Rebirth of Feminism

The Rebirth of Feminism

Lisa Fuller

Title of Course

Professor 's name

February 10 , 2007

One of the major social changes of recent decades has been the emergence of feminism . Feminism can be defined as a social movement and an ideology in support of the idea that a larger share of scarce resources (wealth , income , power , status ) should go to women . Essentially , the governing principles of feminism are that women should enjoy the same rights in society as men and that they should share equally in society 's opportunities and

in its scarce resources . Although feminism as an issue faded for a time , it resurfaces in the 1960s and 1970s in a form that amounted to a much wider and more fundamental challenge to traditional sex roles

The vital mainsprings of the `rebirth of feminism`

William H . Chafe has evidenced the vital mainsprings of the `rebirth of feminism . According to Chafe , it all started with a curious phenomenon in 1962 when women activists started to challenge the housewife role in a way the earlier movement never did , and they had some real successes For example , women have moved out of the home and into the paid labor force in unprecedented numbers over the past decades . The notion that woman 's place is in the home , once taken for granted , is now rejected by most Americans - overwhelmingly so among younger and more educated Americans . During this time , majority of married women are in the paid labor force . Even among women with young children , more than half work outside the home for pay . With less success , feminists also have united around the notion of equal pay for equal (or comparable ) work

A number of feminist of sex inequality such as Betty Friedan Ellen and Kenneth Keniston , and Alice Rossi , have made feminism a popular once again through their pens and thus captured the attention of many other women activists around the world . Moreover , the civil-rights movements have also grown such as the Southern activists who took part in the direct-action civil-rights struggle of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC the League of Women Voters the American

Association of University Women , or Business and Professional Women 's Clubs , National Organization for Women (NOW , and the Women 's Equity Action League (WEAL . Even though these movements did not cause the revival of feminism , but it did help to create a set of favorable circumstances

Another evidence suggested that many working mothers already provided a positive model for their children . The repeated surveys of elementary and high-school students have shown that children of mothers who held jobs approved of maternal employment and that the daughters intended to work after they married and had children as well . But Chafe concluded that although the shifts in women 's economic roles in no way caused the revival of feminism , they did help to create the foundation for that revival

The evidence further suggested that in the home , husbands have been challenged to take on a...