IB World Vocab SBIT

Housewife Syndrome

Housewife Syndrome refers to the widespread psychological distress, anxiety, and depression experienced by middle-class women trapped in domestic roles during the mid-20th century. Betty Friedan identified this "problem with no name," arguing that women were deeply unfulfilled by the cultural expectation that their sole purpose was keeping house and raising children. Bringing this phenomenon to light helped ignite Second-Wave Feminism by encouraging women to seek education, personal autonomy, and careers outside the home.

Workplace challenges in the 1960s and 1970s

During this era, women faced severe systemic obstacles in the workforce, including widespread hiring discrimination, lower pay for equal work, sexual harassment, and limited access to professional fields. Women were often relegated to low-paying "pink-collar" jobs and routinely fired upon getting pregnant or married. Overcoming these challenges became a core priority of the Feminist Movement, fueling major legal battles, strikes, and landmark anti-discrimination legislation.

Feminine Mystique

Published by Betty Friedan in 1963, The Feminine Mystique is a groundbreaking book that criticized the pervasive social belief that women could only find fulfillment through marriage and motherhood. Friedan exposed the dissatisfaction of American housewives, directly challenging post-WWII gender norms. The book is widely credited with sparking the Second-Wave Feminist Movement by mobilizing women to demand equal social, political, and economic rights.

The Pill

Approved by the FDA in 1960, the oral contraceptive pill gave women unprecedented, reliable control over their own reproductive health and family planning. By allowing women to delay childbirth, "The Pill" made higher education and continuous career paths far more accessible. It served as a major catalyst for the Feminist Movement, fueling discussions on bodily autonomy and workplace equality throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Equal Opportunity Act

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 prohibited financial institutions from discriminating against applicants based on sex or marital status. Prior to its passage, women often needed a husband or father to co-sign loans, obtain credit cards, or secure mortgages. This legal victory was a direct result of feminist advocacy, allowing women to achieve economic independence and financial self-sufficiency.

Civil Rights Act

The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations and employment. Although the inclusion of "sex" was originally added by opponents hoping to derail the bill, it inadvertently gave feminists a crucial legal weapon against gender discrimination. The act laid the statutory groundwork for the 1960s and 1970s push toward workplace equality.

Ms. Magazine

Co-founded by Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes in 1971, Ms. Magazine was the first mainstream feminist publication created and run entirely by women. It brought critical Second-Wave issues—such as domestic violence, reproductive freedom, and wage gaps—into the popular cultural discourse. The magazine gave feminists an uncensored platform to challenge traditional media portrayals of women and organize for political change.

The Comstock Act

Enacted in 1873, the Comstock Act was a federal law that criminalized the mailing or distribution of "obscene" materials, explicitly including contraceptives and information about birth control. During the Second Wave, feminists actively fought against the legacy of Comstock laws to secure bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. The movement's efforts led to pivotal Supreme Court decisions, like Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which struck down bans on contraception.

Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization

Eugenics was a practice of selective breeding that led to the state-sanctioned, forced sterilization of thousands of marginalized people, particularly Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, and disabled women throughout the 20th century. During the 1960s and 1970s, women of color within the broader feminist movement fought aggressively to expose these abuses and redefine reproductive rights. They argued that reproductive freedom must include both the right not to have children and the right to have children safely without state interference.

First-Wave Feminism

First-Wave Feminism refers to the period of feminist activism extending from the mid-19th century through 1920, primarily focused on legal rights like property ownership and women's suffrage (the right to vote). Second-Wave feminists built directly upon the groundwork laid by the First Wave, expanding the struggle beyond legal voting rights into broader societal areas like workplace equality, sexuality, family dynamics, and reproductive freedom.

Second-Wave Feminism

Second-Wave Feminism was the era of activism spanning from the early 1960s through the late 1970s that shifted focus from basic political rights to social, economic, and cultural equality. Fueled by civil rights activism, this wave tackled reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, domestic violence, and traditional gender roles. It transformed American society by securing landmark legislation and permanently changing public conversations about gender roles.

