feminism -
28: On March 22, 1972
the Equal Rights Amendment for Women was passed by
Congress stating that “Equality of rights under the law
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or
by any State on account of sex.” The amendment was
hailed as a major victory for women’s rights movements.
Second Wave
Feminism -
29: Congress passed
Title IX of the Higher Education Act in 1972,
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in any
educational program receiving federal funds. The law
forced all-male schools to open their doors to women and
athletic programs to sponsor and finance female sports
teams.
Second Wave
Feminism -
30: The 1973 legal
case of Roe v Wade was a landmark decision by the
United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion in
which the decision of Judge Harry A. Blackmun legalized
first trimester abortions. As a result of Roe v. Wade,
the Supreme Court established a woman's right to safe
and legal abortion, overriding the anti-abortion laws of
many states.
Second Wave
Feminism -
31: In February 1973,
the National Organization for Women (NOW) established
the National Task Force on Rape to redefine rape as a
crime of violence and examine existing rape statutes
Second Wave
Feminism -
32: In 1968 the EEOC
had ruled that sex-segregated "help wanted" adverts in
newspapers were illegal. The ruling was upheld in 1973
by the Supreme Court and opened the way for women to
apply for higher-paying jobs hitherto open only to men.
Second Wave
Feminism -
33: Prior to the
mid-1970s marital rape was exempted from ordinary rape
laws. The first marital rape law was enacted in Nebraska
in 1976, making it illegal for a husband to rape his
wife.
Second Wave
Feminism - 34:
The 'Feminine Mystique' inspired American feminist author
Marilyn French to write the 'Women's Room' that was
published in 1977
Second Wave
Feminism -
35: The Pregnancy
Discrimination Act was passed in 1978 banning employment
discrimination against pregnant women.
Second Wave
Feminism -
36: Feminism and the
Second Wave feminists witnessed extraordinary progress
for women in a relatively short period of time. Women
today, the Third-wave feminists, continue to fight for
the ideals of Feminism and gender equality.
Second Wave
Feminism for kids
Feminism - President John
F Kennedy Video
The article on the
Feminism provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during
JFK's presidential term in office.
Feminism and the Women's Rights Movement
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Interesting Facts about Feminism for kids and schools
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Second Wave Feminism, a major
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Feminism and the Women's Rights Movement
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