origin of feminism essay

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What Are the Four Waves of Feminism?

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: March 2, 2022

Since the mid-19th century, organized feminist movements in the United States have called for greater political, economic and cultural freedom and equality for women. Yet not all of these movements have pursued the same specific goals, taken the same approaches to activism or included the same groups of women in their rallying cry. Because of these generational differences, it’s common to hear feminism divided into four distinct waves, each roughly corresponding to a different time period.

This concept of the “waves of feminism” first surfaced in the late 1960s as a way of differentiating the emerging women’s movement at the time from the earlier movement for women’s rights that originated in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention . At the same time, the idea of a “second wave” also linked the movement to those earlier activists in a long, worthy struggle for women’s rights.

Critics of the “wave” concept argue that it oversimplifies a more complicated history by suggesting that only one distinct type of feminism exists at any one time in history. In reality, each movement includes smaller, overlapping sub-groups, which are often at odds with each other. While the wave concept is certainly imperfect, it remains a helpful tool in outlining and understanding the tumultuous history of feminism in the United States, from its origins at Seneca Falls into the social media-fueled activism of the #MeToo era.

First Wave: 1848 - 1920

The first organized movement aimed at gaining rights for American women effectively began in July 1848, with the convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott at Seneca Falls , New York. Attendees signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which affirmed women’s equality with men, and passed a dozen resolutions calling for various specific rights, including the right to vote.

Although the early women’s rights movement was linked to abolitionism, passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 angered some women’s rights leaders who resented Black men being granted suffrage before white women. Similarly, the women’s suffrage movement also largely marginalized or excluded Black feminists like Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells . Though ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 fulfilled the principal goal of feminism’s first wave—guaranteeing white women the right to vote—Black women and other women of color faced continued obstacles until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 .

Second Wave: 1963 - 1980s

In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique , which argued that women were chafing against the confines of their roles as wives and mothers. The book was a massive success, selling 3 million copies in three years and launching what became known as the second wave of feminism. Inspired by the civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War , second-wave feminists called for a reevaluation of traditional gender roles in society and an end to sexist discrimination.

Feminism—or “women’s liberation”—gained strength as a political force in the 1970s, as Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. High points of the second wave included passage of the Equal Pay Act and the landmark Supreme Court decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973) related to reproductive freedom. But while Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, a conservative backlash ensured it fell short of the number of states needed for ratification .

Like the suffrage movement, second-wave feminism drew criticism for centering privileged white women, and some Black women formed their own feminist organizations, including the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). Despite its achievements, the women’s liberation movement had begun to lose momentum by 1980, when conservative forces swept Ronald Reagan to the White House.

​​Third Wave: 1990s -

While the advances of second-wave feminism had undoubtedly achieved more equality and rights for women, the movement that emerged in the early 1990s focused on tackling problems that still existed, including sexual harassment in the workplace and a shortage of women in positions of power. Rebecca Walker , the mixed-race daughter of second-wave leader Alice Walker , announced the arrival of feminism’s “third wave” in 1992, while watching Anita Hill testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusations of sexual harassment against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas . That same year, dubbed the “Year of the Woman,” saw an unprecedented number of women elected to Congress.

Embracing the spirit of rebellion instead of reform, third-wave feminists encouraged women to express their sexuality and individuality. Many embraced a more traditionally feminine style of dress and grooming, and even rejected the term “feminist” as a way of distancing themselves from their second-wave predecessors. “Riot grrl” groups like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Heavens to Betsy brought their brand of feminism into pop music , including songs that addressed issues of sexism, patriarchy, abuse, racism and rape.

Third wave feminism also sought to be more inclusive when it came to race and gender. The work of scholar and theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw on the concept of “intersectionality,” or how types of oppression (based on race, class, gender, etc.) can overlap, was particularly influential in this area. Third-wave feminists also drew on the work of gender theorist Judith Butler, including support for trans rights in this type of intersectional feminism .

Fourth Wave: Present Day

Though fourth wave feminism is relatively difficult to define—as some people argue it’s simply a continuation of the third wave—the emergence of the Internet has certainly led to a new brand of social media-fueled activism. Launched by Tarana Burke in 2007, the #MeToo movement took off in 2017 in the wake of revelations about the sexual misconduct of influential film producer Harvey Weinstein.

In addition to holding powerful men accountable for their actions, fourth-wave feminists are turning their attention to the systems that allow such misconduct to occur. Like their predecessors in the feminist cause, they also continue to grapple with the concept of intersectionality, and how the movement can be inclusive and representative regardless of sexuality, race, class and gender.

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feminism summary

feminism , Social movement that seeks equal rights for women. Widespread concern for women’s rights dates from the Enlightenment ; one of the first important expressions of the movement was Mary Wollstonecraft ’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Lucretia Mott, and others, called for full legal equality with men, including full educational opportunity and equal compensation; thereafter the woman suffrage movement began to gather momentum. It faced particularly stiff resistance in the United Kingdom and the United States, where women gained the right to vote in 1918 and 1920, respectively. By mid-century a second wave of feminism emerged to address the limited nature of women’s participation in the workplace and prevailing notions that tended to confine women to the home. A third wave of feminism arose in the late 20th century and was notable for challenging middle-class white feminists and for broadening feminism’s goals to encompass equal rights for all people regardless of race, creed, economic or educational status, physical appearance or ability, or sexual preference. See also Equal Rights Amendment; women’s liberation movement .

