Second-wave feminism was the women's movement of the 1960s-1980s that moved beyond first-wave suffrage goals to demand workplace equality, reproductive rights, and an end to cultural norms limiting women, sparking both major legal wins and a powerful conservative backlash.
Second-wave feminism is the name for the women's rights movement that took off in the 1960s and ran through the 1980s. The first wave had one headline goal, the vote, and won it with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The second wave asked a bigger question. Even with the vote, why were women still shut out of careers, paid less, denied credit cards in their own names, and expected to find total fulfillment as housewives? Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) put words to that frustration, and organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW, founded 1966) turned it into a political movement.
The movement's agenda was wide: equal pay and workplace access, reproductive rights (Roe v. Wade, 1973), Title IX protections in education, and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The slogan "the personal is political" captures the second wave's signature move. Things treated as private matters, like housework, harassment, and reproductive choices, were reframed as systemic inequalities worth changing through law and culture. That ambition is also why it generated such fierce opposition, most famously Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign, which helped sink the amendment in 1982.
Second-wave feminism sits at the seam between Unit 8 (Period 1945-1980) and Unit 9 (1980-Present). Its rise belongs with the 1960s-70s social movements, but its consequences run straight into the contemporary period. In the CED's framing for Topic 9.6, learning objective APUSH 9.6.A asks you to explain the causes and effects of domestic challenges the United States faces in the 21st century, and ongoing debates over gender equality, reproductive rights, and women's roles are direct legacies of the second wave. It's also prime material for the Social Structures (SOC) and American and National Identity (NAT) themes, because it shows how a group redefined what equal citizenship means. For continuity-and-change questions about women's rights from Seneca Falls to today, second-wave feminism is the essential middle chapter.
Keep studying APUSH Unit 9
Equal Rights Amendment (Units 8-9)
The ERA was the second wave's biggest legislative goal, a constitutional guarantee that rights can't be denied on account of sex. Congress passed it in 1972, but Schlafly's conservative counter-movement stopped ratification by 1982. The ERA fight is the perfect evidence pair for an essay: it shows both the movement's momentum and the backlash that limited it.
Consciousness Raising (Unit 8)
Consciousness-raising groups were the grassroots engine of the second wave. Women met in small groups to share experiences and realized their individual frustrations were a shared, structural problem. That's "the personal is political" in action, and it explains how the movement built mass support without a single charismatic leader.
First-Wave Feminism and Suffrage (Units 4 & 7)
The first wave runs from Seneca Falls in 1848 to the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, and it centered on legal rights, especially voting. The second wave built on that foundation but targeted economic and cultural inequality instead. Knowing both waves lets you write the long continuity-and-change argument about women's rights that DBQs and LEQs love.
Conservative Resurgence (Unit 9)
Second-wave feminism helped trigger the New Right of the late 1970s and the Reagan era. Opposition to the ERA, Roe v. Wade, and changing gender roles mobilized religious and conservative voters. You can't fully explain the rise of modern conservatism in Unit 9 without the feminist movement it was reacting against.
No released FRQ has used "second-wave feminism" verbatim, but the women's movement is a standard subject for short-answer and essay prompts about postwar social change. Multiple-choice stems often pair an excerpt from Friedan, NOW's founding statement, or Schlafly with questions asking you to identify the movement's goals or the source of opposition to it. On essays, the strongest move is comparison or continuity: contrast the second wave's goals with the first wave's suffrage focus, or use the ERA's defeat as evidence that social movements provoke counter-movements. Be specific with evidence. The Feminine Mystique, NOW, Title IX, Roe v. Wade, and STOP ERA all earn you more than a vague "women fought for equality."
The first wave (roughly 1848-1920) fought for legal and political rights, above all suffrage, and effectively ended with the Nineteenth Amendment. The second wave (1960s-1980s) assumed the vote and went after everything suffrage hadn't fixed, including workplace discrimination, reproductive rights, and cultural expectations about women's roles. Quick test: if the source talks about voting, it's first wave; if it talks about careers, the ERA, or 'the feminine mystique,' it's second wave.
Second-wave feminism was the women's movement of the 1960s-1980s that expanded beyond suffrage to fight for workplace equality, reproductive rights, and cultural change.
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) and the founding of NOW (1966) are the standard starting points the exam expects you to know.
Major wins included Title IX (1972) and Roe v. Wade (1973), but the Equal Rights Amendment failed ratification in 1982 after Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign.
The backlash against second-wave feminism helped fuel the New Right and the conservative resurgence you study in Unit 9.
For essays, second-wave feminism is your bridge in any continuity-and-change argument about women's rights from Seneca Falls (1848) to 21st-century debates over gender equality.
It's the women's rights movement of the 1960s-1980s that pushed for equality in the workplace, reproductive rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment, going far beyond the first wave's focus on voting. Key markers are The Feminine Mystique (1963), NOW (1966), Title IX (1972), and Roe v. Wade (1973).
No. Congress passed the ERA in 1972, but it fell short of the 38 states needed for ratification by the 1982 deadline, largely due to Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign. The defeat is classic exam evidence that social movements provoke organized counter-movements.
First-wave feminism (1848-1920) centered on legal rights, especially suffrage, and culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment. Second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s) targeted economic and cultural inequality, including pay discrimination, reproductive rights, and the expectation that women's place was in the home.
Postwar frustration with the housewife ideal, given a voice by Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963, plus momentum and tactics borrowed from the civil rights movement. Many women activists in other 1960s movements grew frustrated at being sidelined and organized for their own equality.
Mostly Unit 8, since the movement peaked between the 1960s and 1980. But its effects, including debates over gender equality and reproductive rights, carry into Unit 9 and Topic 9.6 on 21st-century challenges, so be ready to use it in both periods.