Expanding of Feminism throughout The End of the 20th Century

When it comes to the feminist movement during the 1960s, it can be said that women were still struggling for their political and economic emancipation, emphasizing gender equality in the political and professional spheres. During the 60s, the Second Feminist Waves focused on achieving political equality, calling on federal government for the establishment of laws that would support women as workers. It is important to emphasize that during World War II, women conquered, through the wartime economic situation, significant professional advances, there was no significant legislation support for female.

Women’s fight for equality was, throughout all its process, invalidated due to sexism present in society, which reaffirmed gender bias in all spheres of women’s lives. During the New Left, the Second Feminist Wave was characterized by the Women's Movement, aimed to conquer political equality through legislation that would support women on different spheres of their lives, including, mainly, topic such as sexuality and women in the workforce.

In 1963, Betty Friedan published 'The Feminine Mystique' and had a very large impact on the lives of the women who read the book; without any doubt, Friedan played a vital role, because she made the next steps of the feminist movement possible by influencing her women readers to think outside the box.

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'The Feminine Mystique' elaborated a content that urged middle class women to realize their unhappiness with their lives was a social problem and not their fault. From that moment, a huge group of women developed critical thinking about the reality in which they were inserted and mobilized to join the feminist movement.

In 1966, Friedan led the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which acquired a more radical character, embodying the second wave of the feminist movement and requesting political changes regarding women’s rights. Because there was a lot of prejudice about the feminist movement because of old mentalities that referred to the traditional American family and the way a woman should behave in society, it took time for the NOW to gain a significant amount of membership.

During the years following its creation, NOW acquired around 12,000 members, and even with many social and political obstacles, it can be said that the Women's Movement acquired several achievements that would improve the lives of the female public in different sectors. In 1965, for example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided support to female employers with the monitoring of gender discrimination in the workplace, as well as providing job opportunities throughout the country. In addition, women have won the legal right to divorce and pregnant women now no longer risk losing their jobs due to pregnancy.