2nd wave of Feminism

After the second world war, women were expected to resume their lives as loyal, submissive
housewives as they were before the war started. However, after being independent and free from male
dominance, women didn’t want to resume these roles. Thus, the Second Wave of Feminism started in
the 1960s and ‘70s.
While the First Wave was largely focused on the suffragette movement and women’s
enfranchisement, the Second Wave focused more on both public and private injustices. Issues of rape,
reproductive rights, domestic violence, and workplace safety were brought to into the light with the
movement. The main subject of struggle, in 2 nd wave feminism, was the female body – the portrayal
and the meanings attached to the biological differences.
“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”, a quote famously said by Simone de Beauvoir, lead
people to reflect on how gender differences were perceived. By this quote she suggests that femininity
does not arise from biological, psychological, or economical differences. Rather,
The second-wave feminism was triggered by The Feminine Mystique, a book published by Betty
Friedan after being inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex. This renowned feminist
text is credited for showing valiant effort to break social conventions on the portrayal of women 1. This
book, The Feminine Mystique, spurred many mid-century American readers to acknowledge the
feminist movement through Friedan’s illumination of her generation’s experience with sexism and
countering the popular notion that it ended when women were granted voting rights².
The 2nd wave also saw the rise of radical feminism

https://www.bu.edu/wgs/files/2013/10/Atkinson-The-Descent-from-Radical-Feminism-to-
Postmodernism.pdf

1
https://feminisminindia.com/2018/04/25/summary-second-wave-of-feminism/
² https://www.supersummary.com/the-feminine-mystique/summary/