Second Wave Feminism in AP US History

Second Wave Feminism was the 1960s-1980s women's movement that expanded beyond voting rights to attack systemic gender inequality in the workplace, the law, the family, and reproductive rights, challenging postwar conformity and reshaping American national identity (APUSH Unit 8).

What is Second Wave Feminism?

Second Wave Feminism is the women's rights movement that took off in the 1960s and ran through the early 1980s. The first wave had won the vote in 1920 and then largely faded. The second wave asked a bigger question. What good is the ballot if you can't get a credit card without your husband's signature, get fired for being pregnant, or get into law school? Sparked in part by Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963), which named the quiet misery of the suburban housewife, the movement organized through groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW, founded 1966) and through grassroots consciousness-raising circles where women compared experiences and realized their 'personal' problems were political ones.

In CED terms, this is one of the headline challenges to postwar conformity (KC-8.3.II.A). The homogeneous mass culture of the 1950s sold a single script for women, marriage, kids, and a kitchen. Second wave feminists rejected that script and demanded concrete change, including the Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX (1972), and reproductive rights affirmed in Roe v. Wade (1973). The movement also exposed its own fault lines, since women of color and working-class women argued that race and class shaped their experience of sexism in ways the largely white, middle-class leadership often missed.

Why Second Wave Feminism matters in APUSH

Second Wave Feminism lives in Unit 8 (Cold War and Social Change, 1945-1980) and maps to two learning objectives. For APUSH 8.5.A (how mass culture was maintained or challenged), the movement is a textbook example of KC-8.3.II.A, a direct challenge to the conformity of postwar mass culture and the suburban domestic ideal. For APUSH 8.15.A (the extent to which 1945-1980 reshaped national identity), feminism is one of the clearest cases of identity being renegotiated, since the movement permanently changed what it meant to be a woman, a worker, and a citizen in America. It also feeds the course themes of American and National Identity (NAT) and Social Structures (SOC), and it sets up the conservative backlash you'll study in Unit 9. You can't fully explain Reagan-era conservatism without explaining what it was reacting against.

How Second Wave Feminism connects across the course

Equal Rights Amendment (Unit 8)

The ERA was the second wave's biggest legislative goal, a constitutional ban on sex discrimination. Congress passed it in 1972, but Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign blocked ratification, and it died in 1982. The ERA fight is the perfect two-for-one example, showing both the movement's power and the rise of the conservative countermovement.

First Wave Feminism and the 19th Amendment (Units 6-7)

The first wave, from Seneca Falls (1848) to the 19th Amendment (1920), targeted one thing above all, the vote. The second wave assumed the vote and went after everything else, including pay, education, and bodily autonomy. This handoff is ready-made evidence for a continuity-and-change essay on women's rights across periods.

Title IX (Unit 8)

Title IX (1972) banned sex discrimination in federally funded education and is one of the movement's most concrete, lasting wins. When a prompt asks for specific evidence that feminism changed American institutions, Title IX is your go-to because it transformed everything from college admissions to athletics.

Civil Rights Movement (Unit 8)

The second wave borrowed the civil rights movement's playbook, including grassroots organizing, legal challenges, and moral framing around equality. Many feminist organizers got their start in civil rights and antiwar activism. At the same time, Black women's critiques of the mainstream movement pushed feminism toward thinking about race and class alongside gender.

Is Second Wave Feminism on the APUSH exam?

Multiple-choice questions usually pair an excerpt, often from The Feminine Mystique, a NOW statement, or a Schlafly anti-ERA speech, with questions asking what postwar development the author is responding to or which later development the argument led to. The right move is to connect the source to challenges to 1950s conformity (KC-8.3.II.A) or to the conservative backlash. No released FRQ has used the phrase 'Second Wave Feminism' verbatim, but the movement is prime evidence for Period 8 continuity-and-change prompts on social movements, rights, or national identity. In a long essay or DBQ, don't just say 'women fought for equality.' Name the specifics (Friedan 1963, NOW 1966, Title IX 1972, Roe 1973, ERA defeat 1982) and explain change over time from the suffrage-focused first wave.

Second Wave Feminism vs First Wave Feminism

Same cause, different target. The first wave (roughly 1848-1920) fought for legal personhood and above all the vote, ending with the 19th Amendment. The second wave (1960s-1980s) started from the vote and attacked deeper, systemic inequality in jobs, education, marriage, and reproductive rights. If the source is about suffrage, it's first wave. If it's about workplace discrimination, the ERA, or 'the personal is political,' it's second wave.

Key things to remember about Second Wave Feminism

• Second Wave Feminism was the 1960s-1980s movement that expanded the fight for women's rights beyond suffrage to workplace equality, legal rights, family roles, and reproductive freedom.

• On the AP exam, it works as evidence of challenges to homogeneous postwar mass culture (KC-8.3.II.A) and of how the period 1945-1980 reshaped national identity (APUSH 8.15.A).

• Key specifics to cite in essays are Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963), the founding of NOW (1966), Title IX (1972), Roe v. Wade (1973), and the ERA's defeat in 1982.

• The movement borrowed organizing tactics from the civil rights movement, while women of color pushed it to address how race and class intersect with gender.

• The backlash against second wave feminism, especially the STOP ERA campaign, helped fuel the conservative movement you study in Unit 9.

Frequently asked questions about Second Wave Feminism

What is Second Wave Feminism in APUSH?

It's the women's movement from the 1960s through the early 1980s that pushed past voting rights to demand workplace equality, legal equality, and reproductive rights. In APUSH it appears in Unit 8 as a major challenge to postwar conformity and a force reshaping national identity.

How is Second Wave Feminism different from First Wave Feminism?

The first wave (1848-1920) centered on legal rights and suffrage, ending with the 19th Amendment. The second wave assumed the vote and targeted systemic inequality in jobs, education, family life, and reproductive rights, summed up in the slogan 'the personal is political.'

Did Second Wave Feminism succeed in passing the Equal Rights Amendment?

No. Congress passed the ERA in 1972, but Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign helped keep it from reaching the 38 states needed for ratification, and the deadline expired in 1982. The defeat is a classic example of the conservative backlash that leads into Unit 9.

What sparked Second Wave Feminism?

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) is the usual starting point, since it named the dissatisfaction of suburban housewives trapped in the 1950s domestic ideal. Civil rights and antiwar activism also gave many women organizing experience and a vocabulary for demanding equality.

What did Second Wave Feminism actually accomplish?

Major wins include the founding of NOW in 1966, Title IX in 1972 banning sex discrimination in federally funded education, and Roe v. Wade in 1973 protecting abortion rights. These are the concrete pieces of evidence that score in essays, much more than a vague 'women gained equality.'