1st Edition

The Routledge Global History of Feminism

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Description

Based on the scholarship of a global team of diverse authors, this wide-ranging handbook surveys the history and current status of pro-women thought and activism over millennia. The book traces the complex history of feminism across the globe, presenting its many identities, its heated debates, its racism, discussion of religious belief and values, commitment to social change, and the struggles of women around the world for gender justice. Authors approach past understandings and today’s evolving sense of what feminism or womanism or gender justice are from multiple viewpoints. These perspectives are geographical to highlight commonalities and differences from region to region or nation to nation; they are also chronological suggesting change or continuity from the ancient world to our digital age. Across five parts, authors delve into topics such as colonialism, empire, the arts, labor activism, family, and displacement as the means to take the pulse of feminism from specific vantage points highlighting that there is no single feminist story but rather multiple portraits of a broad cast of activists and thinkers. Comprehensive and properly global, this is the ideal volume for students and scholars of women’s and gender history, women’s studies, social history, political movements and feminism.

Table of Contents

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History Emerita, Rutgers University. She is the author of essays in women’s, gender, European, and world history as well as author, co-author, and editor of numerous books in these fields, including recently Women’s Studies: The Basics and Women in World History since 1450 .　 Nova Robinson is an Associate Professor of History and International Studies at Seattle University. Her research is situated at the intersection of women’s history, Middle Eastern history, and the history of international governance. Her book Truly Sisters: Arab Women and International Women’s Rights is forthcoming.

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Feminism: The Second Wave

FEMINISM : The Second Wave

The Second Wave

After the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote, the first wave of feminism slowed down significantly. Although many of these activists continued to fight for women’s rights, the next sustained feminist movement is believed to have started in the 1960s. Much like the first wave that developed during a period of social reform, the second wave also took place amidst other social and political movements.

The Predecessor

In between the first and the second wave, French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir published a foundational book that set the tone for the next surge of women’s rights activism. Published in 1949, her book entitled “The Second Sex,” provided extensive definitions of womanhood and outlined how women have historically been treated as second to men. Originally published in France, “The Second Sex” quickly became a phenomenon and was published in the United States in 1953. Beauvoir was not only a feminist writer, but she was also considered a philosopher because her writings often answered complex and philosophical questions. In “The Second Sex,” she questions, “What is a woman?” Ultimately, she determined that “one is not born but becomes a woman.

The Instigator

Ten years after “The Second Sex” was published in the United States, American feminist writer Betty Friedan helped ignite the second feminist wave with her book “The Feminine Mystique.” Released in 1963, Friedan builds on the foundation of Simone de Beauvoir’s work. However, Friedan not only employed philosophical thought to discuss feminism, she also incorporated oral histories and her personal experiences to address the issues many women were facing. Friedan first began by researching the role of women in society to see if other women shared her feelings of dissatisfaction and “malaise” as housewives. To her surprise, she was not alone, and her interviews became the source material for her first book.

In the mid-1950s, Friedan found herself as a stay-at-home housewife after a long career as a journalist, writer, and activist. When she got married and had children, Friedan left her career and moved to the suburbs with her family. Even though she continued writing freelance, she soon realized that she was unhappy solely as a housewife. However, she felt the societal pressure to find ultimate happiness as a mother and a homemaker. In 1957 at her 15-year Smith College reunion, Friedan surveyed her classmates and found that they also were unhappy being confined to the home.

For the next five years, Friedan conducted interviews with white middle-class women who were grappling with their roles as housewives. She published her findings in “The Feminine Mystique,” and instantly became a household name. In her book she criticized the separate “sphere” of motherhood and homemaking that women were relegated to. In contrast, men were allowed to flourish in the “male sphere” of work, politics, and power. Friedan’s book encouraged women to step outside of their “sphere,” and fight gender oppression, which she called “the problem that has no name.”

The Movement Begins

Friedan’s book sold over three million copies within the first three years and quickly fueled a resurgence of the feminist movement. Middle-class women across the country began to organize to advocate for women’s social and political equality. The same year “The Feminine Mystique” was published, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law. The new legislation stipulated that women could no longer be paid less than men for doing “comparable work” at the same job. This Act was the result of a group of women in the White House, lead by labor activist Esther Peterson. Peterson was appointed as the head of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor in 1961. She convinced President Kennedy to establish a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women to work towards achieving equality. The commission included revolutionary women such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Height. After collaborating with the commission, Peterson submitted a draft of the Equal Pay Act to congress on behalf of the Kennedy administration.

“Public service announcement (PSA) informing viewers of their rights under the equal pay law.”

Following the Equal Pay Act of 1963, two more legal victories propelled the fight for women’s rights forward. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 both secured rights for some feminists and encouraged them to continue to advocate for women’s equality.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevented employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition to the Civil Rights Act, the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 prevented anyone from limiting a woman’s access to contraception or other methods of birth control. This case would be used in the famous Roe v. Wade decision, protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion in 1973.

These legal victories gave some women more autonomy in both public and private life. However, many women of color were still disenfranchised.

The Women's Liberation Movement

Early in the second wave, feminist writer Gloria Steinem gained national attention by going undercover as a Playboy Bunny. Her exposé called “A Bunny's Tale,” highlighted the sexism and low wages that women faced in these clubs. Steinem went on to become one of the most recognizable leaders of the second wave. She co-founded both “New York” and “Ms.” magazines and covered political issues ranging from abortion to rape. Steinem first spoke publicly in 1969 at an event to legalize abortion in New York State. Shortly afterwards, she began writing and publishing books that would influence a generation of feminists. Her publications accompanied a host of other feminist work that was published during the period that became the women’s liberation movement. Some of these books include; Kate Millett’s “Sexual Politics” in 1969, Juliet Mitchell’s “The Subjection of Women” in 1970, and Shulamith Firestone’s “The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution” in 1970.

