In today’s culture, it is not uncommon to find people arguing for the “equality” of women. This trend first became popular back in the 18th century, however its definition has changed as feminism has become more prominent in the modern western world. Scholars suggest that this paradigm shift originally came in three waves, starting in the 18th century and not reaching its end until the 1960’s. The revolutionary promise to realize the individual human rights of liberty, equality, and political participation has been the basis for women’s claim for citizenship in Western democracies since the eighteenth century” (Scott 1995, 1). Before the late 20th century, however, feminism was not a movement of its own; it came in conjunction with other movements.
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Many scholars do not consider anything before 1848 to be “feminism,” at all. The significance of this year is found in The Declaration of Sentiments. Carolyn S. Bratt writes, “The Declaration of Sentiments was the earliest, systematic, public articulation in the United States of the ideas that fuel the quest for women 's economic, political, social, and legal equality to this day” (1995). In summary, The Declaration of Sentiments stated these truths are to be held as self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. This is the core of feminism as it is known today, and in 1848 it was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men, officially starting a women’s rights movement that would last for decades, and leave legacies for …show more content…
This is referred to as the “second wave” because of reasons aforementioned. When people think of second wave feminism, they think of Simone de Beauvoir. She can be seen as “the face” of this wave because of the influence she had on modern feminism through her works in the mid-19th century. Dorie LaRue elaborates, “Simone de Beauvoir, who was a prolific writer, was most famous for The Second Sex because of its profound impact upon the feminist movement. Though some feminists have concerns with the study, most continue to recognize it as a significant, perhaps even definitive, tract in the history of the modern women’s movement” (LaRue 2010). In her work The Second Sex, Simone suggested a need for looking at feminism through a new lens. This principle of starting over became the theme of second wave feminism. Judith Coffin sums it up quite
Many scholars do not consider anything before 1848 to be “feminism,” at all. The significance of this year is found in The Declaration of Sentiments. Carolyn S. Bratt writes, “The Declaration of Sentiments was the earliest, systematic, public articulation in the United States of the ideas that fuel the quest for women 's economic, political, social, and legal equality to this day” (1995). In summary, The Declaration of Sentiments stated these truths are to be held as self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. This is the core of feminism as it is known today, and in 1848 it was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men, officially starting a women’s rights movement that would last for decades, and leave legacies for …show more content…
This is referred to as the “second wave” because of reasons aforementioned. When people think of second wave feminism, they think of Simone de Beauvoir. She can be seen as “the face” of this wave because of the influence she had on modern feminism through her works in the mid-19th century. Dorie LaRue elaborates, “Simone de Beauvoir, who was a prolific writer, was most famous for The Second Sex because of its profound impact upon the feminist movement. Though some feminists have concerns with the study, most continue to recognize it as a significant, perhaps even definitive, tract in the history of the modern women’s movement” (LaRue 2010). In her work The Second Sex, Simone suggested a need for looking at feminism through a new lens. This principle of starting over became the theme of second wave feminism. Judith Coffin sums it up quite