Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early s and lasted roughly two decades, ending with the feminist sex wars in the early s [ 1 ] and being replaced by third-wave feminism in the early s. Second-wave feminism built on first-wave feminism and broadened the scope of debate to include a wider range of issues: sexuality, family, domesticity, the workplace, reproductive rights , de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities.
Feminist-owned bookstores , credit unions, and restaurants were among the key meeting spaces and economic engines of the movement. Because white feminists' voices have dominated the narrative from the early days of the movement, typical narratives of second-wave feminism focus on the sexism encountered by white middle- and upper-class women, with the absence of black and other women of color and the experience of working-class women, although women of color wrote and founded feminist political activist groups throughout the movement, especially in the s.
Writers like Audre Lorde argued that this homogenized vision of "sisterhood" could not lead to real change because it ignored factors of one's identity such as race, sexuality, age, and class.
Many scholars believe that the beginning of third wave feminism was due to the problems of the second wave, rather than just another movement. The second wave of feminism in the United States came as a delayed reaction against the renewed domesticity of women after World War II : the late s post-war boom , which was an era characterized by an unprecedented economic growth, a baby boom , a move to family-oriented suburbs and the ideal of companionate marriages.
During this time, women did not tend to seek employment due to their engagement with domestic and household duties, which was seen as their primary duty but often left them isolated within the home and estranged from politics, economics, and law making. This life was clearly illustrated by the media of the time; for example television shows such as Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver idealized domesticity. Some important events laid the groundwork for the second wave, specifically the work of French writer Simone de Beauvoir in the s where she examined the notion of women being perceived as "other" in the patriarchal society.