In 1972, Steinem teamed up with Betty Friedan and other activists such as Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to form the National Women’s Political Caucus. This caucus was established to support gender equality and ensure proper women’s representation in political office. At the founding meeting, Steinem delivered a speech entitled “Address to the Women of America,” where she called for a women’s revolution.

That same year, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 finally passed in Congress. Unfortunately, this amendment guaranteeing equal constitutional rights for women failed to be ratified in 38 states within seven years. Supporters of the ERA continue to fight for it’s ratification today.

The Civil Rights Movement

When the second wave of feminism began, the Civil Rights Movement was already in full swing. After emancipation, African American men and women still had to fight against racism, violence, and segregation to exercise their basic human rights. In addition, even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment ensuring that both men and women were able to vote, African American men and women were still restricted from voting by Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, and grandfather-clauses. As the second surge of feminism grew, African American women were once again fighting for their rights as women, alongside their fight for freedom from racial oppression.

In 1969, Frances M. Beal published “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female,” detailing the experiences of African American women during the feminist movement. Her essay specifically noted the exploitation of black women in society and the different struggles between white and “non-white” feminists.

That same year, Betty Friedan stepped down as president of the organization she co-founded called the National Organization for Women (NOW). Although the organization was racially inclusive, the concerns of black women were frequently sidelined. For example, Friedan and some of the African American members clashed over Friedan’s use of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to advocate for more jobs for middle-class white women, when many African American men and women faced racially motivated job discrimination and lived below the poverty line. By the time Friedan stepped down in 1969, African American women had already started forming their own feminist organizations.

By the 1970s, black women were convening as separate feminist organizations starting with the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in 1973. The Combahee River Collective formed in 1974 for a similar purpose, but they also focused on issues of sexuality that were often left out. Their statement notes, “we are committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression…” and the way those systems of oppression intersect.

As these women pursued their collective goals, revolutionary scholar and activist Angela Davis began publishing articles and books that would contribute to the foundation of the “Black Feminist” movement. She published an article on the harmful stereotypes of black women in society in 1972 and then followed that with her book entitled, “Women, Race & Class” in 1981. The Combahee River Collective and “Women, Race & Class” both provided a solid foundation for future feminists to study various forms of oppression.

Rethinking Feminism

”Although the women’s movement motivated hundreds of women to write on the woman question, it failed to generate in-depth critical analyses of the black female experience.” --bell hooks in “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism”

Also writing in 1981, author Gloria Jean Watkins, known as “bell hooks,” published “Ain’t I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism.” Her book provides an analysis of the current movement and a critique of mainstream feminism for excluding the concerns of black women in their overall fight for equality. Instead, she provides an inclusive method for activism through black feminism. She states, “although the focus is on the black female, our struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people.”

After her pioneering work, many feminist writings followed that addressed the concerns and activism of women of color. One of these books was “This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color” edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa in 1981. This work included several writings from black, Native American, Asian American, and Latina women feminists that advocated for their rights in the white-dominated feminist movement.

Although many African American women identified with hooks’ writing, Alice Walker introduced a new variation of black feminism called “womanism.” Coined by Walker in her 1983 book “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose,” Walker introduces readers to womanism through a collection of personal and political essays. Developed from the African American cultural significance of the word “womanish,” Walker writes that a womanist is “committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health.”

Womanism is closely aligned with black feminism and many people use the two terms interchangeably. Walker herself notes that the womanist is “a black feminist or feminist of color.” However, Walker also says: “Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” With this analogy, Walker reminds her audience that there are many different forms and shades of feminism. Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” also became a film directed by Steven Spielberg, featuring Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg.

The Gay Rights Movement

Women of color weren’t the only group fighting for their voice in the larger feminist movement. During the 1960s, the gay rights movement also gained momentum as participants advocated for equal rights and unbiased information about homosexuality. The first gay rights demonstrations were held in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as early as 1965. However, the riots at the Stonewall bar in 1969 marked a shift in LGBTQ activism. Starting on June 28, 1969, customers of the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village fought against targeted and frequent police raids.

As the movement progressed, lesbian women had concerns that were not addressed by gay rights activism. Many of these women decided to leave the male leadership of that movement to form their own lesbian organizations. These women advocated for gay rights, as well as feminist rights within organizations like Betty Friedan’s National Organization for Women (NOW). Unfortunately, many of these mainstream feminists rejected their participation. Lesbian women protested their treatment, including a demonstration at the Second Congress to Unite Women in 1970. These women called themselves the “Radicalesbians” and they read their declaration called “The Woman-Identified Woman” to the attendees. The very next year, the NOW adopted a resolution recognizing lesbian rights, and in 1973 they established the NOW Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism. Simultaneously, Lesbians of color like Audre Lorde started writing about their particular experiences. Lorde published "Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches" in 1984.

Bra Burning Women

The second wave of the feminist movement is not only known for the tensions between various streams of feminism. This wave is also heavily associated with the “bra-burning” protest of 1968. Although no bra-burning actually occurred, this myth continues to follow the women’s liberation movement. This rumor came from the 1968 Miss America Pageant protest in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On September 7, 1968 a few hundred women interrupted the live broadcast of the Miss America Pageant to protest beauty standards and the objectification of women. These women threw bras, high heels, Playboy magazines, and other symbolic feminine products into a “Freedom Trash Can.” Although the women did not actually ignite a fire, a reporter compared their actions to Vietnam war protesters that would burn their draft cards. This idea of bra-burning feminists followed the movement ever since and contributed to the stereotype of feminists as angry and “man-hating.”

