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Feminism… Thoughts! 0.5

iruo May 17, 20222 Comments
feminism

Hello everyone! I trust y’all are doing great. Let’s continue where we left off on feminism. If you haven’t read the prequels, please do. Let’s get right to it.

We left off talking about the circumstances surrounding the second wave as the catalyst of its emergence.

Continuance of Feminism

Following the Equal Pay Act of 1963, two more legal victories propelled the fight for women’s rights ahead. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 both secured rights for some feminists and encouraged them to continue to advocate for women’s equality.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevented employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition to the Civil Rights Act, the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 prevented anyone from limiting a woman’s access to contraception or other methods of birth control. This case would be used in the famous Roe v. Wade decision, protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion in 1973.

These legal victories gave some women more autonomy in both public and private life. However, many women of color were still disenfranchised.

Early in the second wave, feminist writer Gloria Steinem gained national attention by going undercover as a Playboy Bunny. Her exposé called “A Bunny’s Tale,” highlighted the sexism and low wages that women faced in these clubs. Steinem went on to become one of the most recognizable leaders of the second wave. She co-founded both “New York” and “Ms.” magazines and covered political issues ranging from abortion to rape.

Steinem first spoke publicly in 1969 at an event to legalize abortion in New York State. Shortly afterwards, she began writing and publishing books that would influence a generation of feminists. Her publications accompanied a host of other feminist work that was published during the period that became the women’s liberation movement. Some of these books include; Kate Millett’s “Sexual Politics” in 1969, Juliet Mitchell’s “The Subjection of Women” in 1970, and Shulamith Firestone’s “The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution” in 1970.

In 1972, Steinem teamed up with Betty Friedan and other activists such as Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to form the National Women’s Political Caucus. This caucus was established to support gender equality and ensure proper women’s representation in political office. At the founding meeting, Steinem delivered a speech entitled “Address to the Women of America,” where she called for a women’s revolution.

That same year, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 finally passed in Congress. Unfortunately, this amendment guaranteeing equal constitutional rights for women failed to be ratified in 38 states within seven years. Supporters of the ERA continue to fight for it’s ratification today.

feminism

The Civil Rights Movement

When the second wave of feminism began, the Civil Rights Movement was already very much established. After emancipation, the African American community still had to fight against racism, violence, and segregation to exercise their basic human rights.

Furthermore, even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment ensuring that both men and women were able to vote, African American men and women were still prohibited to vote by Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses. As the second surge of feminism grew, African American women were once again fighting for their rights as women, alongside their fight for freedom from racial oppression.

In 1969, Frances M. Beal published “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female,” detailing the experiences of African American women during the feminist movement. Her essay specifically noted the exploitation of black women in society and the different struggles between white and “non-white” feminists.

That same year, Betty Friedan stepped down as president of the organization she co-founded called the National Organization for Women (NOW). Although the organization was racially inclusive, the concerns of black women were frequently sidelined. For example, Friedan and some of the African American members clashed over Friedan’s use of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to advocate for more jobs for middle-class white women, when many African American men and women faced racially motivated job discrimination and lived below the poverty line. By the time Friedan stepped down in 1969, African American women had already started forming their own feminist organizations.

By the 1970s, black women were assembling as separate feminist organizations starting with the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in 1973. The Combahee River Collective was formed in 1974 for a similar purpose, but they also focused on issues of sexuality that were often left out. They had a statement that read, “we are committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression…” and the way those systems of oppression bisect.

As these women sought their collective goals, Revolutionary Scholar and Activist Angela Davis began publishing articles and books that would contribute to the foundation of the “Black Feminist” movement. She published an article on the harmful stereotypes of black women in society in 1972 and then followed that with her book entitled, “Women, Race & Class” in 1981. The Combahee River Collective and “Women, Race & Class” both provided a solid foundation for future feminists to study various forms of oppression.

Anyway, we’ll stop here today. If you are looking to get an excellent web design company, do click on here!

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Comments (02)

  1. John Scene
    June 3, 2022

    This is really educative.

    • iruo
      August 1, 2022

      Yeah John, we are glad you find it educative.

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