Racial Tensions and Exclusion in Second-Wave Feminism

1209 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Womens rights post american revolution

Though the quality of female-focused legislation decreased, the racial tension found within the United States escalated. This was caused by the exclusion of black women in the Women’s Liberation Movement, as many feminists of the period were, “white, middle class, and college-educated” (Cott 561). Along with this, many African American women felt their needs were not represented by common feminism, causing their involvement to be viewed as unnecessary. Above all, women of color believed that second-wave feminism belittled their community. Pertaining to the attitude of many white women during this period, the Black Women’s Manifesto stated, “If they find housework degrading and dehumanizing, they are financially able to buy their freedom …show more content…

Traditionally, the standing of the nuclear family symbolized that of American morality. Unfortunately, in the period spanning 1960 to 2000, the percentage of households formed by nuclear families sharply declined from 45 to 23.5 (“The Changing”). Similarly, married-couple households also diminished, as between 1970 and 2000, this type of unit bowed from 40 to 24 percent (Fields). The pattern continued with homes of families containing their own children under the age of eighteen, and throughout the years of 1970 to 2000, the percentage of households such as the described dwindled from 45 to 33. Statistics such as these displayed the drastic lifestyle alterations experienced by American women because of second-wave feminism. Due to an increased proportion of women working outside the home, additional stress was placed on marriages; men were no longer the sole income-earners, a characteristic that defined American culture in this period, and women became progressively uninterested in traditional feminine roles. This sudden shift created irreparable discontinuities, frequently resulting in divorce and the apparent loss of American morality. These developments were specifically harmful for women, as fifty percent of female college graduates desired a career in homemaking and were unprepared for life …show more content…

In the 1990’s, the number of homes maintained by unwed couples doubled and reached 5.5 million, with 41 percent containing minors. This significant portion quickly neared the quantity of married-couple houses with children, constituting 46 percent of all households (“The Changing”; Fields). The proximity of these percentages displayed the diverted social interests in America. In addition to the growth of unmarried-couple households, the proportion of single parenthood proliferated as well. In the period of 1970 to 2000, single-mother households swelled from three million to ten million, and those of single fathers expanded from 393,000 to two million, or 26 and five percent, respectively. This result stemmed directly from second-wave feminism, as more women made the decision to hold employment outside the home, magnifying marital tensions. After many resulting divorces, custodial arrangements typically produced greater stress, as the presence of children in single-mother homes was significantly more probable compared to single-father households (Fields). Furthermore, as recently as 2015, American women earned twenty percent less than the salary of men while performing equal tasks (“The Simple”). The combination of more parental responsibilities and the absence of sufficient wages left many women unable to provide

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison of Social Trends of the 1950s and 1990s

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    finally the opportune moment for individuals to build a stable family that previous decades of depression, war, and domestic conflicts had restricted. We see that this decade began with a considerable drop in divorce rates and rise in marriage rates, which is often assumed as the result of changed attitudes and values. However, this situation cannot be only just attributed to women’s

    Read More

  • Working Women In The 1950s

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    As gender roles were enhanced, the nuclear family was birthed. This ideal family, mainly portrayed in popular culture, had a working father, homemaking mother, and children. Television shows depicting this type of household, Leave it to Beaver, and I Love Lucy, were not representative of the reality of America. Not all of Americans were white, and not all women were happy living as housewives (Boyer 101). Although most did not fit the mold

    Read More

  • Unsung Heroines: Role of African American Women in Social Movements

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    When people think about organizations, leaders, activist, and world changers often times they do not correlate these titles and positions with women, let alone black women. When we think of social resistance movements and the leaders who operate the movements we often think of men. Many people in society think that a man is needed to construct, lead and run a social movement so that it can be affected enough to make a significant change. Stereotypical gender roles are the reason that many of us do not often think of women when we think about social resistance movements. However, African American women played a vital role in their organizations, they were powerful activist and they were adamant about addressing the many issues that black women face in society.

    Read More

  • Talcott Parsons And Bales: Leader Of The 1950s-Nuclear Family

    1505 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, social conditions made it less feasible for families to live this way. As the 1960s approached and consumption was in high demand, women were yet again, forced to join the work force; but only a quarter of the women joined the workforce, whereas in the 1990s about “two-thirds of women who had children were in the work force (Coontz 55). Coontz (1997) explains how by 1973, “real wages were falling for young families, and by the late 1970s, government effectiveness had decreased (Coontz 54). It was because of economic factors that the nuclear bread-winning family could only be a lifestyle a few can afford. Nonetheless, women joining the workforce created a new understanding of women-hood, changed women’s status in society, and created conflict within the household. Women did not have the time to complete all the household tasks which contributed to the increased divorce rates, but left women happier due to the fact that they had that ultimate

    Read More

  • How Divorce is Affecting the American Culture

    1994 Words  | 4 Pages

    The present structure of the average family in America is changing, mainly due to the growing number of mothers who now work outside the home. The current mark of dual-earner families stands at 64 percent, making it a solid majority today. This alteration of the "traditional" structure of the family is a channel for other changes that may soon occur.