By the late 1970s, the second wave of feminism began to lose steam. As multiple sub-groups created new organizations for themselves, other debates within feminism grew. One of the key debates was over pornography and sexual activity. Many feminists decided between being “anti-porn feminists” or “sex-positive feminists.” These debates accelerated an already dwindling larger movement. By the early 1980s, the second wave came to a close and a large-scale feminist movement would not return for another decade.

Exhibit written and curated by Kerri Lee Alexander, NWHM Fellow 2018-2020

Davis, Angela Yvonne. Women, Race & Class. London: Womens Press, 1986.

D’Emilio, John. “After Stonewall.” Queer Cultures. Eds. Deborah Carlin and Jennifer DiGrazia. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2004. 3-35.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Gay, Roxane. “Fifty Years Ago, Protesters Took on the Miss America Pageant and Electrified the Feminist Movement.” Smithsonian.com, January 1, 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fifty-years-ago-protestors-took-on-miss-america-pageant-electrified-feminist-movement-180967504/.

hooks, bell. Aint I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. New York: Routledge, 2015. Pp. 12

Lee, Jennifer. “Feminism Has a Bra-Burning Myth Problem.” Time Magazine, June 12, 2014. https://time.com/2853184/feminism-has-a-bra-burning-myth-problem/.

Love, Barbara J. Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Morris, Catherine, Rujeko Hockley, Connie H. Choi, Carmen Hermo, and Stephanie Weissberg. We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85: a Sourcebook. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 2017.

Morris, Bonnie J. “History of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Social Movements.” American Psychological Association, 2009. https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.

Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Motherss Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego: Harvest, 1984. Pp. xii

Essay on Feminism

500 words essay on feminism.

Feminism is a social and political movement that advocates for the rights of women on the grounds of equality of sexes. It does not deny the biological differences between the sexes but demands equality in opportunities. It covers everything from social and political to economic arenas. In fact, feminist campaigns have been a crucial part of history in women empowerment. The feminist campaigns of the twentieth century made the right to vote, public property, work and education possible. Thus, an essay on feminism will discuss its importance and impact.

Importance of Feminism

Feminism is not just important for women but for every sex, gender, caste, creed and more. It empowers the people and society as a whole. A very common misconception is that only women can be feminists.

It is absolutely wrong but feminism does not just benefit women. It strives for equality of the sexes, not the superiority of women. Feminism takes the gender roles which have been around for many years and tries to deconstruct them.

This allows people to live freely and empower lives without getting tied down by traditional restrictions. In other words, it benefits women as well as men. For instance, while it advocates that women must be free to earn it also advocates that why should men be the sole breadwinner of the family? It tries to give freedom to all.

Most importantly, it is essential for young people to get involved in the feminist movement. This way, we can achieve faster results. It is no less than a dream to live in a world full of equality.

Thus, we must all look at our own cultures and communities for making this dream a reality. We have not yet reached the result but we are on the journey, so we must continue on this mission to achieve successful results.

Impact of Feminism

Feminism has had a life-changing impact on everyone, especially women. If we look at history, we see that it is what gave women the right to vote. It was no small feat but was achieved successfully by women.

Further, if we look at modern feminism, we see how feminism involves in life-altering campaigns. For instance, campaigns that support the abortion of unwanted pregnancy and reproductive rights allow women to have freedom of choice.

Moreover, feminism constantly questions patriarchy and strives to renounce gender roles. It allows men to be whoever they wish to be without getting judged. It is not taboo for men to cry anymore because they must be allowed to express themselves freely.

Similarly, it also helps the LGBTQ community greatly as it advocates for their right too. Feminism gives a place for everyone and it is best to practice intersectional feminism to understand everyone’s struggle.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Feminism

The key message of feminism must be to highlight the choice in bringing personal meaning to feminism. It is to recognize other’s right for doing the same thing. The sad part is that despite feminism being a strong movement, there are still parts of the world where inequality and exploitation of women take places. Thus, we must all try to practice intersectional feminism.

FAQ of Essay on Feminism

Question 1: What are feminist beliefs?

Answer 1: Feminist beliefs are the desire for equality between the sexes. It is the belief that men and women must have equal rights and opportunities. Thus, it covers everything from social and political to economic equality.

Question 2: What started feminism?

Answer 2: The first wave of feminism occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It emerged out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. This wave aimed to open up new doors for women with a focus on suffrage.

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Introduction

Click! In the 1970s that word signaled the moment when a woman awakened to the powerful ideas of contemporary feminism. Today “click” usually refers to a computer keystroke that connects women (and men) to powerful ideas on the Internet.

We aim to bridge the gap between those two clicks by offering an exhibit that highlights the achievements of women from the 1940s to 2016. This exhibit explores the power and complexity of gender consciousness in modern American life.

Think of this as a conversation between generations, between men and women, between historians and the public. While the focus is clearly historical, we are not focused exclusively on the past. We believe that the enormous changes in women’s lives need to be better known, both for what was accomplished and for what remains to be done.  That is what we mean by “the ongoing feminist revolution.”

Periods of heightened mobilization like the 1960s and 1970s are significant and eye-catching, but social movements don’t start from scratch. Understanding the backstory is just as important as documenting the dramatic moments that caught the media’s attention. Nor do we stop the story in 1975 or 1980 when the media began to lose interest, precisely because women’s issues and women’s lives continued to evolve. Instead, we explain and explore the long history of women’s activism over time. And yet we realize that these changes remain controversial and contested, so we always aim to tell the story from multiple perspectives.

