Second Wave American Feminists Of The 1960s And 1970s

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The “second wave” of European feminists of the 1960s and 1970s is overwhelming. The amount of things that occurred and were fought for during just that small span of time was astounding. In Unit 5 women wanted child allowances and here in the second wave women wanted money for their children too and the government tried to make the same argument as before. In Britain and Germany there was an effort made to push women to stay at home and even though Germany had a child allowance it ended up just working for better off married couples and not the people that truly needed them. In Britain child allowances were also allowed but the husband had access to that money and the wife could only gain access through her husband. In France however, things …show more content…

Many women were working now and gaining the same education as men but were receiving 2/3 of what a man would receive in the same job. Women were working more than ever to because men did not want to invest in appliances that make work for women easier. Men would buy things that they would enjoy and not worry about their wives and their needs. Women were tired of mistreatment and especially exhausted of the way women were treated in regard to abuse and rape. Rape and abuse was another big topic of the period because the men were usually shown in favor. The cases of rape or abuse would point flaws out of the women and not the accused man. Abortion and sexual rights stemmed from this as well along with birth control. Women were not only fighting being hurt but also for their sexual choices and decisions. In times before that the husband or church made the decision on what a woman could and could not do in regards to her sexuality but in this period of feminism it was an issue that women felt only they should decide what to do with their bodies and no one else should make that decision for them. In the late 1970s even lesbian and heterosexual feminists started working together. Lesbians were at first not welcome to heterosexual feminists in fear that they would blind women’s rights with another fight but instead they joined together to face the movement of women’s rights in general as a