Essay on The Feminist Movement in History

As I grew up I never realized that I was growing up in a family with very feministic views. Growing up I knew my grandmother ruled her house and the women in my family tended to make most of the choices. I never realized that this was so different than others until I started seeing other people’s family structure and the different topics in feminism. So as a child even though I was not raised with the word feminism in my vocabulary but I was getting the base of my feministic outlook on life now.

Lydia Mason is 57 years old and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She took a Women’s Studies class in 1979 at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. At the time, Women’s Studies was the most interesting class out there. It was very popular amongst young people. “Everybody took it,” she said “girls and boys. Everyone wanted to know more about it.” This positive attitude towards the history of women’s suffrage continued until around fifteen years later. Then, the term feminist started to become something with which people did not want to associate themselves. “In the late eighties I would start to hear people say ‘You know, I’m not a feminist, but…’ and then follow it up with something that I personally believed to be a feminist thought. And I still hear that today.”

The major issues of the movement included the formation of antifeminist organizations, teenage pregnancy, and the legalization of abortion. Antifeminist organizations like the development of Happiness for Women (HOW) in 1971 believed in preserving traditional values of the family where the men were the provider, and the women were to be the housewife, mother, and homemaker. These members also believed in “God’s divine plan… removal of radical elements of Women’s Liberation Movement teachings from the schools… return to patriotism, and the election to government of men and women dedicated to God, Family, and the Country” (Day & Schiele, 2013, p. 351).

The women, prior to the Civil War, had endured the hardships of society and the social restrictions they were forced to adhere; even though, they were hard workers and have equal ability to learn and progress like a man in his education. According to Isenberg, “The process of mobilizing a women 's rights movement was, in fact, far more complex. Before the Civil War, activists organized local and national women 's rights conventions, “(pg. 1). Illustrating the matter, the women’s rights movement began in conventions rather than an uncivilized matter. However, in the Antebellum period there were untold and implicated laws that empowered men and degraded woman. In addition, the shape of the women’s rights movement can be labeled as the limitation of woman, the foreground of the battle for representation, and the early activist in place.

Feminism is not a popular topic of conversation topic in my family. We’ve debated about LGBT rights, abortion, war, and religion, but somehow, feminism has never come up. I decided to break this cycle by interviewing three generations of Loazers- my grandfather, my father, and my sister. In addition interviewed my maternal grandfather to compare how men of a similar age think about feminism, as well as my friend Jon who is outside of my feminist circle of friends.

The one topic from class that I felt the most cognitive dissonance around was the topic of abortion. This is a topic that I’ve had problems with my whole life. As a catholic, abortion is basically forbidden and within my family that same belief holds true. However, in society I see so many people going to get abortions or talking about them as if it is no big deal. Part of me believes abortions are okay and part of me doesn’t. What really gets me is that I don’t want to tell someone else how to live their life. I shouldn’t matter to me if you get an abortion or not. However, growing up as a catholic with a family that has very strict views on abortion, I have a true uncertainty on the topic. To be honest, I feel as though I will never not have a cognitive dissonance related to abortion. I see all the studies behind it and then I look back on my beliefs and then I look at the societal view on this topic and all of it contradicts itself. In high school I had a somewhat close friend that got an abortion. When we had a conversation about her decision, I had a very hard time discussing it and ultimately said, “it’s your body and your life; I don’t care what you do as long as you do what you believe is right.” Moving forward I think that will be my approach on this topic when people discuss it with me. However, I just pray that I am never in a relationship with someone and the idea of getting an abortion comes up between my partner and myself. In emphasis to prepare for the worst possible scenario where that could take place, I fully intend to continue to research abortion with an open mind in hopes to resolve my dilemma. Until then, I believe that, ultimately, I would never want an abortion; but I’m never going to tell a woman that she can’t have an

The United States is known as the land of the free, but this was not always the case. Because of religious reasons, women were supposed to be reserved and subservient towards their husbands. It was not until the early-mid 19th century that women gained enough ground to begin discussing women’s rights in the United States. They gained basic rights for a less subservient life style; marriage became a thing of love not obligation. The second wave of feminism came in the 1960s when women saw the opportunity to become completely equal with men in the United States. Out of this third wave came several groups of feminists. The feminist movement in the United States has changed almost incredibly from the call for basic rights to a call past equality,