We examine the big national projects and leaders, and we also look closely at the grassroots. We are equally concerned with social change on an individual, personal level and in society at large. We document these ongoing struggles for gender equality in three major areas — the workplace and family; politics and social movements; and the body and health — and, because we are historians, we offer a full library of resources for those who want to learn more. So, get ready to start clicking — in both senses of the word — and prepare to have your historical consciousness raised. First, however, let’s talk about definitions, perceptions and a short history of feminism.

What did Jennifer Lee discover when making a film about feminism?

Excerpt from “ Feminist: Stories from Women's Liberation ,” a film by Jennifer Lee. (Running time 3:18) Used with permission. The complete film is available from Women Make Movies .

Feminism:  1. Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.  2. The movement organized around this belief. (American Heritage Dictionary)

What? Nothing about man-haters? Bra-burners? Ugly old crones with no sense of humor? The list of stereotypes (almost always negative) associated with modern feminism could go on and on. But maybe it is worth pausing to ask: Why has such a seemingly simple and straightforward notion about the equality of the sexes been demonized to such an extent that many Americans shy away from it, even when they admit that they are in agreement with many of its basic goals? There is no simple answer to that question, although negative portrayals in the media certainly play a huge role; feminists have been characterized as opposing motherhood and families when in fact they do not. But as a result, feminism — the other so-called “f-word”— is not a rallying point or label that speaks to large segments of the population, even to many of the younger women who have come of age in a world reshaped by this far-reaching social movement.

What is the best way to deal with this misperception? Should we abandon the word and try to come up with a gender-neutral term that brings more women and men into the fold? Or should we insist, loudly and boldly, that the word feminism is important and should not be abandoned or scorned? We choose the second option. Indeed, the whole idea behind this project is to showcase the powerful ideas of modern feminism for old and new audiences and to show why feminism mattered in the past and why it is still relevant and necessary today. As we work to reclaim feminism from the negative stereotypes that have made too many people unwilling to embrace the term, we consciously double our pool of recruits by asserting that feminism is as relevant and potentially life-changing for men as it is for women. Men are essential allies in the feminist struggle and have much to gain when they too move beyond stereotyped gender roles; women cannot and should not do it alone. Feminism supplies a clear road map to a more egalitarian world. So let’s go back to definitions, realizing that a concept as broad-ranging and capacious as feminism will be hard to reduce to a few key concepts. Instead of focusing simply on the notion of equality between the sexes, let’s go a little deeper, and adopt a definition formulated by Estelle Freedman in her masterful No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (2002):

Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies.

The idea of equal worth offers a way to value traditional female priorities like caregiving alongside the work historically associated with men, thus avoiding the trap of assuming that men’s lives are the primary ones women should aspire to in the name of equality. This approach defines feminism not just as an ideology but also as a social justice movement, broadly conceived to include mass action as well as individual participation and thus encompassing a wide range of behavior and beliefs and capable of being equally embraced by women and men. Finally, this complex and nuanced definition recognizes that other factors, especially race, class, and sexuality (i.e., other social hierarchies), intersect with gender to shape women’s lives.

The definition is also broad enough to cover historical changes in the meaning of feminism and feminist movements. Like everything else, feminism has a history. Although women have always been active (if undervalued) participants in history, the specific outlines of feminism began to appear only in the late eighteenth century as part of two broader historical shifts: the rise of capitalism and the spread of Enlightenment ideas about individual rights and the consent of the governed. Those powerful paradigm shifts provided the opening for a tiny but growing number of writers and thinkers, starting with Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), to ask: What about women? Don’t they have rights and responsibilities too, both as citizens and as participants in a market economy? That is the seed of modern feminism.

Because feminism has such a long history, historians of the United States sometimes resort to a shorthand description that focuses on successive waves of feminist activism. In this model the first wave was the suffrage movement, starting at Seneca Falls in 1848 and culminating in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The second wave was the revival of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, when questions of gender equality pushed their way onto the national agenda. In the 1990s, younger feminists began to call themselves the third wave to differentiate themselves from their feminist foremothers. Moving beyond the perceived white, middle-class bias of earlier movements, third-wave feminists embraced a far more racially and sexually inclusive vision; popular culture, more than politics or the workplace, was the focus of their energy, and they defined feminism for themselves rather than through participating in a mass movement. In the twenty-first century, the social-media-savvy generation — for which feminism is never more than a click away on the Internet — uses the blogosphere to generate grassroots social change efforts that are informed by global partners and a broad human rights framework. Young feminists are injecting their voices into popular culture, participating in collective actions and targeting all forms of injustice, such as promoting workers’ rights and opposing sexual violence. Only time will tell if the broad visions of early twenty-first-century feminists can be neatly tucked into something called a fourth wave. Waves are a useful tool for understanding the history of American feminism, but they also have real limits. Focusing on waves tends to downplay any action or organizing that happens between the periods when feminism is publicly prominent. In addition, the waves perspective makes each manifestation seem to spring from nowhere, rather than locating feminist activism on a broad historical continuum. It also tends to flatten out the story to the most recognizable, public faces of feminism, generally white and middle-class, rather than what historian Nancy Hewitt calls “the messy multiplicity of feminist activism across U.S. history and beyond its borders.” But it is precisely this “messy multiplicity” that necessitates an open-ended, inclusive, and ever-changing understanding of feminism as an ideology and a social movement.

