
Second-wave feminism is the American feminist movement during the 1960s and 1980s. As opposed to the first-wave feminist movement, this movement focused more on sexuality, reproductive rights, and equality in the workplace. A lot of the progress women tried to make can be seen in literature. Authors such as Marge Piercy, author of the poem Barbie Doll, used literature as a platform to discuss the changes they felt were necessary to work towards gender equality. By using outside sources, such as articles or reviews of articles from the time period, one can gain more background knowledge of the subject. Authors such as Susan Gelfand Malka and Anne M. Valk also used literature as a platform to get their message across, but in a different form. Piercy used literature such as poems and stories as opposed to Valk and Malka who used articles and more of a factual approach as their means of getting across their message. By using these articles from the time period of the second-wave feminist movement, a reader can better understand the context of literature such as Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll.

In Kara Dixon Vuic’s review of Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism by Susan Gelfand Malka, Vuic discusses how the progression of the education and even the outfit of nurses began to create a less sexually stereotypical profession. Vuic opens up her review by talking about the historical context in which Malka’s work was written. It starts in the 1950s and discusses the uniform of a nurse in that time period. Typically, a nurse at that time would wear a white uniform and a white cap to symbolize a woman’s purity and also her feminine features. Vuic then goes on to explain how it has progressed into a less gender-defined outfit. Nurses in the time period of second-wave feminism began to change the look of nurses 

and wear scrubs instead of the previous, sexually defining outfits. By just changing their outfits these women were able to create change in the workplace regarding gender equality. She then goes on to discuss how the education of nurses began to progress during second-wave feminism. It used to be believed that women would not go to school and that they would just be stay at home housewives, so women who went into nursing didn’t receive as great or proper an education as they required. Originally, nursing degrees were just taught by hospitals in three-year diploma programs, not giving the nurses a very broad education. However, during the second-wave feminist movement, universities began to offer baccalaureate nursing programs. This gave nurses more of a choice in their education options meaning they could study subjects such as women’s history. Also, the movement of nursing education from hospital programs to university degrees helped define nursing’s intellectual movement as an academic discipline. This education helped nurses become more empowered and join groups such as labor unions. Nursing is broadly seen as profession for women and dominated by women so making these changes not only resulted in big changes for the profession but for women everywhere. It helped give other women in their workplace a voice. Even though women in the nursing field took great strides to create a less sexist and stereotypical profession, many women still saw the nursing field as sexist and stayed away from it. They believed that women who went into nursing were conforming to what society expects them to do as women. However, the progression in the nursing field is still a major part of the second-wave feminist movement, helping define women’s roles in the workplace.

In Patricia Hill Collins’ review of Radical Sisters by Anne M. Valk, Collins discusses the feminist movement amongst black and poor people in the city of Washington, D.C. She begins by talking about how Valk redefines radicalism and makes it popular again. Collins states that Valk’s definition of radical is “instructive” by stating that women who wanted to transform instead of reform society constituted the radicals. Many women believed that they needed to not just reform but transform society which is why Valk’s ideas were so popular. Valk uses the progression of welfare rights, reproductive control, black liberation, lesbian feminism, and sexual violence to expand feminism to groups of women that were overlooked during the time period of the second-wave feminist movement. These groups include African-American women and poor women. Since Valk mainly wrote about the movement in Washington, D.C., her ideas appealed there because many of the women she was reaching were poor and African-American women. The second-wave feminist movement mainly took place during the 1960s and 1970s when the civil rights movements for African-Americans was going on, another way Valk used her ideas to appeal to eh African-American women. Collins then goes on to discuss the main themes of Valk’s Radical Sisters. First, Collins states that Valk’s definition of radical allows her to reach out to a larger group of feminists, such as African-American and poor women. The next theme Collins presents states that the feminist movement was layered with many different groups with politics based in particular experiences. The feminist movement was not “owned” by any one group of feminist but was a coalition of different women from different backgrounds helping make their fight stronger. Valk says that the different groups of feminists would organize around a particular idea and fight towards their goal making their cause stronger. The third theme Collins presents is that the coalition of these groups sometimes did not help because of their different views. On topics such as reproductive control it was harder for them to come to a full agreement because of all the different values in each group of women. Valk’s approach and contributions to the second-wave feminist movement were very unique making her popular. Women followed her voice because she focused more on feminism for each women themselves, not trying to define what counts as feminism. Also, she provides a very broad view of feminism. Valk reaches out to many different groups to show the spread of the feminist movement in America while trying to bring equality to other groups such as African-Americans. In the end, Valk’s redefining of the term radical and her broad reach of feminism helped bring groups struggling to get along closer together to work towards a common goal. Ultimately, it was impossible to bring all groups to the same conclusion on all topics but Valk’s writings still helped progress the second-wave feminist movement.

Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll is an American poem written during the second-wave feminist movement in the 1970s. This movement helped propel the mind and body of the woman by progressing their education and professions and also expanded the new definitions of feminism. The poem discusses feminist themes such as gender roles, intelligence, and physical appearance of women. Piercy uses examples such as toys given to young girls like miniature stoves and ovens to show how gender roles were forced upon women at an early age. Many people believed that the women’s job was to stay home and cook and clean so they would get them toys like ovens when they were young. In the article reviews by Patricia Hill Collins and Kara Dixon Vuic, these gender roles are shown through professions such as nursing and in women’s fights for rights such as welfare, reproductive control, and the sexuality of women. Also, the poem talks about how people put an emphasis on girls to look pretty or thin. Piercy stares, “In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie”(Carolina Reader “Barbie Doll” 349). Piercy is emphasizing how people care more about how girls look than anything else. Here she shows that even though this woman is on her death bed people still look for her beauty first. In Vuic’s review she talks about how nurses helped changed this idea in the work place by progressing the nursing uniform. Instead of people only caring about the look the nurses they see them for what they truly are: smart, independent women. Vuic also talks about the progression of education for nurses and women studies. This relates to the second stanza of the poem where Piercy says, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs”(Carolina Reader “Barbie Doll” 348). This agrees with Vuic’s ideas that before nurses were offered a real education they were just seen for the looks instead of their intelligence, just as the girl in the poem is. Having an understanding of the historical context of a story or poem can help the reader better understand the context of the story. The reviews by Vuic and Collins can help the reader understand the underlying issues being talked about in Piercy’s poem. Alos, the reader can use their historical knowledge of the situation to back up their own arguments they feel the author presents. In this particular poem, by using the reviews by Vuic and Collins the reader can better understand the feminist questions Piercy presents. By knowing what points women in the second-wave feminist movement emphasized more, the reader can better understand why Piercy uses certain examples to make her point.

To better understand historical pieces of literature the reader can refer to other pieces of work, such as articles from that time period or modern day reviews of those articles. Having a basic knowledge of the time period or subject of a piece of literature is beneficial to the reader because they can better understand why the author wrote a specific way or used the information they did. When Piercy presents the ideas that women are seen only for their looks instead of their brains, the reader can use their knowledge of the second-wave feminist movement to understand that this was a key part of the movement and that is why Piercy included it. By using articles from the second-wave feminist movement and reviews of these articles, the reader can better understand the message Piercy is trying to portray. The articles by Valk and Malka both contain important knowledge of the second-wave feminist movement, thus helping the reader further understand Piercy’s Barbie Doll.
