Is Second-Wave Feminism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Second-Wave Feminism scores −03 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −09. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Second-Wave Feminism authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Second-Wave Feminism scores −04. Consciousness-raising groups, litigation, statutory equality bodies.

Atlas / Organisations / Second-Wave Feminism

Second-Wave Feminism

1963–1985 · Global North · Emancipatory · Movement · coding confidence medium

−03ECcollective

−09CUpluralist

−04AUpluralist

+01SCcentral

−07IDuniversal

+01CHcoercive

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Equality in law, work, reproduction and the household; the private sphere treated as political.

Economic model

Equal pay, childcare provision, recognition of unwaged domestic labour; no single ownership model.

Organisation of powers

Consciousness-raising groups, litigation, statutory equality bodies.

Reading note

Occupies an extreme on the cultural axis while spanning nearly the whole economic axis internally.

Check a claim about Second-Wave Feminism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −03

Coded −3: equal pay and childcare, with no single ownership model.

ScholarshipThe movement spanned liberal, socialist and radical currents with incompatible economics.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −09

At the liberal pole: the private sphere treated as political.

Programme textThe Feminine Mystique (1963) and the slogan 'the personal is political' defined the frame.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −04

Coded −4: litigation, statutory bodies and consciousness-raising groups.

Documented act or statuteTitle IX in 1972 and the Equal Pay Acts were the legislative instruments.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +01

Coded +1: national legislation with autonomous local organising.

Documented act or statuteConsciousness-raising groups were deliberately leaderless and local.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −07

Coded −7: sex removed as a criterion of legal personhood.

Documented act or statuteMarried women obtained independent credit and property rights across this period.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +01

Coded +1: legislative and cultural, with disruptive direct action.

Documented act or statuteThe 1970 Miss World protest and similar actions were the movement's public method.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Second-Wave Feminism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/secondwave/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.