A Comparative Study Of The Contemporary And The Current American Women's Movement

The American Women's Movement is an important part of the development of American society, which is closely connected with many fields such as history, politics, economy and culture. It has great impact on American culture and political life. Therefore, a study on the American Women's Movement will contribute to our further understanding of American society.From the perspective of its development, it underwent two major periods, namely, the American Women's Suffrage Movement (the First Wave) from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s and the Contemporary American Women's Movement (the Second Wave) from the 1960s to the late 1970s. Due to both internal and external factors, the Second Wave had lost its strong momentum in the late 1970s. However, since the early 1990s, the American Women's Movement (called the Current American Women's Movement) has been on a little rise, undergoing changes and developments.This thesis first briefly introduces the background, development and implications on American women and society of the Contemporary and the Current American Women's Movement. Then it devotes to a comparative study of the two phases from such five aspects as theoretical guidance, aims and objectives, women's organizations, approaches and impact on American women and society. The author summarizes the common and different features of the two phases after analyzing all material available with the purpose to better comprehend the changes and developments and offer anobjective and overall presentation of American women and society.Compared to the Contemporary Movement, the Current Movement has made wider and deeper development, though without a massive scale on surface. Such development is bound to generate profound and far-reaching impact on American women and society.