Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
Women and Second-Wave Feminism
From the 1960s to the 1980s, women were beginning to become very
independent. Women started getting jobs, living on their own, began raising children on
their own and even started to expose their lesbian desires. This was a huge breaking
point in the individualization of women; this time period could even be looked at as a
utopian era for women. In the book Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Gilman writes
of a world where there are only women. These women raise children, work, and support
their families without any help from men. This novel was written in the early 1900s but it
foreshadows second-wave feminism to a tee. Although this book was written as a
utopian novel, with deeper reading you will find that it can also be a dystopia. This
examination is the same with second-wave feminism. On the outside it sounds like a
perfect world for women, but with deeper research we can see that it was only great for
some people, and for the rest the result turned into a dystopia. In Herland, Charlotte
Perkins Gilman anticipates the breaking away from the ideals of domesticity that will be
embraced by second-wave feminism from the 1960s to the 1980s. This paper examines
the way both utopias, Herland and second-wave feminism, disappoint and the dystopian
effects they had on their societies.
There is no doubt that second wave feminism changed the way women were
presented in society. While first wave feminism focused on gender inequalities such as
voting rights, second wave feminism focused on sexuality, family, the work place,
reproductive rights, and official legal inequalities. After World War II, the baby boom
began to push people into family oriented suburbs. There was an ideal of domesticity for
the time, which was idolized in the popular TV show Leave It to Beaver. Second wave
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
feminism was all about that break in the normality of the nuclear family. The perfect
scenario went from having husband and children to being an independent woman. Was
this new found independence really that perfect? In Herland written by Charlotte Perkins
Gilman, written in the early 1900s, foreshadowed this “perfect picture” and dramatized it
with a world full of women, and in this world there was no poverty, no violence, and
most important, no men. This book was written as a Utopian novel, but with a bit of
deep reading, this can easily turn into a dystopian world, just as second wave feminism.
“Herland” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a novel about a community composed
of completely women. There was a string of war and disease that killed off all of the
men, which left only a few women to survive on their own. They decided to cooperate
with each other, then one day a young women miraculously became pregnant. After
that, all of their descendants were female, and all were born with the trait of solo
reproduction. After that, they assembled a community of just women, which on the
surface was productive and fair, for 2,000 years. With some deep examination, we
realize that Herland is not the utopia we thought it to be. The women have to work hard
every day, are limited to having only one child due to population control, and sometimes
women are forbidden to have children. As previously stated, this is supposed to be a
utopia, but with some deeper researching we realize that this community is not all that it
seems to be which is the same effect we get in the second wave feminism.
In the journal titled “How Second-Wave Feminism Forgot the Single Woman”,
Rachel F. Moran states that “Even the women’s liberation movement, which enabled
females to opt out of marriage, has failed to give full recognition to single women as a
distinct constituency with unique needs.” During the era of second wave feminism, one
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
of the biggest arguments was women wanted to have an image of their own; to be out
on their own. If this is what second wave feminism accomplished, how could it “fail to
give full recognition to single women”?
During the era of second wave feminism, women were encouraged to go out and
be a part of society, to make a name for themselves. Moran states that “when secondwave feminism emerged, it relied on White, middle-class women who were mostly
married as its core constituency. Mature single women did not occupy a similarly central
place in the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. For this reason,
second-wave feminism largely forgot the single woman as it found ways to enable
married women to ‘have it all.’” This was the case, although single women were the
back bone of second wave feminism. Single women were the ones pushing for this new
found independence. Women who were married were hearing and listening to what it
would be like to be independent, but the positive outcomes were taught by single
women without children. How could the experiences of single women be the same with
married women? It was not. All that happened was it put way more stress onto the
married woman, with society now telling a married woman that not only did she need to
have a family and take care of the house, but she had to uphold a job as well. Married
women were looked at as a “superwoman” with a career and a family (Moran p. 261).
This is very important to understand. Single women were the ones pushing for this new
found independence, but when society related this more towards married women than
single women, virtually no one got what they wanted. Married women now had more
