The Continued Fight of Feminism in the 1930s-1950s: Housewives in Theory, Not in Action The period between what is thought of as the first and second waves of feminism popularly shows women as happy housewives, which might seem odd since suffrage was just granted and women should want to use their new political power to expand their roles, yet the expansion of women’s rights does not happen again until the 1960s. So what caused this change from a strong suffragette to a delicate housewife? To understand the change, the suffrage movement, and some of its flaws, need to be discussed first. The Women’s Suffrage Movement/ First Wave Feminism: The first wave of feminism is considered to have started at the Seneca Falls Convention with Elizabeth
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Some groups advocated for a view of equality, where women and men are total equals, some played more into women’s differences and the more maternal benefits and services they offer in society.6 The belief that women had different needs than men did not gain as much popularity for the following reasons described by Elizabeth J. Clapp, At the basis of the movement’s arguments was the belief that natural rights, among them the right to vote, were common to all individuals and that included women. Rather than suggesting that women’s need for the franchise was peculiar to them, women’s rights advocates regarded any attempt to single out special needs on the grounds of race or sex as highly …show more content…
The “first wave” of feminism never fully died after the suffrage movement, rather unity and commonality over interests could not be decided over where to go next in regards to women’s rights, but the time after suffrage was not a time where women regressed willingly back to the home, it was caused by ideology and circumstances, yet being in the home did not mean women were not using their newfound political power and unifying in local communities This paper will attempt to connect the feminist movements of the early twentieth century to the one of the 1960s. To do so, the political and social actions of women need to be looked at to see that women did begin using their political power, and while it may not have been specifically for women’s rights, they were still concerned with issues related to it, like laws dealing with
Some groups advocated for a view of equality, where women and men are total equals, some played more into women’s differences and the more maternal benefits and services they offer in society.6 The belief that women had different needs than men did not gain as much popularity for the following reasons described by Elizabeth J. Clapp, At the basis of the movement’s arguments was the belief that natural rights, among them the right to vote, were common to all individuals and that included women. Rather than suggesting that women’s need for the franchise was peculiar to them, women’s rights advocates regarded any attempt to single out special needs on the grounds of race or sex as highly …show more content…
The “first wave” of feminism never fully died after the suffrage movement, rather unity and commonality over interests could not be decided over where to go next in regards to women’s rights, but the time after suffrage was not a time where women regressed willingly back to the home, it was caused by ideology and circumstances, yet being in the home did not mean women were not using their newfound political power and unifying in local communities This paper will attempt to connect the feminist movements of the early twentieth century to the one of the 1960s. To do so, the political and social actions of women need to be looked at to see that women did begin using their political power, and while it may not have been specifically for women’s rights, they were still concerned with issues related to it, like laws dealing with