The Personal is Political

"The Personal is Political" was a central rallying cry and philosophy of Second-Wave Feminism, popularised by activist Carol Hanisch. It argued that personal struggles—such as domestic labor, childcare, sexual satisfaction, and relationship dynamics—were not individual failures, but systematic social inequalities driven by patriarchy. This concept encouraged women to organize consciousness-raising groups to transform private, everyday struggles into collective political action.

Equal Pay Act

Passed in 1963, the Equal Pay Act aimed to abolish wage disparity based on sex by requiring employers to give equal pay for equal work. It was one of the first major federal laws targeted directly at gender discrimination in the American workplace. While closing the wage gap remained an ongoing battle throughout the Second Wave, this act provided feminists with a vital legal foundation to challenge economic inequality.

Title VII

Title VII is a crucial provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that specifically prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. It legally challenged the practice of denying women promotions, forcing them out due to marriage or pregnancy, or paying them lower wages. Feminist activists used Title VII to file groundbreaking lawsuits, forcing major corporate and political institutions to integrate women into the workforce.

EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Created under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC is the federal agency tasked with enforcing laws against workplace discrimination. When the EEOC initially failed to enforce sex discrimination complaints, frustrated activists—including Betty Friedan—founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 to pressure the agency into action. Consequently, the EEOC became a primary battleground for feminists fighting for fair hiring practices and equal wages.

Title IX

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibited sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Designed to ensure equal access to academic programs, financial aid, and admissions, it revolutionized women's access to higher education and university sports. Title IX became one of Second-Wave Feminism’s most impactful achievements in breaking down educational barriers for women.

Baby Boom

The Baby Boom refers to the dramatic spike in U.S. birth rates between 1946 and 1964, which reinforced rigid post-WWII nuclear family structures and traditional gender roles. Women were culturally pressured to stay home, marry young, and raise large families, creating the domestic tensions later detailed in The Feminine Mystique. As the children of this generation grew up, many baby-boomer women rejected these traditional expectations, becoming the primary driving force behind Second-Wave Feminism.

The Second Sex

Written by French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in 1949 and translated into English in 1953, The Second Sex explored how society constructs womanhood as the inferior "Other" relative to men. De Beauvoir’s famous assertion that "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" laid the foundational philosophy for Second-Wave Feminism. American feminist thinkers in the 1960s drew heavily on her ideas to critique gender roles and patriarchy.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was an 18th-century English writer whose 1792 treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, argued that women were not naturally inferior to men, but appeared so only due to a lack of education. Considered a foundational intellectual ancestor of feminism, her arguments for rational education and social equality resonated deeply with Second-Wave thinkers. Activists in the 1960s and 1970s cited her work to demonstrate that the struggle for women’s equality was part of a long historical tradition.

Criticism of the Feminist Mystique

Criticism of The Feminine Mystique highlighted that Betty Friedan’s analysis primarily reflected the experiences of white, middle- to upper-class, educated housewives, largely ignoring the realities of poor, working-class, and minority women who had always worked outside the home out of financial necessity. This critique forced the movement to grapple with its internal biases regarding race and class. It ultimately pushed Second-Wave activism toward a more inclusive understanding of women's diverse struggles.

Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem was a leading journalist, political activist, and iconic figurehead of the Second-Wave Feminist Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She co-founded Ms. Magazine and the National Women's Political Caucus, bringing feminist ideas into popular culture and mainstream politics. Steinem advocated tirelessly for reproductive freedom, equal rights legislation, and intersectional solidarity across lines of race and class.

Our Bodies Ourselves

First published in 1970 by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves was a groundbreaking book written by women, for women, covering female anatomy, sexuality, and reproductive health. At a time when medical knowledge was dominated by men, the book empowered women to understand their own bodies and demand better care from medical institutions. It became a cornerstone text of the Second-Wave effort to reclaim reproductive control and healthcare autonomy.

Helen Gurley Brown

Helen Gurley Brown was an author and long-time editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine who published Sex and the Single Girl in 1962. She encouraged women to achieve financial independence and openly embrace single life and sexual freedom outside of marriage. While her consumer-oriented, individualist view of empowerment sometimes clashed with radical political feminists, her work helped spark the cultural shift toward female sexual liberation during the Second Wave.