Women's Rights Movement Development in The United States

Today, women's liberation is a philosophy and theory that many people fail to fully comprehend. The first wave of the women's rights movement began in the mid-nineteenth century and culminated in the women's suffrage movement. The second wave of feminism began in the late 1950s and involved struggle and protest after women were pushed out of their jobs at the end of World War II and were not granted the same amount of social liberties as men. In the 1940s, women gained increasing employment as men went overseas to fight in World War II. It can be argued that World War II was the catalyst for the second wave of the women's liberation movement. Throughout the war years, the workers' organizations that had been developed in the 1930s became significantly more effective as women were employed, particularly in manufacturing jobs that supported the war effort. During the 1940s, new employment benefits became available to women, including maternity leave, childcare, and counseling. These benefits grew more substantially in Europe, as many countries were devastated by war, where a significant portion of the male population was diminished. Nevertheless, in the United States, women's participation in the workforce during World War II created a sentiment among many women, after the war ended, that they also deserved the same kinds of rights as men in the jobs they filled. This was underscored by the fact that many men who returned and reclaimed their old jobs from women who were doing them during the war were given higher salaries, further highlighting this inequality.

The Evolution of the Women's Rights Movement in the United States

After World War II, a few scholars began to address how women in the public sphere were perceived, and the role they played, particularly as the war had demonstrated that women made significant contributions and often performed tasks similar to men. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex, a profound book that addressed how society viewed women and the roles they played. In her work, Beauvoir writes, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" (de Beauvoir, 1949). This statement addresses how society dictates what a woman should do and how she should act, where gender roles are imposed upon women. Where World War II showed that women could break out of their gender roles as was required, the book questioned why women's roles that viewed them as secondary to men in the workplace and home were maintained when this was not the case during the war.

Over time, the movement gained more noticeable momentum through more writers in the 1960s. Betty Friedan was one of the most influential journalists of this period. After conducting a survey of her classmates, Friedan found that many of her peers were troubled in their social relationships, where their lives revolved around childcare and housework. This prompted her to write The Feminine Mystique in 1963, where she questioned the white, middle-class beliefs of family life and motherhood, particularly as domestic life had suffocated women and their aspirations. In her book, Friedan includes interviews with women who were unhappy in their home life, exposing the ideals of the 1950s that often depicted a happy family with men at work and women focused on housework. She specifically highlighted how the societal belief that a woman's place was at home was not true, and enforcing this belief was creating a gender and social hierarchy between men and women. Friedan goes on to explain that the notion of men as the "superior" sex must be discarded, hence the ultimate goal of the second wave of the women's liberation movement. Friedan's work was not only a reflection of the frustrations of many women at the time but also a call to action for societal change (Friedan, 1963).

Significant Achievements of the Second Wave

The book and political activities in the 1960s led to some significant victories for the emerging second wave of the women's liberation movement. This includes the establishment of the National Organization for Women, where Friedan joined the organization, and the first major legislative victory, which was the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This made it law for women to have the right to earn equal pay for equal work with men. It made it possible for women not to be deterred from joining the workforce due to lower wages. Various changes, including the introduction of the birth control pill and the legalization of abortion in Europe, began to have political implications. The pill, on the one hand, enabled women to postpone childbirth and pursue careers more broadly. Abortion also provided women with greater choices about raising children.

Conclusion: A New Era for Women's Rights

The "second wave" of the women's liberation movement became a major social transformation for Western countries and the United States from the 1960s onward. Significant social change, such as women's participation in the workforce, and increased prosperity, forced a major social awareness movement that questioned the roles of gender in society. Major works of literature began to address perceived traditional gender roles and exposed social issues created by such roles on women. After many long years of being considered the "lower" part of society and inferior to men, women in this time period were finally given the opportunity to have equal liberties, politically and socially, as men. Women were slowly rising to an equal playing field as men, rather than being seen as outsiders. This transformation was not only a reflection of women's determination and resilience but also a testament to their crucial role in shaping modern society.

References

• de Beauvoir, S. (1949). The Second Sex. Alfred A. Knopf.
• Friedan, B. (1963). The Feminine Mystique. W.W. Norton & Company.