The Flight of Lilith: Modern Jewish American Feminist Literature (Essay‪)‬

Judaism and Second Wave Feminism: An Overview Second wave feminism, the movement which began in the 1960s and gained full momentum in the 1970s, reiterated many of the goals of the first wave of the last half of the nineteenth century. While first wave feminists organized around suffrage, the broader goal was equality. The first wave was dominated by educated Protestant women mainly from New York State and New England, but the second wave was remarkably Jewish. Historians often date the beginning of what was then called "women's liberation" to Betty Friedan's Feminist Mystique (1963). By 1972 Ms.: the New Magazine for Women was launched with an editorial staff that was half Jewish, including Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Historian Gerda Lerner, according to the New York Times, is a "godmother of women's history" (Lee B7). Bella Abzug emerged in national politics, while radical feminism was dominated by Robin Morgan, Shulamith Firestone, Andrea Dworkin, and other Jewish women.