by Emily Curwood
Protest movements in the USA were a pivotal part of the progress made throughout the 19th century; the most prominent of these was the African American Civil Rights movement that reached a clear climax in the 1960s with the passing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in 1964 and 65 respectively. Around the same time another movement was emerging from a period of dormancy: feminism. First-wave feminism during the late 19th and early 20th century was greatly important in laying a platform for future women’s protest, and did achieve tangible change, culminating in the 19th Amendment in 1919 which gave women the right to vote. However, from the 1920s onwards first-wave feminism came to an abrupt end, due to a multitude of factors including the Great Depression throughout the 1920s.
This weakened authority of women in society began to change throughout the mid-1900s: the percentage of women in the workforce increased from 19% to 50% from 1940 to 1960 and there was a growing younger generation of educated women who felt restricted by their traditional roles. It was this youth generation that resulted from the ‘Baby Boom’ after World War Two that led to the emergence of this reinvigorated movement. Second-wave feminism had a clear focus on the economic, rather than political, status of women. There was a strive for equality in the workplace; this inequality was highlighted through a commission pushed through by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960 that concluded that women’s work was always poorly paid, part time and had little influence. Thus this movement had a clear impact on society from 1960 to 1980, such as the passing of the Equal Positive Pay Act 1972 which meant that by 1978 women were earning up to 78% of what men were earning in the same roles.
This emergence of this movement was translated through literature; Betty Friedan, a prominent feminist leader published The Feminine Mystique during the time of the rise of second-wave feminism in 1963. This impact of this book, which aimed to condemn the ideals that a woman's happiness could only come from their roles as a mother and wife, was unprecedented; a year after it was published it became a best-selling non-fiction book. It appealed to white, middle-class women who formed the backbone of this movement and increased the awareness of politicians surrounding this frustration. Moreover Betty Freidan went on to become one of the founding members of the National Organisation for Women in 1966, which translated the message of the Feminine Mystique into tangible change throughout the 20th and 21st century, such as issues surrounding abortion.
The Feminine Mystique was a key piece of literature in stimulating the growth of the movement, although its impact was also translated through later literature in the 1970s. Second-wave feminism had a great influence on the Bloody Chamber, a collection of short stories written by Angela Carter in 1979. Carter focused on modern and liberal ideologies aiming to subvert gendered conventions and roles, in order to challenge these traditional beliefs, similar to Freidan. Second-wave feminism also triggered a change in children’s literature where traditional gender stereotypes were rewritten to normalise a more autonomous feminine identity.
There are many more examples of second-wave feminist literature that played a role in advancing and reflecting the achievement of the movment, such as the Dialect of Sex (1970) and Against Our Will (1975), that highlights the intertwining nature between feminist progess and literature.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism/The-second-wave-of-feminism
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