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Concept
Second-wave feminism
Summary
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades before ushering in a third wave of feminism beginning in the early 1990s. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Whereas first-wave feminism focused mainly on suffrage and overturning legal obstacles to gender equality (e.g., voting rights and property rights), second-wave feminism broadened the debate to include a wider range of issues: sexuality, family, domesticity, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities. It was a movement that was focused on critiquing patriarchal, or male-dominated, institutions and cultural practices throughout society. Second-wave feminism also drew attention to the issues of domestic violence and marital rape, created Rape crisis centers and women's shelters, and brought about changes in custody laws and divorce law. Feminist-owned bookstores, credit unions, and restaurants were among the key meeting spaces and economic engines of the movement.
Missing from the typical narrative told about second-wave feminism is the experiences of black and other women of color as well as working-class women as some narratives focus on the sexism encountered by white middle- and upper-class women. Some narratives present a viewpoint focusing on events in the United States to the exclusion of experiences in other countries and neglect the works of white anti-racist feminism. While the term "intersectionality" was not coined until 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw after the end of the second wave, women of color were writing and creating feminist political activist groups throughout the entire movement, particularly in the 1970s.
The concept of difference is something that was explored towards the end of the second wave of feminism since the voices of white feminists had dominated the narrative since early on in the movement.
Official source
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