duties to their family and society than ever before, and single women were pushed to
the side, ignored, and forgotten about by society. There is a very similar trend in
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
Herland, but of course it is not exactly the same. With deep research and explanation,
you will be able to see this trend.
As you read ‘Herland’, you come to find out that everyone is supposedly looked
at as “equal”. Everyone makes the same amount of money, everyone has what they
need, so on and so forth. We believe everyone is equal until we learn about motherhood
and the education system in Herland. In chapter 7 we arrive at a scene where the men
are talking with Somel, a woman of Herland. Somel is explaining the connection
between motherhood and education, and she states that “If the girl showing the bad
qualities had still the power to appreciate social duty, we appealed to her, by that, to
renounce motherhood” (Gilman p.107). Earlier in the novel the women spoke of
“motherhood being for everyone”, but we are now learning that it is not; that other
women choose whether or not a woman can have a child or not. Vandyck, the narrator
of the novel, is quite confused by this new information. He does not understand how
someone “allows” another to have a child, especially since being told that it was such a
miracle for the women of Herland. Somel states that “Motherhood -- yes, that is,
maternity, to bear a child. But education is our highest art, only allowed to our highest
artists." (Gilman p.107) Now Vandyck is questioning where education comes into the
mix when they are talking about motherhood. Somel then explains that “The care of
babies involves education, and is entrusted only to the most fit.” (Gilman p.107)
Vandyck becomes enraged, he accuses the forced separation of mother and child. He
could not believe that something so sacred could be so regulated. This regulation of
bearing a child can be compared to what happened with married and single women
during second wave feminism. Because single women were not “superwomen”, with a
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
career and a family to handle, they were pushed to the side and forgotten about. This is
the same with the women in Herland that were told they could not have children.
Because they did not meet the qualifications, or because they were not “superwomen”,
they were forgotten about; simply brushed to the side. This “superwoman” effect took a
toll on married women during second wave feminism, and it took a toll on their children
as well.
When women, especially women with children, during the era of second-wave
feminism became independent, society wanted them to maintain a career and take care
of the family at home as well. Because of this “independence” in this era, a mother
could not spend the needed time with her child. The NICHD Early Child Care Research
Network conducted research on children raised with no mother or little maternal contact
and they found that nonmaternal care of babies and preschool children has been linked
to behavioral problems at older ages and maternal deprivation may have long-term
negative physical consequences on the development of infants and young children. In
Herland, the women have a system where the most highly competent women take care
of the children. They do this so a child is never without a “competent” mother. But when
you take a child away from its mother, the negative effects on them are endless. If the
process of having a child is so “special” and such a “gift”, how could we look at
independent mothers that never see their children as a good thing? Not only did women
during second wave feminism give up time spent with their children, they also had to
gain respect and equality in the workplace, which even today is barely earned.
In Herland, everyone is said to be equal with equal jobs with equal pay so no one
is in poverty or unequal to another. We realize that this is impossible to achieve in the
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
real world, and Mary Anne Devanna illustrates this in her journal titled “Women in
Management: Progress and Promise.” Devanna goes over the statistics of women in the
job market and how women are even paid less than men today. Devanna conducted a
study and found that “women of equal qualifications were given fewer rewards for their
on the job performance.” (Devanna p. 474) Also, Devanna found that women s success
was significantly more likely to be attributed to "luck" than to "ability" and, as a
consequence, in these experiments, they received fewer organizational rewards than
the men whose success was more likely to be attributed to ability.” Women not only had
to face taking care of a family and having a career, but forever dealing with these
inequalities in the work force.
Women of the second wave feminism era were given false hope. We see this
from the famous poster that shows a woman and her arm is very muscular and the
caption reads “We Can Do It!” This poster is commonly referred to as the “Rosie the
Riveter” poster. This poster came out during the time of WWII, which was a big factor in
second wave feminism growing so large. This poster symbolized equality, and that
women had that “superwoman” power to do everything just as men did and they could
achieve 100% equality. This is the same as when reading Herland. Women were thrown
to believe these utopian ideals imbedded inside the text of this utopian novel, that this
society made up entirely of women could be a possibility. When married women began
