Imagine being a woman living in Europe during the war, taking on many important leadership roles and having a good amount of power. All of a sudden, the war ends and all of these roles and powers are taken away. Europe made women feel equal to men when everything was being sacrificed for a cause, and then threw them back into being a housewife and oppressed as soon as the war ended. Once seeing how much a woman can truly have, she was not going to go back to having nothing. This is what some consider to be the initial spark of the Women’s liberation movement and the second wave of feminism across Europe. In the 1960s, women liberationists saw themselves as an oppressed group and started to demand radical change all across the continent. The way each country reacted to this demand however, was somewhat different. Although after the war, women all across Europe were fighting for liberation, they only completed strides in everyday cultural and social life and gained little to no influence in political life.
Italy was considered to be the most reluctant country to give women certain rights and services. They still had laws restricting where a woman could work in the 1960s and were very skeptical about giving abortion, contraception, and divorce rights out of fear of losing the catholic vote. Hitchcock states: “Until 1967, adultery was a crime punishable only for women; until 1976, girls as young as twelve could be married; abortions were strictly prohibited, and only in 1971 was a ban on sales of contraceptives lifted”. Clearly radical change had to occur if it was still considered accepted for a girl to get married at 12 years old. In order to make these radical changes, women formed groups like the women’s liberation m...
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...en will never be fully equal and if it does happen, it will not be for a long time. It took about 90 years for women to get this far and have a much greater influence in new Europe then they ever dreamed to have in the old. Maybe in another 90 years women will be even closer to complete equality.
Works Cited
Ballarin, Pilar, Margarita Birriel, and Candida Ortiz. Women in the European Union Programme,
"Women in the History of Europe." Accessed April 1, 2014.
http://www.helsinki.fi/science/xantippa/wee/wee21.html.
Herzog, Dagmar. Sex After Fascism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Hitchcock, William. The Struggle For Europe. New York: Anchor Books, a Division of Random
House, INC., 2003.
Libcom, "The Women's Movement in Italy." Last modified August 14, 2009. Accessed April 5,
2014. https://libcom.org/library/19-womens-movement-italy.
When the war started, women had to take over the jobs of men and they learned to be independent. These women exemplified the beginning of change. Coupled with enfranchisement and the increased popularity of birth control, women experienced a new liberation. When the men returned from the war they found competition from the newly liberated woman who did not want to settle for making a home (Melman 17). This new class of women exercised a freedom that shocked society.
Social movements refer to informal groups of people who focus on either political or social issues. The goal of the social movement is to change things in society, to refuse to go along with the norm, and to undo a social change. For example, the Women’s Rights Movement that began in the 1840s was geared towards getting women more equality in relation to political, social, and economic status in society (Foner). Along with this, women gained a louder voice to speak out about what they wanted to change and implemented the change. Prior to the Women’s Rights Movement, women were often timid, compliant, obedient, and mistreated. After the 1920s, a movement towards more equality was shifted in society views, however not all were convinced or changed by the new ideas of women. Although women began to get increased rights, the typical gender roles, which they were expected to follow did not loosely lesson. Women still found themselves doing the same gender roles, house roles, and family roles even after the 1920s. It was not until the 1960s when the Feminist movement began (Foner). The literary piece is “Why I Want a Wife” by Judy Brady and the goal of the Feminist Movement was to create new meanings and realities for women in terms of education, empowerment, occupation, sexual identity, art, and societal roles. In short, the Feminist Movement was aimed to gain women freedom, equal opportunity and be in control over their own life.
What does “movement” mean? There are many definitions for the word. In this case, I am referring to a political meaning. Movement is a series of organized activities working toward an objective. There have been many groups in history to start up movements throughout the decades. One that stands out to me the most is the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Women’s movements are led by powerful, courageous women who push to better the lives’ of women or lives’ of others. Most familiar movements are those involved in politics, in efforts to change the roles and status of womanhood in society. Groups of women also attempt to improve lives of others with the help of religious and charitable activities. Either it was a political, religious, or charitable women’s movement, each woman of each group have made an impact on today’s view of women and achieved greater political involvement.
The three additional important fact that were in the book were Revolutionary Women, Railroads and Telegraph, and Commodore Mathew Perry and the opening of trade in Japan.
