Handmaids Historical Context Flashcards
What years was Second Wave Feminism?
1963-1982
What was made in 1962 and what was it about?
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.
American women faced ‘a problem that has no name’: they had been marginalised as uber-feminine mothers and sexual slaves to their husbands.
What 7 issues made up the 2nd Wave Feminism Platform?
Equal access to employment
Equal access to education (higher education)
Reproductive rights and body autonomy.
Financial freedom (access to bank accounts, mortgages in their own names.)
Violenced made against women especially domestic but also sexual abuse.
Media representation of women and sexualisation
Equal Rights Ammendant.
What is the ERA? (2)
Equal Rights Ammendment
As proposed by Congress in 1972, would provide that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”.
What was the New Right?
A political group made of Christian religious leaders and conservative business owners.
What did the Christian Right do? (2)
Fundamentalists believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible and Pentecostalists believed that the Holy Spirit communicated directly with people on a regular basis.
Evangelical leaders agreed that America was experiencing a moral decline. They explained that homosexuality was a crime against God and that a woman’s place was in the home to support the family.
Who created it and what did the Moral Majority do? (2)
Jerry Falwell.
Loads of people raised money to defeat liberal senators, representatives and governors.
The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan as president confirmed that the New Right had taken over American politics and has influenced American politics ever since (Roe vs. Wade)
What socio-political views were held by the New Right? (8)
Pro-capitalism
Believed enetertainment and the media had become too sexually explicit tempting people to do immoral things.
Nucelear family was favoured
Homosexuals were sinful
Anti-feminist
Blamed the liberal welfare establishment
Pro-life to protect the unborn child
Identified as Evangelical Christians
What happened in Romania?
There were stories of abortion and contraception being outlawed.
What happened in the US?
They attempted to withhold federal funding from clinics providing abortions.
What happened in Hungary?
Women with four or more children will be exempted from paying tax. The president said this to persuade women to have more children because birth rates were falling.
What happened in Sebrenica of Bosnia?
There was a massacre of Bosnian muslims by Serbs in former Yugoslavia. This shows thats our way of life can be transformed horrifically.
