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The ‘’second wave’’ feminist movement proved to be a major social transition for Western countries and the United States from the 1960s and later. Major social change, such as women's participation in the labor force, and increased prosperity forced a major social awareness movement that questioned the roles of gender in society. Major works of literature began to question perceived traditional gender roles and exposed social problems created by such roles on women. Two movements emerged within the broader second wave feminist movement, which were the more mainstream and radical elements of feminism. While one worked to change society from within, using legislation and social pressure, the other, radical movement questions fundamentally if society's hierarchical and patriarchal nature were the main problem. Both these movements made major contributions, however, through their influence on society in general, where today many things we take for granted, such as women in the workforce, only became increasingly acceptable after the 1960s.
Today, a woman delaying raising a family is not often questioned by society for such a choice, but this was not the norm in the pre-1960s US and parts of Europe. Later, the merger of racial and other social inequality was seen as part of wider broader social struggles in society. Ultimately, the second wave feminist movement gave women the opportunity to start conversations about how their social inequality and begin to think about gender, identity, sexuality, race, and class as all equally important factors. The so-called third wave, more greatly focused on gay/lesbian and racial issues, in fact it can be argued to be informed by the second wave rhetoric that had emerged late in the 1970s as race and broader social inequality issues emerged.
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