Intro to Women's Studies: Second-Wave Feminism (1960s–1980s)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the major figures, texts, political actions, legal cases, and cultural developments of second-wave feminism from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Second-Wave Feminism

A feminist movement spanning the 1960s through the 1980s that expanded beyond suffrage to address cultural inequalities, reproductive healthcare, workplace and legal discrimination, domestic violence, and traditional gender norms.

Simone de Beauvoir

A French existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist, and writer who authored the 1949 foundational feminist text The Second Sex as well as the novels She Came to Stay and The Mandarins.

The Second Sex

A 1949 two-volume philosophical work by Simone de Beauvoir (Facts and Myths and Lived Experience) examining women's secondary status throughout history, famed for the dictum: "One is not born a woman, she becomes one."

Betty Friedan

An American feminist writer and activist whose 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is widely credited with igniting the second wave of American feminism.

The Feminine Mystique

A concept identified by Betty Friedan defining the post-WWII cultural assumption that women could find complete fulfillment exclusively in marriage, homemaking, sex, and raising children, to the exclusion of education, politics, or independent careers.

"The problem that has no name"

A phrase coined by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique to denote the widespread, unacknowledged sense of dissatisfaction, boredom, and emptiness felt by suburban American housewives in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Kathrine Switzer

The American runner who became the first woman to officially register and compete in the Boston Marathon in 1967, during which race co-director Jock Semple assaulted her while attempting to strip her bib (#261).

Title IX

A landmark federal civil rights provision enacted under the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program, activity, or athletic offering receiving federal funds.

Gloria Steinem

A nationally prominent feminist journalist, social activist, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, and writer of investigative and satirical essays such as "A Bunny's Tale" and "If Men Could Menstruate."

"If Men Could Menstruate"

A 1978 satirical essay written by Gloria Steinem for Ms. Magazine demonstrating that if a biological process associated with women belonged instead to men, it would be celebrated and converted into a symbol of pride and power.

Dorothy Pitman Hughes

A pioneering African-American activist, child-welfare advocate, and entrepreneur who toured the country giving lectures with Gloria Steinem and co-founded Ms. Magazine.

National Women's Political Caucus

A multipartisan political organization founded in 1971 by Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan to recruit, train, and support women running for political office.

Bella Abzug

A U.S. Representative from New York and lawyer known as "Battling Bella," who championed civil rights, the peace movement, and the founding of the National Women's Political Caucus.

Shirley Chisholm

The first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress (1968), who later became the first Black candidate to seek a major-party presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill

A prescription oral contraceptive utilizing synthetic progesterone and estrogen to inhibit ovulation; clinical trials began in 1954 and it was formally approved by the U.S. FDA on May 9, 1960.

Sarah Weddington

The American attorney and Texas state legislator who successfully argued the landmark abortion-rights case Roe v. Wade on behalf of "Jane Roe" before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Roe v. Wade

A landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (410 U.S. 113) holding that the United States Constitution protects a pregnant woman's fundamental right to obtain an abortion without excessive governmental interference.

Sherri Chessen

The host of Phoenix's Romper Room ("Miss Sherri") whose decision to seek a therapeutic abortion in 1962 after inadvertently taking thalidomide provoked intense national debate, death threats, and her firing.

Thalidomide

A sedative and anti-morning sickness drug developed in the 1950s by Chemie Grünenthal that caused thousands of infant deaths and severe limb deformities across Europe before being withdrawn in November 1961.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

A proposed constitutional amendment authored by Alice Paul in 1923 and approved by Congress in 1972 seeking to eliminate legal distinctions and guarantee equal legal rights for all citizens regardless of sex.

Phyllis Schlafly

A paleoconservative activist, attorney, and author who organized the "STOP ERA" campaign, effectively halting state ratifications of the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s and 1980s.

Sandra Day O'Connor

An American jurist who served from 1981 to 2006 as the first female Associate Justice appointed and confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The second female and first Jewish female Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (serving 1993–2020), renowned for litigating against gender-based discrimination and defending equal protection under the law.

Pat Schroeder

A Democratic politician who served from 1973 to 1997 as the first woman elected to represent Colorado in the United States House of Representatives.

Geraldine Ferraro

A U.S. Representative from New York who became the first female vice-presidential candidate of a major American political party when chosen to run alongside Walter Mondale in 1984.

Sally Ride

An American physicist and astronaut who, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983, became the first American woman to travel into space.

Linda Alvarado

The President and CEO of Alvarado Construction, Inc., and co-owner of the Colorado Rockies, known as a trailblazing Hispanic businesswoman in commercial contracting.

Ferron

An openly lesbian Canadian singer-songwriter and poet whose 1980 release "Testimony" served as an anthem for the women's music circuit and inspired later folk and alternative artists.

Helen Reddy

An Australian-American singer whose 1972 anthem "I Am Woman" became an international soundtrack for the second-wave women's liberation movement.

The Dinner Party

A monumental 1979 feminist installation artwork by Judy Chicago featuring a massive triangular banquet table set with 39 elaborate place settings honoring historical and mythological women.

Barbara Kruger

An American conceptual artist from The Pictures Generation celebrated for silkscreen collages that layer declarative red-and-white Futura/Helvetica text over black-and-white mass-media photographs to critique patriarchy and consumerism.

The Pictures Generation

A loose movement of 1970s and 1980s American conceptual artists—emerging from a 1977 Artists Space exhibition and a 2009 Met retrospective—who critiqued mass media by appropriating commercial and advertising imagery.

That Girl

A pioneering 1960s television sitcom starring Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, presenting one of the earliest depictions of an unmarried, financially independent career woman living on her own in the city.

Murphy Brown

A critically acclaimed television series created by Diane English and starring Candice Bergen that centered on an ambitious, outspoken investigative journalist, symbolizing the modern professional woman on prime-time television.