Date of "second-wave feminism/feminist"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Joanne Despres wrote:

> Would any of you out there know of an earlier occurrence of "second
> wave"
> in connection with feminism earlier than the cite quoted below, which I
> found in Nexis?  I've checked Newspaperarchive.com and the Time magazine
> archive and found nothing earlier there.  M-W doesn't enter the phrase;
> I'm asking on behalf of an archivist friend at the Sophia Smith
> Collection who is fielding a query from a feminist researcher.
>
> The broadly based suffragette movement gained political rights for
> women. If feminism in its second wave is to achieve social choices on an
> equal footing with men, then it must be an inclusive movement, with room
> for all thoughtful political views. New York Times, Letters to the
> Editor, DANA RUTH GOODGAL Princeton, N.J., July 7, 1983

The _locus classicus_ of this is:

1968 Martha Weinman Lear, in _N.Y. Times Magazine_ 10
Mar. (article title) The second feminist wave.

It was soon taken up by other major feminist writers, including

1970 Shulamith Firestone _Dialectic of Sex_ 15 In the radical
feminist view, the new feminism is not just the revival of a
serious political movement for social equality. It is the
second wave of the most important revolution in history.

1971 G. Greer _Female Eunuch_ 11 This book is a part of the
second feminist wave.

HTH.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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