The New Wave of Feminism

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The New Wave of Feminism

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What were the key goals of feminist reformers, and why did a countermovement arise to resist them?

Becoming visible by the late 1960s, a multifaceted women's movement reached its high tide in the 1970s and persisted into the twenty-first century. By that time, despite a powerful countermovement, women had experienced tremendous transformations in their legal status, public opportunities, and personal and sexual relationships, while popular expectations about appropriate gender roles had shifted dramatically.