The Transformation of the Image of a Woman in American Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s: A Feminist Context

Despite the relative youth of feminist ideas, this trend has had a great impact on cultural, economic and political currents, changing the idea of the "place" and rights of women and discrediting the established value system between the sexes. The ideas of feminism have had a huge impact on the entire world culture: art, literature, cinema. In this article, we will look at cinema in more detail. From the moment of its inception, cinema reflects the pressing social and cultural problems of society, reacting with lightning speed to the current agenda: public views, moods, ideas. The aim of the study is a detailed analysis of the specifics of the transformation of the image of a woman in American cinema in the 1970s-1980s on the example of the movie "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) and "An Unmarried Woman" (1978). Research methods include narrative analysis, semiotic-culturological approach, methods of content analysis and consideration of the film from the standpoint of feminist film theory. The choice of the methodology described above is explained by the specifics of the object and subject of research, which require an integrated approach to research. Thus, the issues of positioning the female character and image in American culture in the period from 1945 to and until the end of the 70s, as well as the main milestones of the "second wave" of feminism in the period from 1968 to 1990. The main conclusion of the work is the confirmation of the hypothesis that American cinema had a serious influence on the formation of the idealized image of a free woman, of that era, which was the merit of the “second wave” feminists. The results of the study can serve as additional material for use in studying the feminist theory of cinema, analyzing the degree of influence of “second wave” feminism on both American and world cinema. Key words: feminism, new wave, cinema.