2nd Wave Feminism

Ms. O’Connell talked this week about the second wave feminism. Second wave feminism was a period that started in the United States in the 1960s and it ended in the 1980s. Its aim was to increase the rights of women. Before the second wave, there was obviously the first. It started in 1840 and its goal was to get women the right to vote, which they did in the US in 1920. Since this goal was accomplished women started to want more rights, like equal pay and end discrimination against women in the workforce. The second wave feminists wanted to be more equal and to be able to focus on their careers, instead of being expected to marry young and just stay at home.

Ms. O’Connell started off the lecture by showing us theme songs or intros of sitcoms from the 1960s. The intros were generally very traditional displaying the female character being a stay at home mom and just doing chores all day or being a part of the man’s role. In the show “Gilligan’s Island” all the men have significant titles like professor, skipper, and millionaire, while the women have non-independent or not significant titles that are related to the men in some way like a guys wife, a movie Star and Maryanne. Later during the lecture, we watched sitcoms intros from the 1970s. In the 1970s intros, women were more independent, like “Wonder Woman”, “Maude” or “Alice”. In these shows all the women are independent and a lot less traditional compared to the 1960s shows. Wonder Woman was fighting crime, Maude was on her fourth marriage and Alice was working.

In 1963, Betty Friedan published a book called The Feminine Mystique. It talked about women facing unfulfillment in their roles as housewives, despite having comfort and families. She writes that they felt guilty for the unhappiness as it would have been unacceptable. Many women after the book was published came out agreed and said similar things. The life that society wanted for women to live was very uneventful. Women probably felt useless and that their potential was not being used.