Second-Wave Feminism: A History of Second-Wave Feminism

The feminist movement—also known as the women’s movement—is often broken up into historical and ideological periods called waves. The second wave of feminism, roughly dating from the 1960s to the 1980s, involved an expansion of previous ideas and victories of first-wave feminism, a social movement that saw its most salient accomplishments in the struggle for women’s suffrage, made law in 1920. The second wave pushed for equal opportunities in the workplace, home, and public sphere. The movement was also concerned with indirect and direct oppression, including rape and domestic sexual abuse.

The second wave of feminism built upon issues outlined in the first wave and accelerated in with publications about women’s oppression:

• Influential books: In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex, which became a foundational feminist text. The book looks at how women contended with explicit and implicit forms of oppression and prejudice. Betty Friedan’s 1963 bestseller The Feminine Mystique elucidated the problem of many women’s lack of fulfillment in their lives due to the social roles they inhabited. While American women had long discussed these ideas in intellectual circles, Friedan’s book popularized them unprecedentedly, with housewives reading and discussing the text.
• The new wave: The term “second-wave feminism” entered popular discourse with a 1968 article by journalist Martha Weinman Lear in The New York Times Magazine. Titled “The Second Feminist Wave: What do These Women Want?,” it sought to explain how the feminist struggle had shifted, moving forward and addressing new concerns.
• A divided front: Second-wave feminism was complex and diverse, with priorities and alliances sometimes in conflict with each other. Divisions around class and race were prevalent, with Black women calling for more emphasis on race. Different factions had varying priorities, such as birth control, abortion, domestic violence, and other issues.

The second wave of feminism crystallized around several issues that united most of the disparate factions in the movement.

1. 1. Workplace equality: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was one of the first major legislative victories of second-wave feminism. An amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the law made wage discrimination based on gender illegal. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was another victory for workplace equality, prohibiting workplace discrimination, including sexual harassment.
2. 2. Equality at home: Second-wave feminists were critical of how women’s household work as mothers, cooks, cleaners, assistants remained rigidly traditional and how the work was often unacknowledged and uncompensated labor. By seeking better opportunities in the workplace, securing affordable child care, and raising the consciousness of women and men alike, they helped expand the opportunities for women across society.
3. 3. Reproductive rights: One of the most emphasized priorities of second-wave feminism was affordable, safe access to sexual health care, including contraception, abortion, and pregnancy support for young women. The FDA approved the first oral contraceptive known as “the pill” in 1960, giving many women more control over their reproductive systems.
4. 4. Education equality: In Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, educational institutions with federal funding were forbidden from discriminating based on gender identity and pregnancy. This led to the integration of many schools, especially in higher education. The subject of feminism itself became an active area of academic study, with women’s history being more widely taught and discussed.
5. 5. Women’s organizations: Many women found empowerment and solidarity by joining grassroots feminist organizations with explicit political goals. One of the most prominent, the National Organization for Women (NOW), once led by Betty Friedan, continues to be a powerful lobbying force in the US.
6. 6. Class: The second wave was heavily influenced by radical feminism and the intellectual ferment of the women’s liberation movement, which was critical of the role that capitalist class systems played in maintaining unequal power relations between men and women. Because the effects of sexism were more severe at the low end of the income scale, many organizers advocated for broad social benefits that would help make women financially independent of men.
7. 7. Race: One of the most critical issues of second-wave feminism was race. The overlapping concerns of the Civil Rights movement led to contention over priorities and strategies. The struggles of white, middle-class women were different from those of Black women and other women of color, many of whom had to work to support themselves and their families, a situation made more urgent by the many forms of oppression faced by Black men. This led to an emphasis on intersectionality, or the notion that oppression works in complicated, mutually reinforcing ways.

The end of second-wave feminism is generally attributed to conflicts over sexual politics and pornography, which some radical feminists opposed. The start of third-wave feminism built on the legacy of second-wave feminism:

• The personal is political: This idea, popularized by Carol Hanisch, expressed the idea that seemingly private, mundane dimensions of life—such as home cooking and cleaning, sexual preferences, and career choices—had deep political roots and implications. By thinking critically about these matters, activists could better confront and dismantle oppression.
• Family planning: The notion of women having sexual agency and control of their reproductive system is another lasting effect of second-wave feminism. The 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade ruled abortion as a constitutional right.
• Workplace equality: Second-wave feminism was often characterized by images of modern, financially independent, professional women. Progress made in workplace equality is partly due to the efforts of activists in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
• Institutional change: The shape of social institutions, from the corporate to the state sector, has shifted considerably due to changes inaugurated by second-wave feminism.

Feminism is an intersectional movement with a focus on issues that touch every part of our lives, including reproductive rights, workplace culture, and caregiving. Gain access to exclusive videos on feminism with the MasterClass Annual Membership and get a crash course from leaders Gloria Steinem, Amanda Nguyen, Tina Tchen, and adrienne maree brown.