Essay Sample on Feminism: 3 Waves of a Misunderstood Ideology

Introduction

In the current world, feminism has become a particular ideology that a lot of people have completely failed to understand. The feminism is popularly known to have existed in three separate waves. The start of the second wave came up a result of the women being forced to evacuate the workplace which occurred after the end of the Second World War. Another factor that caused the second wave of feminism was the failure of parallel executions of rights amendments. This latter movement occurred as a result of the growth of criticism which caused feminism to splint and mostly focused on the white women to be excluded concerning everybody else. The feminist movement that existed before the year 1920s had the characteristics of the suffrage movement which allowed the women to gain their right to vote (Friedan 320). Focusing on the 20th century and 1890s various women movements mostly had their primary concern on the general societal inequalities that included poor housing and working conditions and also focused on the social ills such as prostitution and alcoholism consumptions. Back in the 1930s, the black women who were situated in Southwest of United States decided to join individual labor unions to protest against the poor working environments and reduced wages for instance in one of workers union known as International Ladies Garment workers where they had to endure all the hard conditions. Apart from the significant view which was taken as the social activism, gender topics and right to vote which mainly focuses on the equality aspect there were a lot of areas that were also targeted to result to the second wave feminist movement. The second wave had a lot of effects on the American women in that workforce.

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Historically, women are known to gain increased employment compared to men back in the 1940s since men were mainly left to fight. The Second World War is defined as the most effective factor that triggered the emergence of the second wave feminist movement. This wave took place immediately after the occurrence of this war; therefore it carries much of the reason as to why the second wave emerged (Friedan 320). During this war period, the labor unions become stronger since most women got employed to work in them which in particular manufactured specific jobs that were required to give some efforts to the war. New work benefits were available to women that included counseling, maternity leave and daycare, and such developments were most common in Europe since most of the countries by this time were devastated by the war. The women from the United States were known to participate in the labor force that took place during the period of the Second World War that ended up creating a certain feeling that they needed to be treated equally with men concerning all the jobs that they filled. This, therefore, showed that the men who came back from the war took over their careers which were being performed by the women while they were in the war.

During the emergence of the feminist movement, the aspect of motherhood was viewed as an oppressive way to most of the women. The majority of Americans that were involved in the second wave came to an agreement based on a particular position that was mostly articulated by black American feminists who in this context were displayed to be engaged in work and motherhood to empower all women. Factors such as race, feminists, gender, and class resulted in having common ground on the issue that leads to a debate that occurred back in the1950s. This debate was mostly based on designing specific public policies that were to ensure that there was consideration of integration on payment of employment and also the family life. In the 1970s the economic factor greatly affected the feminism through the creation of a climate that was hostile and hospitable to the aspect of feminism (Friedan 320). There were a lot of difficulties whereby the fuel price went up; there were unbalanced payments to the workers, personal debt increase and this cause stagflation making all the real earnings to go down by a considerable percentage. This, therefore, demanded that both family heads had to work, and hence there was no demand for carrying any card of National organization. Both parents were forced to work to keep the family security intact. Sex discrimination on work significantly caused injuries to the families that were involved, and the laws would only eliminate this. The economic need and the mix of feminism significantly resulted in the women expansion to the workforce where they had to participate in large numbers. Over the years feminist action led to the improvement of jobs; hence the women get the opportunity of accessing most of the employment and could receive payment as they work i9n order to support their families.

Even though the feminist movement appears to have caused a lot of changes in people's lives through surpassing their dreams magnitude, the daughters are seen to take their personhood together with a state of equality for granted. In this context, they are seen as not having any difficulty in living without children or men which is mostly based on the first feminist agenda. The fact that the women movement exists and they are only known to deal with only women; there is yet a lot that is going to take place based on the evolution, revolution and also liberation at large (Friedan 339). The women mostly fight for equality in the society and in this context they tend to discuss the essential concerns concerning the larger family. This was derived from the White House Conference where the women found out that they are capable of bridging the polarization and can win an overwhelming majority concerning providing the second stage solutions. This conference was mainly meant to counter the alcohol and drug abuse. They also demanded all types of equality to maintain a stable family life through the establishment of creative developments.

Women and men have taken the initiative of declaring a cease-fire in the war that was based on the sexes which took place over the last half-century. In this context they tend to face several common enemies such as financial pressure, stress and lack of time in relation t the modern setting they are living in. The results of the national survey show that the sharing of the workplace and the domestic duties negotiations for both genders have contributed to the gender equity whereby they end up enriching both sexes. Both sexes have a belief that any strains in the contingent world enable the achieving of successful families, raising kids and are capable of leading life that uppers to be sturdy. Men and women, therefore, had an agreement that they should work equally and surprisingly enough men went forward in proving the women can work outside homes. Majority of men thus were satisfied with women working outside (Friedan 322). Most men seem to be happy in sharing the house chores and are too willing to take care of children at home band also carrying out household duties.

Conclusion

In some cases, most women tend to as twice as men are capable of doing and therefore lead women in questioning the help dissatisfaction from their husbands. Instead of putting more emphasis on the difference that exists between men and women hence causing a lot of blame on the life's problems on both genders, they both share a sense of confusion and conflict in making things to work out concerning the current life pressure. The politics have increasingly impacted this act making things to even more difficult. The survey has highlighted that there are yet to find any new patterns based on the lives of people that would effectively recognize the real workload concerning the career couple raising children through reflecting nostalgia, resentment, and fatigue.

Works Cited

Friedan, Betty. The second stage: With a new introduction. Harvard University Press, 1998.