Every citizen of the United State was grant the right to vote since their birth in the United State or when they passed
From 1960 to 1990 the women’s movement in Canada played a significant role in history concerning the revolution of women’s rights. Although it was a long road coming for them, they were able to achieve the rights they deserved. Women struggled for equality rights to men but primarily their rights as a person. Since the 1960s women’s rights had significantly changed, they had to work hard for the rights that they have in the present day. Females across the nation started speaking out against gender inequality, divorce, and abortion. This uprising coincided with the Women’s Movement. Through the Royal Commission on the status of women they were able to gain equality rights and they were able to have access to legal abortions through the Charter Rights of Freedom and obtain no-fault divorce through the Divorce Act of 1986.
“Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine living in a world where we can all be who we are, a world of peace and possibility.” (Feminism is for everybody, page 8). This particular quote from the assigned reading really spoke to me. How amazing would it be to live in a world where no one group dominates another, or more importantly no one group discriminates one another. Obviously, just as bell hooks’ said following this quote, the feminist movement cannot do all of this alone. There are so many other things going on in the world that need attention as well, such as racism, class exclusivity, and imperialism. Over the past few years I have become more informed on the feminist movement and the assigned reading only heightened my
“Compare and contrast women’s suffrage movements of the late nineteenth and early centuries with the European feminist movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s.” Whereas the women’s suffrage movements focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to equality, the feminist movements successfully addressed a broad range of other feminist issues. The first dealt primarily with voting rights and the latter dealt with inequalities such as equal pay and reproductive rights. Both movements made vast gains to the social and legal status of women.
As time passes things change such as: people, society, beliefs, stereotypes, discrimination. It wasn’t until the Feminist Movement, or also known as Women Movement Act that led women to have the courage to stand up for what they believed in. The first Feminism Movement Act was during the 18th through early 20th centuries, which dealt mainly with the suffrage movement. The second Feminism Movement Act was during the 1960s and 1980s,
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality,” this was stated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a very crucial women’s suffragist. Over time, women’s history has evolved due to the fact that women were pushing for equal rights. Women were treated as less than men. They had little to no rights. The Women’s Rights Movement in the 1800’s lead up to the change in women’s rights today. This movement began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention. For the next 72 years, women continually fought for equal rights. In 1920, they gained the right to vote which ended the movement and opened the opportunity for more change in women’s lives. Because of the Women’s Rights Movement, women today are able to vote, receive
The 1960s brought about changes economically and socially. The Civil Rights Movement was alive and moving. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s goal was to hopefully put an end to racial discrimination and to restore voting rights in the South. Clearly the 60s was not the beginning of the fight for civil rights in America. The 18th century in the United State was plagued by hatred, racism and slavery. Slavery affected the entire nation. Slavery destroyed families by taking members of one’s captive to work as slaves. Abolitionists of all races began protesting against slavery. As slaves grew tired of intense abuse, slaves planned escape routes, signals and even songs. By 1843, slaves were escaping to the north making slavery almost impossible. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed as compromise between the south and the north. The law mandated that runaway slaves be returned back to one’s master. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional. In 1859, the ruling was overturned. Slaves were given another ray of hope with the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The proclamation immediately freed fifty million slaves but slated to free 3.1 million slaves (Harris, 2001). However, the proclamation did not benefit slaves in every state. Slavery, non-voting rights, public segregation and Jim Crow laws led to the development of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NACCP) in 1909. Led by W.E. Dubois in 1910, the NAACP‘s mission was to ensure political, educational, social and economic equal rights for one. The organization publicized the malice acts of lynching, beatings and police ...
Although by the 1960s women were responsible for one-third of the work force, despite the propaganda surrounding the movement women were still urged to “go back home.” However the movement continued to burn on, and was redeveloping a new attitude by the 1970s. The movement was headed by a new generation that was younger and more educated in politics and social actions. These young women not only challenged the gender role expectations, but drove the feminist agenda that pursued to free women from oppression and male authority and redistribute power and social good among the sexes (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000). In just a few decades, the Women’s Liberation Movement has changed typical gender roles that once were never challenged or questioned.
Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives. Feminist political ideology focuses on understanding and changing political philosophies for the betterment of women.
The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then, it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be three waves of feminism, each wave fighting for a different issue concerning women’s rights. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be enacted, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases.
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.