Women, Politics, and American Society pg. 1-17 -- Reaction

A lot of the material in this reading was already covered in class, which meant that it was more driving these ideas into my head instead of introducing them. It was still interesting to read this section and see how it was devided into the different movements, and then how the last movement itself was divided. Reading about the current wave of feminism, as well as the current lack of activity makes me start to think about the issues that I think are most important to women and the moment, and I have to say that I mostly agree with table 1.2 on pg. 14.

One of the biggest obstacles that women face today is domestic abuse and sexualvioelnce. Women have been making strides towards improving this, but I think there is a lot more to be done. Also, it seems like a cause that, if coined the right way, could be united behind. What woman would actually say she supports domestic vioelnce? Of course there are ways to get around it, saying that they support freedom in the home or something or other, but it seems that it would be much more likely for women to support this cause if it were correctly displayed.

The problem with a lot of the difficulties we now face is that there is no easy answer or realistic goal. During both the first and second women's movements, they were fighting specifically for the right tov toe (among other things). But it was that specific that united the women, it was something that we could all reach for (at least most could). The problem now is that although I'm sure most people would agree that domestic violence is bad, there isn't really a clear way to fix it.

Reading these about these movements and their struggle to become actual movements highlighted the problems they went through. Before the movements got anywhere, they had to have something that most women agreed on, that the could rally behind, which had a specific resolution. Unfortunately, even if we do end up deciding on a problem to fix, it will take years to work out the solution. There are always more women coming forward to do som though, and hopefully at some point we will unite together once more to see what we can get done.