The Changing Role of Women in Society

The beginning of the feminist movement in the 19th century was the first wave of feminism. The struggles of the suffragettes to win the vote and gain political and legal equality dominated the early feminist movement. The main feminist movement at the time was mostly confined to upper- and middle-class women, with many of them purposely excluding African Americans and other minorities.The second wave of feminism was a movement within the larger civil rights movement beginning in the 1960s. Women at this time, though they had won the vote, were still largely confined to domestic roles. Second wave feminists fought for social equality.Third wave feminism is said to be a movement that began in the 1990s and continues to this day. There are many disagreements by scholars and feminists over exactly what the definition and ideologies of the third wave are.

The Catholic Response to the Changing Role of Women

Phases

1. Acknowledgement


Pacem in Terris / Vatican II

2. Issues

Birth Control - Humanae Vitae

Ministry - Participation - Inter Insigniores / Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

Feminist Biblical Scholarship - Interpretation of the Bible in the Church