The Women’s Liberation Movement in America.doc

iiiAbstractThe womens liberation movement first started in America.The advance in womens right in America from the 1960s onwards represents one of the greatest peaceful mass movements of our time,not only in America but now throughout the world.The movement do played a important role in womens life,it has freed womens mind and changed womens social position. Key words:womens;liberation movement;America;feminismContentAbstractiContentiiThe Womens Liberation Movement in America1The First Wave of the America Womens Movement1An Overall Improvement in the Conditions of Womens Lives1The Second Wave of the American Womens Movement1The Backlash against Feminism2The Current Status of Women2Conclusion2iiiiThe Womens Liberation Movement in AmericaThe First Wave of the America Womens MovementWomens Liberation was not began as a movement in the early 1960s.The first pressure to change the status of women arose from a small meeting called to consider the “social,civil,and religious condition and rights of women”which assembled at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls in upstate New York in 1848.The only advertised speaker at the meeting was Lucretia Mott,however,the impelling force behind the conference was Elizabeth Cady Stanton.They led the team to draw up The Seneca Falls Declaration.It is now regarded as the single most important document of the nineteenth-century American womens movement.Using the declaration of Independence as a model,it marks the first call for systematic rights for women along the lines of those already available to white men.An Overall Improvement in the Conditions of Womens LivesAt first,the women who became active feminists in the 1960s may not have realized their common cause with blacks.Their revolt was sparked by a large number of interconnected issues arising from an overall improvement in the conditions of womens lives. First of all,in terms of technology,factories had now taken over many of the traditional tasks of women. All these developments robbed women of their traditional employments as the primary sources of household food,clothing,cleanliness and literacy.Secondly,American women were becoming more educated.By the second half of the century a number of prestigious womens colleges were founded,dedicated to educating women to the same standard as men. Finally,since 1900s,white middle-class women were living longer and having fewer children.With the invention of the contraceptive pill,women had reliable control over their fertility for the first time in history.The Second Wave of the American Womens Movement The second wave was concerned with gender inequality in laws and culture. It built on what had been achieved in the First Wave, and began adapting the ideas to America.In a landmark book,The Feminine Mystique,published in 1963,Betty Fridan called it “The Problem without a Name.The second wave of the American womens movement in the 1960s was started by three groups of women and an accident. The first was a group of professional women who were appointed to a Commission on the Status of Women by President Kennedy in 1961.The second group were mostly white housewives and mothers who read Betty Friedans book,The Feminine Mystique,published in 1963.These two groups formed the National Organization for Women(NOW) in 1966.There were often arguments about tactics and goals in NOW.But such arguments are the engine of social change in America.Thus,between them,these different branches of the womens movement helped to bring about massive change in attitudes toward the role of 1women in American society.The third group were young activists in the civil rights and anti-war movements. They believed the male leader of these movements were discriminating against women in the movment.The accident was a word in the Civil Right Act passed in 1964.The Backlash against Feminism According to a growing numbers of conservatives,the feminists were to blame.By the time of the 1980 election of the Republican president,Ronald Reagan,the backlash against feminism was in full swing.In this attempt to reassert traditional mores,the forces of reaction have,over the last few decades,been reinforced by those of evangelical Christians.Invoking the early chapters of Genesis,such Christians define the feminine role as inferior and therefore rightly subject to male domination:a model,in sort,of what is usually defined as the traditional patriarchal family.One group which exemplifies these belief is called “Promise-Keepers”.In their view,women should be at home,and the entire Womens Liberation Movement was a drastic mistake and has led to nothing less than the potential disintegration of American society.The Current Status of WomenNow ,in the early years of a new century,opposing forces appear to be deadlocked,with American society deeply polarized between conservative and progressive views on almost every issue.By 1999 about 60% of women were reported as employed;today (in 2010) the figure is almost75%,making up about half those in employment.But in the current political climate,other hard-won victories for women are also under threat.It is feared that the influence of conservative judges on the Supereme Court may bring about a reversal of small of the legal rights which affect women.For instance,the right of women to an aborition early during a pregnancy and the “affirmative action” which were established during1970s for hiring and promotion women in state and semi-state institution.America,it is said,is not ready for a women president,even though three women have now held the prestigious position of Secretary of State.But in this generation,the ordinary middle-class women can anticipate that such thing may well happen in the