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• Women's Movement
  Women's Movement

  noun

  a grass-roots movement of women concerned with women's liberation See Women's Liberation
• women's movement
  women's movement

  A movement to secure legal, economic, and social equality for women, also called the feminist movement. It has its roots in the nineteenth-century women's movement, which sought, among other things, to secure property rights and suffrage for women. The modern feminist movement, often said to have been galvanized by the publication of Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique, began in the 1960s and advocates equal pay for equal work, improved day care arrangements, and preservation of abortion (see also abortion) rights. (See Equal Rights Amendment, feminism (see also feminism), and Gloria Steinem.)

Women's Movement

British  

noun

1. a grass-roots movement of women concerned with women's liberation See Women's Liberation

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women's movement Cultural  

1. A movement to secure legal, economic, and social equality for women, also called the feminist movement. It has its roots in the nineteenth-century women's movement, which sought, among other things, to secure property rights and suffrage for women. The modern feminist movement, often said to have been galvanized by the publication of Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique, began in the 1960s and advocates equal pay for equal work, improved day care arrangements, and preservation of abortion (see also abortion) rights. (See Equal Rights Amendment, feminism (see also feminism), and Gloria Steinem.)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Women's Movement women's movement

As first lady, she founded the 31st December Women's Movement to empower women and teach them how to earn money to develop their communities.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025

Women got to know of our work and invited me to attend a Women’s Movement training, where they equipped us with skills to address gender-based violence.

From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2024

Ephron was dispatched by Esquire to cover the burgeoning Women's Movement, and to profile its major players, including Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.

From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2021

As a journalist and a writer, and living through the Women’s Movement during the ‘70s, I was immediately drawn to the story line of “Mrs. America.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2020

But it was not until after 1900 that the Women's Movement took possession of her.

From Elsie Inglis The Woman with the Torch by Ashwell, Lena

The women’s movement has long overlapped with demands for consumer protection, and it was no different with the pill.

From Slate ● Nov. 11, 2025

In a documentary, “Unafraid,” Xenarios and Anderson describe their younger selves as “angry, idealistic, progressive,” and they assembled a staff of like-minded women who saw their work as an integral part of the women’s movement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025

“Even though Easy is skeptical about a woman being a detective,” he explains, “he recognizes it’s the 1970s and, with the women’s movement, he’s willing to help her if that’s what she wants.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2025

The women's movement has a history of standing up to regimes in Indonesia, playing a crucial role in past waves of protest.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2025

There was another benefit to notoriety: A well-publicized lawsuit would help Anthony reclaim her position of leadership within the women’s movement.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

Related Words

• feminist movement