Struggle of American Women for Equality

To an onlooker, it may seem that the struggle of American women is essentially over. It is a fact of American Society, and also all functioning societies, that it will behave in such a way as to ensure its own continued existence. In accordance with post-modern Sociology, the system will move with us, against us, or in spite of us; instead of benevolence or malevolence towards individuals or groups, it is more interested with self-preservation. Therefore, when women as a group make an advance in society, they have done so in a way that benefits society as a whole, but not necessarily women as a group. As such, it can be noted that the struggle of women for equality in American Society is not over. Not as long as women are still stratified out of the upper echelons of society and kept from the decision making processes that take place there can there be real gender equality. However, for that to happen, there must first be equality amongst the gender: women of all races and classes must first see themselves as equals before women as a group can be equal to men.

Since the era of the 1960s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movements and also of the Feminist Movement, it appears that great social, political and economic strides have been achieved by women. This second-wave feminism of the 1960s, led by the National Organization of Women (NOW) had made supposedly made great strides for women. However, social change does not take place overnight, but rather takes a generation to feel its full effects. Between the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and the third-wave feminism of the 1990s, the social consequences brought about by NOW and the Feminist Movement began to be clear.

As a result of these consequences, women were...

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...he wheel every time we have to go to the store for bread. (p. 66)

In the end, for feminism to succeed women need to find a commonality among themselves beyond their differences, while at the same time they must embrace those differences and work along with every individual’s strengths and weaknesses. While the struggle for women’s equality is not over, there is a proverbial “foot in the door.” In the context of gains in the various areas of society, women must continue to work together to advocate the common good and the good of the individual. Undoubtedly, the cause of women will continue to be advanced and one day it is presumable that gender will no longer be a tool of stratification, at least in American Society.

Works Cited

Solinger, R. (2005). Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America. New York: New York University Press.