While we embrace this word for its history, we also do so because we believe that looking at the world with a feminist perspective is just as rich and fruitful an approach in the twenty-first century as it was earlier. Any problem or question can be made more complex and challenging by asking: What about women? But as we think about feminism and women’s lives, we always have to be mindful of the difficulties of generalizing about women as a group, given that they are divided by and affected by race, class, sexuality and generations, among other factors. Feminists today embody a range of priorities, diverse programs and multiple perspectives. So when we say women, we should always ask: Which women? Finally, we should all remember that words and labels mean different things to different generations, and embrace those diverse points of view as one of the forces that keep feminism alive and vibrant. So when someone makes a disparaging remark about feminism, or claims that it has no relevance to her or his life, or that the battles are already over and it’s time to move forward, ask that person: Are you sure you know what feminism really is? Through conversations that cross generations, race, class, and sexual orientation, we can rediscover the true meaning of feminism and explain why it matters, both historically and for the future of women and men, lending the term new significance and reclaiming its proud heritage.

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Addie Wyatt describes her journey from meat packer to union leader to women’s rights activist.

Excerpt from “ Step by Step: Building a Feminist Movement 1941-1977 ,” a film by Joyce Follet. (Running time 7:29) Used with permission. The complete film is available from Women Make Movies .

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1941 U.S. enters World War II

World War II was a transformative moment for American women who served in the military and replaced men in the industrial labor force. The war’s iconic “Rosie the Riveter” image symbolized women who worked in non-traditional industrial jobs. Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park . Library of Congress exhibit, “Women Come to the Front.”   National Archive, “It's a Woman's War Too!” “Rosie to the Rescue” (1943). Film, “Homefront Heroines: The Waves of World War II.” Film, “Fly Girls.” “The Role of World War II in the Rise of Women's Employment,” by Claudia Goldin (PDF) . Photo: NARA, public domain.

1945 World War II ends

Returning veterans displaced many women in industrial work as they were encouraged to return to homemaking. Women in trade unions began to challenge both gender and race discrimination. Film, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter.”   PBS article, “Women and Work After World War II.” Photo: U.S. Navy, public domain.

1946 Pres. Committee on Civil Rights

Following recommendations by the President's Committee on Civil Rights, President Truman issued Executive Orders to desegregate the armed forces and the federal work force. Sadie Alexander was a key member of the committee. Report, “To Secure These Rights,” Harry S. Truman Library . Sadie Alexander biography . Sadie Alexander obituary .

1954 Brown v. Board of Education

The Supreme Court’s ruling that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites are “inherently unequal” spurred on civil rights activism both in the courts and at the grassroots. Black women were leaders of much of this activism. Photos and case documents, University of Missouri . Background, Civil Rights Digital Library . Documents, National Archives . Video, “60 Years after Brown v. Board.” Publishing the Long Civil Rights Movement .

1955 Daughters of Bilitis

Founded by lesbians in San Francisco, DOB began as a social club but was soon a civil rights organization that promoted the societal acceptance of lesbians. Members published The Ladder: A Lesbian Review , the first national lesbian magazine. Collection guide, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin papers . Women in the Homophile Movement, Cornell University . Martha Shelley biography and interview .

1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott

After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, with the support of the Women’s Political Council, African-Americans in Montgomery initiated a year-long boycott to protest racial segregation. It resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that Alabama’s segregated bus laws were unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott . “Rosa Parks arrested,” Library of Congress . “381 Days,” Smithsonian Institution . Summary, National Humanities Center .

1961 Commission on Status of Women

Established by President John F. Kennedy at the suggestion of Esther Peterson, the director of the U.S. Women’s Bureau, the President's Commission on the Status of Women was first chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. Its 1963 “American Women” report set out the commission’s findings and recommendations. State commissions were established nationwide by 1967. Archive, John F. Kennedy Library . Records, Schlesinger Library . Video, “Betty Friedan and the Presidential Commission,” Radcliffe Institute . Report of the President's Commission, U.S. Department of Labor, 1963 (PDF) .

1962 Silent Spring

A detailed study of the human impact on nature, Silent Spring contributed to the modern environmental movement, which engages feminists around the world. Many environmental feminists, including ecofeminists, argue that women’s subordination is connected to violence against nature. Rachel Carson website . Rachel Carson papers, Yale University . Review of Silent Spring . “The Story of Silent Spring,” Natural Resources Defense Council .

1962 United Farm Workers

Co-founded by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, the UFW initiated a national grape boycott in 1965 that resulted in a labor contract for agricultural workers. History of United Farm Workers . Dolores Huerta Foundation . Film, “The Fight in the Fields.”

1963 Equal Pay Act

This amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits pay discrimination on the basis of sex when workers perform substantially equal work and has been credited as one factor in the rise of women’s wages overall. The passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 demonstrates that work in this area is not complete. Text of the Equal Pay Act . Photos, John F. Kennedy Library .  JFK Signs the Equal Pay Act .

1963 March on Washington

The epic March for Jobs and Freedom was attended by over 250,000 people who heard Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. The program included a “Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.” Program of Events, National Archive . Program of Events, ourdocuments.gov . “Daisy Bates Speaks,” by Sara Kuhgler . Video, “Civil Rights Pioneer, Gloria Richardson.” “Honoring the Women of the Civil Rights Movement,” by Dennis Parker . Photo: NARA, public domain.

1963 The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan’s study about “the problem that has no name” was an instant best-seller and raised public awareness about the lives of well-educated women. The book is considered a foundational text of the post-World War II women’s movement. Review in NY Times , 1963 . Review in The Atlantic , 2013 .

1964 Title VII, Civil Rights Act

Title VII originally prohibited workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. It now also prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy, age and disability. It is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, established in 1965, and state agencies. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act . Digitized images of Civil Rights Act . Martha Griffiths archive . “How ‘Sex’ Got into Title VII,” by Jo Freeman . “The Untold Story Behind the Civil Rights Act,” by Suzanne Gould . “Sex and the Civil Rights Act,” Backstory Radio . “The Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Library of Congress . Photo: Rep. Martha Griffiths; U.S. News & World Report collection, Library of Congress.

