Comparing The First And Second Wave Of Feminism

Inequality between the sexes is a current subject, even though the challenges and issues have evolved and changed with time. Different generations of women have fought and still fight for their right to equality. Three waves of feminism have marked the movement and characterized the different battles of women across the years. In order to understand the path towards equality between the sexes, it is useful to compare the first and second wave of feminism by looking at their historical context, their view of equality and politics.

Each wave of feminism is characterized and formed by its historical context. The environment in which a woman evolves determines what she will fight for. The first wave of feminism took place starting in the mid

The first wave of feminists, at the beginning of the 20th century, mainly fought for legal and political rights such as the right to vote. For the women of that time, the definition of equality started with the right to political decisions. They believed legal rights determined equality, and those rights would lead to common cultural and social grounds for men and women (Goldmann 53). Following the First World War, some countries such as Germany and the United States gave women the right to vote, since women had a major role to play in the maintenance of the country after the men’s departure. This is how, on August 11 1919, women in Germany acquired the right to vote for the first time (Goldmann 53). This desire for the right to vote can be traced down to the industrial revolution taking place in the nineteenth century. After the abuse taking place in the first industrial revolution, child labor laws were implemented which imposed education to the youth. Such mandatory education brought the new generation to push for the extend of their rights like the right to vote (Beauchamp). Once the right to vote was acquired by women, the vision of equality and its definition changed. The new equality reclaimed by the second wave of feminism is not only defined by the legal equality of sexes facing the law, but also the equality of sexes when facing family life, sexuality but also the place of the sexes in political and economic activities. Feminists of the 1960s were asking for equal education, equal pay for equal job and social rights (Dumont and Toupin 380). Women reclaimed an accessible daycare system, because they believed they were also entitled to the right to work. Feminists of the second wave claimed that daycare was only a service available for rich families, which was unfair. They denounced the mentality of the people, accepting