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New Philosophy

Feminist Philosophy

What were the goals of activist second wave feminists?

Equality with men in employment, an end to violence against women, full equality of women in public life, including access to the highest offices of government, and top executive positions in all social institutions were all goals of the second wave. Full acceptance of lesbians and nontraditional families remain ongoing political ideals, as do universal health care and child care for working mothers in the United States. The problem of the “second shift,” or the fact that working women still do disproportionate amounts of domestic work and child care in their homes, is another overhanging problem. (See in The Second Shift [1990] by Arlie Russell Hochschild and Anne Machung.)