1964, prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and natural origin.
During this, thousands of young women on college campuses were playing active roles within the anti-war and civil rights movement. However their efforts were often blocked by men, which lead them to form their own liberation organisations.20
2.) Women s liberation groups.
These are loosely organised informal organisations. They do not believe in using the existing political and legislative organisations instead, they focus on consciousness raising , self- help and assertiveness training. These liberation groups are community based and try to achieve feminist reforms not through legislative change but rather through social changes and continual questioning of the patriarchal system. An Example of such a group would be The New Left ( a civil rights group, formed on college campuses , focusing on the liberation of black women in the civil rights movement.).
b) Academic Feminism and Feminist theory
With the issues concerning the suffrage movement, and civil rights being dealt with, feminism was forced to shift its focus. It realised the inequalities that existed in education. Girls and Women were not receiving the same education as their gender counterparts. The experiences of women as a social group were largely lacking from the curriculum. Therefore the desire for equality led to the formation of women s studies department, and academic journals devoted to feminism and women s studies.21
Therefore with the development of these journals and publications, the formation of feminist theory became possible.
However the problem that occurred first wave feminism became the main critique
of the second wave movement. It was the middle class white women who were the visible activists in the second wave. They held positions of power in activist circles and the consciousness raising groups were largely dominated by white middle class women. Also academic feminism, and hence those in positions to publish theory were white middle class women.
As a result second wave feminist theory contained the following
1) it took as its empirical data the experiences of white middle class women
2) it located the explanation of women s experiences solely in terms of women s
oppression on the basis of gender. ( paying little attention to race, class, sexual orientation)
3) The possible reforms for social change were geared towards changing the social conditions of white middle class women.22
iv) Conclusion.
There was a realisation on the part of middle class white feminists that the group women, included all women, and thus started the attempts to recruit non-middle class and non-white and non-straight women into the movement.
Many of the recruits found feminism (and feminist theory) unresponsive to their lived experiences. Primarily because the issues, responses, methods, ways of talking, that had been classified as feminism were dominated by white middle class college educated, straight women, they did not portray the experiences of non-white women or women of the lower class.
Therefore feminists have claimed that early feminist theories are completely inaccurate, since they cannot bring about the transformation and liberation of all women, but rather of only a selective group of women.
The basic critique of second wave feminism according to Betty Friedan is as follows Second wave feminism s reinscription of white supremacy and its failure to be responsive to the lived experiences of other or outsider women, rests on the false assumption that women s common experiences of gender oppression are sufficient to link all women and to establish that all women have the same interests in removing the same barriers of gender oppression 23
The feminist movement has been the primary reason for the equality that women experience today. However due to the history of feminism it can be concluded that
as a political movement it failed to unite ALL women. Instead Feminism and feminist theory become predominantly associated with a small specific group of the elite
white. It has therefore become necessary when discussing feminism that one highlights the tremendous inequalities that exist within its doctrine.
Gender equality should be a move by all members of a specific gender for reform,
it should not be exclusive to a specific group. Both the first wave and second wave movements failed to unify all women, perhaps it caused an irreparable drift between race, social and class groups. That could be a possible explanation for the many varying feminist theories today.
V) Bibliography
Alexander, S.: Becoming a woman.Virgo Press, London, 1994.
Friedan, B.: Betty Friedan Critiques Feminism and calls for New Directions. , New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1981.
Gaarder,J.: Sophie’s World.Phoenix, London, 1996.0
Tong, R.: Feminist Thought. Westview Press,London, 1989.
Wolf, N.: Fire with fire.Vintage, London, 1994.
Yee,S.: Black Women Abolitionists. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville: 1992
The Internet
women s liberation movement Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
[accessed April 15, 1999]
fem theories Dr Brookes.
[accessed April 15, 1999]
history of the movement The national women s history project.
[accessed April 15, 1999]