First-Wave Feminism Second-Wave Feminism

is good for society as its definitely defined by nature and the natural relationship between men and women.

2.2 First-Wave Feminism

First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. It focused primarily on gaining the right of womens suffrage. The term, first-wave, was coined retrospectively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural inequalities as further political inequalities. In Britain the Suffragettes campaigned for the womens vote, which was eventually granted − to some women in 1918 and to all in 1928 − as much because of the part played by British women during the First World War, as of the efforts of the Suffragettes. In the United States leaders of this movement include Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing womens right to vote. Other important leaders include Lucy Stone, Olympia Brown, and Helen Pitts. American first-wave feminism involved a wide range of women, some belonging to conservative Christian groups such as Frances Willard and the Womans Christian Temperance Union, others resembling the diversity and radicalism of much of second-wave feminism such as Stanton, Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and the National Woman Suffrage Association, of which Stanton was president. In the United States first-wave feminism is considered to have ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution 1919, granting women the right to vote.

2.3 Second-Wave Feminism

Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity beginning in the early 1960s lasting through the late 1980s. Second Wave Feminism has existed continuously since then, and continues to coexist with what some people call Third Wave Feminism. The second wave feminism saw cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their own personal lives as deeply politicized, and reflective of a sexist structure of power. If first-wave feminism focused upon absolute rights such as suffrage, second- wave feminism was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as the end to discrimination.

2.4 Third-Wave Feminism