    Read More

  • The Working, Single Mother Primary Care Vs. Secondary Care

    1626 Words  | 4 Pages

    Comparing its structure and function as it was in 1960 with what it had become in 1990 can highlight the dramatic changes in the American family. Until 1960 most Americans shared a common set of beliefs about family life; family should consist of a husband and wife living together with their children. The father should be the head of the family, earn the family's income, and give his name to his wife and children. The mother's main tasks were to support and enable her husband's goals, guide her children's development, look after the home, and set a moral tone for the family. Marriage was an enduring obligation for better or worse and this was due much to a conscious effort to maintain strong ties with children. The husband and wife jointly coped with stresses. As parents, they had an overriding responsibility for the well being of their children during the early years-until their children entered school, they were almost solely responsible. Even later, it was the parents who had the primary duty of guiding their children's education and discipline. Of course, even in 1960, families recognized the difficulty of converting these ideals into reality. Still, they devoted immense effort to approximating them in practice. As it turned out, the mother, who worked only minimally--was the parent most frequently successful in spending the most time with her children. Consequently, youngsters were almost always around a parental figure -- they were well-disciplined and often very close with the maternal parent who cooked for them, played with them, and saw them off to and home from school each day.

    Read More

  • Sociology 111 Midterm

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    As mentioned before, sociologists Coontz and Hochschild further elaborate upon Parsons and Bales’ concepts of the American family, but they mostly critique the idea of the male-breadwinner family. One of the main arguments Coontz and Hochschild present is the decline of the male-breadwinner family due to the economic changes of the United States and the arising social norms of consumerism. Because Parsons and Bales never considered how the changes throughout society would affect family, they believed the male-breadwinner family would continue to be a functional type of family for everyone. However, within her text, “What We Really Miss about the 1950s,” Coontz specifically discusses the major expense of keeping mothers at home as consumption norms...

    Read More

  • The Women's Movement

    1811 Words  | 4 Pages

    The women’s movement had been characterized by women's wish to acquire equal legal status to men by obtaining civil and political rights recorded in the Constitution and legislation. In Romania, the first wave of the feminist movement had been held simultaneously with the women’s movement in West, and it had been a movement of the elite, educated women with access to international information. An important period of this movement was before the establishment of the Romanian Constitution in 1923. It was the most democratic Constitution and women started an intense activity of lobbying for their rights until 1947. Between 1947 and 1989 Romania was pushed under Soviet influence by the Red Curtain, and the feminist activity was eradicated. Although Communism proclaimed gender equality between men and women, this had been acted contradictorily in public sphere and private life. Freedom has been detracted by the Communist Party, and women’s private lives had been controlled by the Party by limiting their legal rights. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, it was taken a modest initiative on the situation of gender equality and women’s rights in Romanian society. Since 1989 until the present, Romanian women’s roles and rights in society is becoming a priority in Romania. In addition, the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men is also a priority in the democracy, and under Western influence and European legislation. This essay will attempt to outline the difficulties representing the causes of the women’s movement and some of the effects of social, economic and political rights.

    Read More

  • Sexism And Heterosexism Essay

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the issues that demonstrated how sexism and heterosexism shape social welfare policy is the plight of single mothers. The well-being of single-parents, especially single mothers has been an important issue for the United States given that at least 50 percent of children who are currently growing up in the country will spend part of or their entire childhood in a single-parent family (Casey & Maldonado, 2012). As compared to other countries, single-parent families in the United States are worst off with high unemployment rates and poverty rates. This issue demonstrates how sexism and heterosexism influence social welfare policy since it has been the basis of establishment of various regulations to address the problem. The issue has been the basis of the implementation of TANF to deal with the high unemployment and poverty rates of single mothers. However, this policy has been ineffective since it makes people become more independent and does not meet the needs of women effectively. Therefore, it continues to be the basis for policy considerations to help single

    Read More

  • The High Divorce Rate in the United States

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    There was a time when women typically maintained the home and raised children while the husbands were the sole bread-winners for the family finances. However, times have changed and so have women’s rights and expectations for divorce, education, an...

    Read More

  • Role Of Marriage In The 1950s

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    The era of the 1950s was an iconic era in American history. The American dream of freedom, self empowerment, and success was growing. After world war 1, the ideals of american culture changed. The country saw the aftermath of the war in the countries of western Europe where communism was beginning to take hold, and the U.S tried to be the opposite. Marriage was propagated to be the opposite of the war torn families across the world, where women were working in factories and children fending for themselves with no home. The American “nuclear family” strived to be one where the father supported his family, the wife stayed home and provided for her children. Family became a national priority, and women were taught that a happy marriage and home

    Read More

  • The Changing of America Family

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the biggest changes in American families has been divorce and the single-parent families. In the article “What is a Family?”, Pauline Irit Erera argues that after World War 11, is when the major changes in families begun. Women were already accustomed to having jobs and working while their men were away during the war, and when the men all came back is when things started to change. Erera says, “The movement for gender equality led to increased employment opportunities for women, while at the same time declining wage rates for unskilled male workers made them less desirable marriage partners.” (Ere...

    Read More

  • Women's Movement Of 1960's

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.

    Read More

  • The Role of African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement

    2574 Words  | 6 Pages

    The African American Civil Rights Movement was a series of protests in the United States South from approximately 1955 through 1968. The overall goal of the Civil Rights Movement was to achieve racial equality before the law. Protest tactics were, overall, acts of civil disobedience. Rarely were they ever intended to be violent. From sit-ins to boycotts to marches, the activists involved in the Civil Rights Movement were vigilant and dedicated to the cause without being aggressive. While African-American men seemed to be the leaders in this epic movement, African-American women played a huge role behind the scenes and in the protests.

    Read More

  • The Women's Liberation Movement

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women began to vocalize their opinions and desires for the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage movement paved the way to the nineteenth Amendment in the United States Constitution that allowed women that right. The Women’s Suffrage movement started a movement for equal rights for women that has continued to propel equal opportunities for women throughout the country. The Women’s Liberation Movement has sparked better opportunities, demanded respect and pioneered the path for women entering in the workforce that was started by the right to vote and given momentum in the late 1950s.

    Read More

More about Racial Tensions and Exclusion in Second-Wave Feminism

Open Document