1965 “Sexism” enters the lexicon

The term “sexism” was used by Pauline M. Leet and was popularized with the publication of Caroline Bird’s 1968 book, Born Female . Both women compared sexism to racism. “ The Origins of the Word ‘sexism’,” Feminism 101 .

1966 National Organization for Women

Seen by its founders as a “NAACP for women,” NOW was established to work independently of government agencies in the effort to increase women’s rights and fight sex discrimination. In 1968, NOW endorsed the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. NOW . NOW records, Schlesinger Library . Photo, founders of NOW .

1967 National Welfare Rights

Civil rights organizers and welfare rights recipients engaged in campaigns to educate low-income people about their eligibility for public assistance and to change the public view of the welfare recipient. In the process, many poor black activist mothers developed a feminist consciousness. Opponents of welfare rights contributed to the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. History of National Welfare Rights Organization . Johnnie Tillmon biography . “The Second Phase of Civil Rights,” George Mason University . Johnnie Tillmon interviews .

1968 Jeannette Rankin Brigade

During this anti-war protest in Washington D.C., the New York Radical Women staged a “Burial of Traditional Womanhood.” One result was a questioning of the role of women in protest movements. “Notes From the First Year,” New York Radical Women, Duke University Library . “The Jeanette Rankin Brigade,” by Shulamith Firestone . Jeanette Rankin Papers, Swarthmore College .

1968 Miss America Pageant protest

New York Radical Women organized this protest to bring public attention to sexism, especially society’s ideas about women and beauty. Some of the 400 protestors tossed into a “Freedom Trash Can” items they considered demeaning or oppressive, including women’s magazines, wigs, high heels, and bras. The protest brought media attention to the feminist movement. Video excerpt from “Miss America,” a Clio film.

1969 Stonewall

A routine police raid on the Stonewall Bar in New York City led to riots that ignited the modern gay liberation movement. News coverage led to increased awareness of the diversity of gay and lesbian lives and subsequent activism allowed for the development of critiques of institutionalized heterosexuality. Stonewall Veterans Association . Stonewall Inn, National Park Service . “Stonewall and Beyond,” Columbia University . Film, “Stonewall Uprising.” Video, “Stonewall Riots 40th Anniversary.” 1969 article in The Advocate . Radio show, “Remembering Stonewall.” Stonewall Riots Police Reports, OutHistory .

1970 “Women in Revolt”

Newsweek’s “Women in Revolt” cover story on the women’s movement ran on the same day that 46 women Newsweek employees, with Eleanor Holmes Norton as their lawyer, filed an EEOC complaint charging the magazine with sex discrimination. The women charged that women were hired as researchers and men were hired as writers. For its cover story on the women’s movement, Newsweek hired a woman freelance writer. The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich . Review and interview on NPR .

1971 National Chicana Conference

At this Houston, Texas, conference, about 600 women discussed specific issues ranging from abortion to childcare centers and debated gender separatism and racial solidarity. Conferencia de Mujeres Por La Raza . PDF, Guide to Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional Archives . Digitized pamphlet, “Women: New Voice of La Raza” by Mirta Vidal . 

1972 Equal Rights Amendment

After Congress passed the ERA, it was sent to the states for ratification. In 1979, the ratification deadline was extended to 1982 but no more states approved the amendment. Today the ERA continues to be reintroduced in Congress but progress is slow. History of the Equal Rights Amendment . The Equal Rights Amendment, National Archives . Martha Griffiths and the Equal Rights Amendment . A Short History of ERA, Phyllis Schlafly Report . ERA Coalition .

1972 Ms. Magazine

Ms. Magazine first appeared in 1972 with Gloria Steinem as editor and Pat Carbine as publisher to bring feminist news to readers. Founding editors included Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Mary Thom. Over the years, the magazine’s editors and writers have included many prominent feminists and its articles have raised awareness and contributed to debates about feminist issues.  Ms. Magazine . Gloria Steinem biography and interview . Letty Cottin Pogrebin website . Joanne Edgar biography and interview .

1972 Title IX

Passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in any education program receiving federal funds. Its impact has been greatest in the field of athletics. Summary of Title IX . Overview of Title IX, U.S. Department of Justice .

1973 Billie Jean King & Bobby Riggs

Called the “Battle of the Sexes,” this tennis match saw King beat Riggs in three sets. King continued playing competitive tennis but also dedicated her time to advancing women’s place in the world of sports. Radio show, “Billie Jean King and the ‘Incomplete’ Revolution in Women’s Sports.” Video, “The Battle of the Sexes that Changed Women’s Tennis.” Radio show, “Pioneer Billie Jean King Moved the Baseline for Women’s Tennis.” “How Billie Jean King Picked Her Outfit for the Battle of the Sexes” by Ed Leibowitz . Film, “Billie Jean King,” PBS . Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports by Susan Ware .

1973 Our Bodies, Ourselves

Written by members of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, this 276-page book of information, illustrations, and personal narratives aimed to empower women to understand their bodies and navigate the health care system. Our Bodies Ourselves .

1973 Roe v. Wade

With a 7 to 2 majority, the Supreme Court ruled that state laws making abortion illegal during a woman’s first three months of pregnancy were unconstitutional. Since the decision, abortion rights cases have continued to be argued in the courts. Roe v. Wade, Cornell University Law School . Video, Roe v. Wade oral arguments, C-SPAN . PDF, “Before Roe v. Wade” by Linda Greenhouse & Reva Siegel . History of Key Abortion Rulings of U.S. Supreme Court . Interview, Sarah Weddington .

