page_title: History of feminism
section_title: Second wave
hierarchical_section_title: History of feminism / 19th to 21st centuries / Second wave
caption_attribution_description: Women's lib[eration] march from Farrugut Sq[uare] to Layfette [i.e., Lafayette] P[ar]k
context_page_description: The history of feminism comprises the narratives of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending on time, culture, and country, most Western feminist historians assert that all movements that work to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not apply the term to themselves. Some other historians limit the term "feminist" to the modern feminist movement and its progeny, and use the label "protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.
  Modern Western feminist history is conventionally split into three time periods, or "waves", each with slightly different aims based on prior progress:
  First-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on overturning legal inequalities, particularly addressing issues of women's suffrage
  Second-wave feminism broadened debate to include cultural inequalities, gender norms, and the role of women in society
context_section_description: "Second-wave feminism" identifies a period of feminist activity from the early 1960s through the late 1980s that saw cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and reflective of a sexist power structure. As first-wave feminists focused on absolute rights such as suffrage, second-wave feminists focused on other cultural equality issues, such as ending discrimination.
caption: Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970
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