to react, they were overworked and society expected more out of them than ever. Single
women were the ones fighting for equality in the era of second wave feminism, but they
were thrown to the side. In regard to the work force, these two examples strikingly
resemble dystopian effect from utopian ideas. Not only did women give up time with
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
their children, they also gave up their beautiful wardrobe for “practical” clothing for their
careers.
In Herland, the women wear a one-piece undergarment, hose, and either a tunic
or a long robe. They make this type of clothing because it is easy to work in. The
women of Herland had never experienced what it is like to wear clothing to look good
rather to be comfortable. This is what happened when women began to enter the work
force. They went from having lavish, beautiful gowns to having dress that was more
practical for work. In the late 1800s and the very early 1900s, women’s everyday dress
was elegant. In 1864, the hoop was invented. This hoop would be worn underneath a
skirt to emphasize the size of a dress. Also, as the skirt developed, the back emphasis
saw the creation of the first bustle, which had appeared by 1868. (VFG) When women
had to work during WWII, innovations in fashion were seen during the Depression
despite the economic hardships of the time. The abbreviated, linear forms of the 1920’s
quickly gave way to sinuous shapes and longer hemlines. Waistlines returned to the
natural position, whilst remaining relaxed in fit. (VFG) Once the era of second wave
feminism was at its peak, fashion was not. The times, “they were a-changing” and
fashion needed to follow suit. Designer Balenciaga even gave up his house in 1967
proclaiming, “Fashion is dead” (VFG); and indeed it was. Women gave up fashion for
work clothing, which was foreshadowed in Herland. The women of Herland never even
knew what it was like to enjoy clothing for looks, rather than for work. This happened to
many women during this time period. We can view this as a dystopian effect due to the
fashion that is around today.
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
At the beginning of the second wave feminism era, there was a protest on a Miss
America pageant on September 7, 1968. The protest was organized by the New York
Radical Women (N.Y.R.W.), a group of women who had been active in the civil rights,
the New Left, and the antiwar movements (PBS). One of the protest's leading
organizers was 27-year-old writer and editor Robin Morgan, in which she wrote that the
Miss America pageants were “the degrading mindless-boob-girlie symbol" (Morgan).
These protests are a very good example of yet another thing that went wrong during the
era of second wave feminism. Miss America pageants were deemed as “morally
demeaning”, but if this was true, why are there still Miss America pageants today? In
fact, there are now children competing in beauty pageants, and there is even a
nationwide coverage of those pageants. If America thought that fashion and pageants
were so demeaning to women, why are millions competing in pageants every year?
Indeed, there were things that went well during the era of second wave feminism.
Women won over official legal inequalities, and passed laws that helped women in
cases of marital rape. And, yes, there are some very successful women in the work
force today, but overall the women during the second wave feminism era suffered. They
were led astray and many suffered the consiquences. Women spend all their time
working, so they had little to no interaction with their children. Novels like Herland gave
a false picture on what it would be like for women to work and have a family. Children
suffered from not being able to get the attention they needed from their mother, and the
single women fighting for this independence were brushed to the side, just as the
underqualified women of Herland. Women gave up their fashion for work clothing, in
which fashion in that era had “died.” In Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman anticipates
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
the breaking away from the ideals of domesticity that will be embraced by second-wave
feminism from the 1960s to the 1980s. Both of these communities were utopian ideas
that had dystopian effects.
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies
Bibliography

"The Three Waves of Feminism." - Fall 2008. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.

Moran, Rachel F. "HOW SECOND-WAVE FEMINISM FORGOT THE SINGLE WOMAN." JSTOR. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.

"Herland: A Dystopian Motherland." Bibliofanatique. N.p., 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.

"People & Events: The 1968 Protest." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

Horrell, Sara, and Deborah Oxley. "Bringing Home The Bacon? Regional Nutrition, Stature, And Gender
In The Industrial Revolution." Economic History Review 65.4 (2012): 1354-1379. Business Source
Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.

"MOTHER ABSENCE: THE MYTHS AND THE FACTS." THE LIZ LIBRARY TABLE OF CONTENTS. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.

Lopez, Esther M. "Three Feminist Interventions.('The Feminist Utopian Novels Of Charlotte Perkins
Gilman: Themes Of Sexuality, Marriage, And Motherhood,' 'Working Women, Literary Ladies: The
Industrial Revolution And Female Aspiration,' And 'Feminist Engagements: Forays Into American
Literature And Culture')(Book Review)." Studies In The Novel 3 (2011): 363. Academic OneFile. Web. 30
Oct. 2013.
Chelsea Butka
December 1st, 2013
Gender Studies