During the 1900s, women did not have the same rights as men. Many thought women’s rights issues were fixed after the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote; New York v. Sanger, which gave married women access to birth control; and the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which prohibited employers from discriminating based on race, religion, or sex. However, the United States is falling backwards on issues pertaining to women’s rights. On January 21, 2017, I had the pleasure of attending the Women’s March in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Through the making of this podcast, an additional question was also considered: What subgroup of American women would be representative within our study of feminism? Though the ideology of feminism attempts to unify the American women regardless of race, ethnicity or faith, it would be illogical to assume that the majority of American women within the United States have a detailed, analytical insight into the feminist doctrine. In order to provide a representative sample of women that would provided analysis into feminism, it was decided that women who lived within the city of Northville would be representative of American women. In an effort to provide randomization to the sample, the experimenters interacted with women from a multitude of socioeconomic and ideological viewpoints, with specific attention given to the subjects’ age. Based on previous research on the evolution of the Feminist movement within the 20th and 21st centuries, it was assumed by the experimenter that age disparity among American women could be a potential factor in differences in the interpretation of Feminist doctrine. As a result, a random sample of 7 women were selected from Northville’s population with a difference in age span of 24 to 75 years. Additional differentiation in women was also apparent on one’s individual occupation, which led to great variance in ideological principles or

It is said that the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 is one of the most important events in the history of the Women’s Rights Movement because it “‘unleashed’ the struggle for women’s equality that [continued] into the twenty-first century” (McMillen). The quest for women’s equality has been a hot topic for centuries and have included millions of feminists who share the same ideals, but there have been instances where some women have taken those same ideals and turned them into something new.

One hundred years before the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, women in America began the Women’s Rights Movement to fight for rights of women. While there are many aspects to human rights, the United Nations defines Human Rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.” Women during the late 19th century began to realize ladies were treated with less respect and dignity than their male counterparts. A small gathering of women in Seneca Falls, New York began the Women’s Rights Movement in 1848 leading to rights for women in America. While it takes perseverance and determination, a few women with a dream begin to make changes happen, culminating in the rights of women to achieve full civil rights in 1920.

In the aftermath of World War II, the lives of the women have changed dramatically. Women spoke their minds out and wanted to be heard. World War II brought them a new outlook on how they should live their lives. It encouraged women organize social movements such as boycotts and public marches pushing for their human rights and protect them against discrimination. Alongside, they formed their own organization representing them against the federal government like the NOW or National Organization for Women. Through the years, women have been struggling to fight for equal rights and unfortunately still exist even at the present in some areas. Yes, women's status was not like what they used to back then, where their roles

I never pinned my mother as the liberal type, especially when it came to abortion. I always thought that she was conservative and agreed with the thousands who thought that abortion was murder. However, when my mother told me that she thought abortion should be an option everywhere, when we were driving home from the Indian store, I looked at her and said that “Huh, I guess I never thought about it that way.” I recognized that abortion is not killing a baby, it just removes essentially a ball of cells. and this prompted me to research more about the legalization of abortion and the procedure. Upon learning more about how abortion became legal, I changed my thoughts and opinions, and embraced that abortion was not murder. I became an advocate

Feminism as a cultural movement can trace it origins all the way back to the Seneca Falls Convention. However, in the 1960s that movement resurfaces and is referred to as New Feminism. This movement of New Feminism, becomes extremely successful during the years between 1960 and 1980. During this time several feminist authors, such as Betty Freidan and Kate Millet published books dealing with feminist topics. This time also saw the creation of feminist organizations such as the National Organization for Women. The real achievements however, are that more women move into political and economic mainstream, and that there is an increased level of access to birth control. Along with the last point, abortion is legalized with the ruling of the supreme

This woman is my mom, my biggest inspiration in life and to whoever meets her. However, you would think that knowing my mom for 21 years, I would know everything about her, how she raised me, how she felt about having me and my sister and many other things, but that’s not the case. Through this interview project, I learned more about my mother than what I’ve learned in 21 years. Besides getting to know her journey as a mother, we mainly discussed one major subjects discussed in class (not included in the answers): reprouctive rights and abortion.