← Unit 1: Ideas in the modern world
How have feminism and environmentalism reshaped modern politics?
The development of feminism and environmentalism as 19th and 20th century political ideas, including suffrage movements, second-wave and third-wave feminism, and the emergence of environmentalism from conservation to climate politics
A focused answer to the QCE Modern History Unit 1 dot point on feminism and environmentalism. First-wave feminism (Wollstonecraft, suffrage), second-wave (Friedan, de Beauvoir), third-wave intersectionality (Crenshaw); environmentalism from 19th-century conservation (Muir, Pinchot) through Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) to modern climate politics.
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What this dot point is asking
QCAA wants Year 11 students to trace feminism through its three main waves and environmentalism from 19th-century conservation to contemporary climate politics, and to assess the impact of both on the politics of the modern world.
Feminism: first wave (mid-19th century to 1920s)
Origins. Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792). John Stuart Mill's "The Subjection of Women" (1869).
Seneca Falls Convention (1848). Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Declaration of Sentiments demanded women's political and civil rights. Foundational moment of the US women's movement.
Suffrage movement. New Zealand 1893 (first national women's suffrage). Australia 1902 (Commonwealth Franchise Act, though Aboriginal women not included until 1962). Britain: partial suffrage 1918 (women over 30 with property qualifications), equal suffrage 1928. United States: 19th Amendment 1920.
Australian achievements. Vida Goldstein, Catherine Helen Spence, Edith Cowan (first woman elected to an Australian parliament, Western Australia 1921).
Feminism: second wave (1960s to 1980s)
Intellectual foundations. Simone de Beauvoir, "The Second Sex" (1949). Betty Friedan, "The Feminine Mystique" (1963). Kate Millett, "Sexual Politics" (1970). Germaine Greer, "The Female Eunuch" (1970, an Australian contribution to the international canon).
Focus. Beyond formal political rights to:
- Workplace equality (equal pay, equal access).
- Reproductive rights (contraception, abortion).
- Family law reform (no-fault divorce, custody, domestic violence).
- Recognition of sexual harassment, rape, marital rape as legal harms.
Australian developments. Whitlam government reforms (1972-1975). Elizabeth Reid appointed first women's adviser to a head of government (1973). Family Law Act 1975 (no-fault divorce). Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
Feminism: third wave (1990s) and contemporary movements
Kimberlé Crenshaw (US legal scholar) introduced "intersectionality" (1989) to analyse how race, class and gender oppression interact.
Judith Butler, "Gender Trouble" (1990). Performative theory of gender.
Global feminism. Beijing Declaration (Fourth UN World Conference on Women, 1995). Activism on female genital cutting, child marriage, missing women in Asia.
#MeToo (2017 onward). Online and offline campaign on sexual harassment and assault.
Environmentalism: 19th century roots
Romantic origins. Wordsworth, Thoreau (Walden, 1854). The aesthetic valuing of nature.
American conservation. John Muir founded the Sierra Club (1892); his advocacy helped create Yosemite (1890) and the National Park System. Theodore Roosevelt as president (1901-1909) established or expanded million acres of public land.
Australian conservation. Royal National Park near Sydney (1879) was the second national park in the world. Henry Lawson and others contributed to a romantic-pastoral Australian environmentalism.
Environmentalism: modern (1960s to 1990s)
Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring" (1962). Documented the ecological effects of pesticides, especially DDT. Catalysed modern environmentalism. Banned DDT in the US (1972).
The Apollo Earthrise photograph (1968). Showed Earth from lunar orbit; powerful symbol of planetary fragility.
Earth Day (first held 1970). Mass demonstrations across the US.
Environmental legislation. US Environmental Protection Agency (1970). US Clean Air Act (1970, expanded 1990). UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972). UN Rio Earth Summit (1992).
Australian environmental politics. Lake Pedder campaign (1972, lost). Franklin Dam (1983, saved after the High Court's Tasmanian Dam Case). The Australian Greens (federally registered 1992; Bob Brown elected to the Senate 1996).
Contemporary climate politics
Scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change documented by the IPCC since 1990.
Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Paris Agreement (2015) as the central international policy frameworks.
Greta Thunberg and the school climate strike movement (from 2018).
Historiographical notes
Feminist historiography (Joan Wallach Scott's "Gender and the Politics of History", 1988) transformed historical method by adding gender as a fundamental analytical category. Environmental history (William Cronon, Tom Griffiths) introduced ecological analysis to political and economic history.
In one sentence
Feminism moved in three waves from first-wave suffrage (Wollstonecraft, Stanton; women's vote in New Zealand 1893, Australia 1902) to second-wave workplace and reproductive rights (de Beauvoir, Friedan, Greer; Roe v Wade 1973; Australian SDA 1984) to third-wave intersectional and global feminism (Crenshaw, Butler, #MeToo), while environmentalism developed from 19th-century conservation (Muir, Roosevelt, Royal National Park 1879) through Carson's "Silent Spring" (1962) and Earth Day (1970) to modern climate politics (IPCC from 1990, Paris Agreement 2015).
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past QCAA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Year 11 class taskHow did second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s) change Western societies?Show worked answer →
A Year 11 response.
Thesis. Second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s) transformed Western societies by extending the goal of women's equality beyond formal political rights to the workplace, the family, reproductive rights and sexual equality, producing legal and cultural change that continues to shape contemporary politics.
Body 1: Intellectual foundations. Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex" (1949) framed gender as socially constructed ("one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman"). Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" (1963) named the dissatisfaction of postwar suburban housewives in the United States.
Body 2: Legal and political change. Equal Pay Act (US 1963; UK 1970; Australia equal pay decisions 1969 and 1972). Sex Discrimination Act (UK 1975; Australia 1984). Roe v Wade in the US (1973) on abortion rights. The pill (approved in the US 1960) gave women contraceptive control for the first time.
Body 3: Cultural and intellectual impact. Mainstream university curricula incorporated women's history and gender studies. Domestic violence, marital rape and sexual harassment became publicly recognised harms. Australian developments: the Whitlam government's reforms (1972-1975), the establishment of women's refuges, the appointment of Elizabeth Reid as women's adviser (1973).
Conclusion. Second-wave feminism reshaped the social structure of Western democracies. Subsequent third-wave (1990s onward) and contemporary feminist movements built on these achievements and contested their limits, especially around race, class and global inequality.
Markers reward dated legislation, named figures (de Beauvoir, Friedan, Reid), specific case law (Roe v Wade), and an explicit reference to the Australian context.
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