Feminism And The United States - 1540 Words

Feminism in the United States â€Å"I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men,† stated by the U.N Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, a strong feminist activist. In society today, women need feminism in order to have economic, social, and political equality. Women have worked extremely hard to gain success throughout the feminist movement, a movement to secure legal, social, and economic equality, but have been discouraged by†¦show more content†¦According to Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline, the first-wave ended in the United States, when the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1919. This granted women to have the right to vote in all states. The second-wav e feminism movement in the U.S. started in the 1960s and lasted until the 1980s. This wave focused on fighting for social and cultural equality, reproductive rights, equality in the workplace, sexuality, and other issues concerning domestic violence and rape. The greatest accomplishment from this era of feminism was the passing of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which made it illegal to discriminate wages based on gender (Rampton). Finally, the third-wave feminism started in the 1990s and continues through today. At the start of this movement, feminists focused on sexuality and gender roles, whereas today the focus has transitioned back to fighting for social, political, economic, and cultural equality (Rampton). Although the feminist movement’s objectives have been recognized since the first-wave and women have gained numerous rights such as the right to vote and reproductive rights, oppression still continues today. In society today, people opposed to the views of feminism do no t want the feminist movement to be successful, because they fear the outcome of men not being superior to women anymore. Many people who are resistant to feminism believe the main goal of