feminism, history
The suffragists who finally secured women's right to vote in 1920 thought women's enfranchisement would give them more power to win political victories for their women's rights agenda. Winning theoretical representation by men, however, did not mean winning real political power. The second wave of feminism in the late 1960s gave birth to a number of new organizations that use overtly political strategies to confront age-old challenges. Some feminists argued that moving more women's rights supporters into public office would do little to change inherently unjust economic, political, and social systems. However, most of the new feminist organizations began to engage in electoral politics in addition to other strategies to create legal as well as cultural change. In the early years after its founding in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) challenged men in power through court cases, protests, and legislative work on issues such as job discrimination, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and abortion rights.