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SECOND!

The second wave is probably the most well-known time period in feminist history. Or at least the most talked about. (Bra burning! Hairy legs! Lesbians!) It’s also the most misrepresented, in my opinion.

When people think about 1970s feminism, they think Gloria Steinem and burning bras. Steinem was real, braburning was not. The mainstream, popularized women’s movement back in the day started out of a desire to get out of the home. Women felt trapped by the ’50s-housewife model set before them, which laid out a life that pretty much entailed getting excited only about ovens and kids and bringing your man a drink when he got home from work. Woohoo!

Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique took on “the problem that had no name” (women being sick and tired of being maids).3 Friedan was also a founding member of NOW, which was created in 1966. The organization’s original statement of purpose, written by Friedan, declared that “the time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in America, and toward a fully equal partnership of the sexes.”4 The statement also focused on the issues that second-wave feminism is most known for: women working outside the home, the wage gap, sex discrimination, women’s representation in the government, and fighting traditional notions of motherhood and marriage. Obviously, we’re still fighting some of those battles (okay, all of them), but orgs like NOW did a hell of a lot for women on these issues.

But (there’s always a but) what isn’t part of NOW’s celebrated accomplishments is the other side of the organization’s past—and, by proxy, that of the mainstream second wave. After its inception, NOW was accused of being homophobic and in later years was criticized as speaking only to issues that affected middle-class white women.

Afraid to be stereotyped as “man-haters,” NOW distanced themselves from lesbian issues in the late 1960s. Friedan even called lesbians a “lavender menace” to the larger women’s movement. The lesbians are coming! The lesbians are coming! It’s essentially the same nonsense that the suffragettes pulled—afraid that the radical notion of black people getting votes or lesbians defining feminism would kill the mainstream-friendliness of the movement. Pshaw.

Criticism of NOW as being a middle-class white women’s organization—along with the second-wave movement as a whole—isn’t exactly a new trend. After all, much of the movement was based on the idea that women should be working outside the home. But low-income women and women of color had already been working outside (and inside) the home—they had to!

Some cool stuff that came out of the second wave: Ms. magazine was founded by Gloria Steinem and run by Robin Morgan and Marcia Ann Gillespie (among others);5 Roe v. Wade was decided, and women obtained the right to get abortions;6 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was passed, making employment discrimination illegal on the basis of sex, as was Title IX, which banned discrimination in education;7 Angela Davis (yes, just her—she rocks);8 Susan Brownmiller wrote Against Our Will about the culture of rape; feminists fought for increased awareness of violence against women;9 Alice Walker coined the term “womanist” (“a black feminist or feminist of color. . . . Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior.”);10 lesbian theory gained popularity;11 and the “sex wars” happened, in which anti-porn and not-so-anti-porn feminists clashed .12 Shit, I could go on forever—so make sure to check out the resources at the end for more stuff. Now, I may catch some flak for not expounding more on the successes of the second wave and telling you everything. But the thing is, there are about a million books out there for that. Go read them. And I’m not being trite—I think we owe a lot to our foremothers. So much in fact, that not getting down to business would be a disservice.

Suffragette Edith Garrud taught martial arts to other women as a way to protect themselves against violent police officers.

THIRD!

The third wave (which I suppose