1973 Wounded Knee

American Indian Movement activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota to protest political corruption. Some of the women participants founded Women of All Red Nations in 1974. One of their primary commitments was an effort to combat sterilization abuse. Wounded Knee documents, American Indian Movement . Facing Freedom: American Indian Rights .

1974 Combahee River Collective

The Combahee River Collective’s statement is considered as a founding document in the development of identity politics and the feminist theory of intersectionality, which considers how social categories such as gender, race and class work together to create oppressions. The Combahee River Collective Statement . “Black, Feminist, Revolutionary” by Keisha Price .

1975 UN International Women’s Year

The United Nations declared 1976 to 1985 the Decade of Women and four international conferences on women were held, in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995). A result of the conferences has included resolutions to elimination discrimination and violence against women. UN Women . Declaration of Mexico, 1975 . Full report .

1977 National Women’s Conference

Chaired by Congresswoman Bella Abzug, the conference held in Houston formulated a National Plan of Action on 26 issues, including the ERA, abortion, child care, workplace discrimination, and peace. Opponents led by Phyllis Schlafly held their own conference. “The National Women's Conference in Houston” by Jo Freeman . Film, “Sisters of ’77.” Video, “National Women’s Conference 1977,” Texas Archive . Documents, National Women's Conference . “The Spirit of Houston 1977,” National Archives . Video excerpt from “Sisters of ’77” used with permission from Media Projects Inc .

1980 Ronald Reagan

The election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States and Republican control of the U.S. Senate signaled America’s conservative political turn. Reagan opposed abortion rights, gender equality, affirmative action, and many of the policies of the Great Society. Reagan Presidential Foundation .  Reagan Presidential Library .

1980 Women of Color Press

Among the important books published by this pioneering press, founded and run by women of color, is Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983). PDF, Cherrie Moraga interview .  PDF, Barbara Smith interview . 

1981 Sandra Day O’Connor

Sandra Day O’Connor became the first women appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1981. She was appointed by President Reagan and served until she retired in 2006. Exhibit, U.S. Supreme Court . Reagan’s Nomination of O’Connor, National Archives . Biography, Sandra Day O'Connor Institute . Photo: Library of Congress, public domain.

1982 Ohoyo One Thousand

Ohoyo One Thousand: A Resource Guide of American Indian/Alaska Native Women was compiled by the Ohoyo (“woman” in Choctaw) Resource Center, which was founded by Choctaw women in 1979. The publication profiles more than 1,000 women from 321 tribes who have achieved success in their respective fields. The Ohoyo Resource Center also published Ohoyo Makachi: Words of Today’s American Indian Women. Ohoyo One Thousand . Ohoyo Makachi . Owanah Anderson biography .

1983 Asian Immigrant Women Advocates

Asian Immigrant Women Advocates was founded as a grassroots organization to provide educational assistance to Asian immigrant women and to engage in social justice campaigns. The Garment Workers’ Justice Campaign from 1992 to 1998 raised public awareness about corporate responsibility to workers. AIWA .

1987 National Women's History Month

Congress designated the month of March to celebrate women’s historical accomplishments following celebrations of International Women’s Day (first celebrated in 1911 on March 8) and Women’s History Week (established in 1980). The National Women’s History Project played a key role in developing Women’s History Month. National Women’s History Project .

1991 Anita Hill & Clarence Thomas

The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, which included Anita Hill’s testimony that he had sexually harassed her while they worked at the Department of Education and the EEOC, increased public awareness about sexual harassment, fostered a public debate about race and sex, and mobilized feminists to run for political offices. Video, Confirmation hearings, C-SPAN . Video discussion, “Anita Hill Testimony, 20 Years Later,” C-SPAN . Trancripts, Nomination Hearings for Supreme Court Justices . Photo: Clarence Thomas; Collection of U.S. Supreme Court, public domain.

1991 Backlash

Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women , which won the National Book Critics Award for Nonfiction, examines the 1980s media backlash against feminism, which included unsubstantiated stories such as the “man shortage.” Reviewers compared it to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique . Susan Faludi's website .

1993 Family and Medical Leave Act

Unlike earlier acts, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, this federal law requires that employers provide all eligible employees with unpaid leaves for family or health reasons. The Act has been seen as expanding the legal definition of the family and a major step in balancing the demands of family and work for women and men. Family and Medical Leave Act .

1993 UN Declaration on Violence

In the 1990s, violence against women emerged as one of the global challenges facing communities around the world. The United Nation’s declaration makes a connection between women’s rights, world peace, and the elimination of violence against women. United Nations Declaration .

1994 Violence Against Women Act

Feminists have long advocated for programs to combat violence against women. This federal law funds programs that aim to end all types of violence against women, including domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, date rape and stalking. Opponents of the act, including Phyllis Schlafly, have argued that it will increase fear and hatred of men. Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice . PDF, VAWA fact sheet . Reauthorization Act of 2013 . “The 1994 Violence Against Women Act” by Kathryn Sklar and Suzanne Lustig . United States v. Morrison .

1996 Defense of Marriage Act

DOMA, as it is often called, defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman and it allowed a state to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. In 2013 the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government must recognize marriages of same-sex couples and provide protections and rights to them if they were married in states where same-sex marriages were legalized. PDF, United States v. Windsor . “Marriage Equality is a Feminist Issue” by Audrey Bilger . Freedom To Marry . Text, Defense of Marriage Act . “Now in Defense of Gay Marriage, Bill Clinton” by Peter Baker . 

1997 Third Wave Foundation

In 1992, in response to anti-feminist events, Rebecca Walker wrote a Ms. Magazine article titled “Becoming the Third Wave.” The third wave of feminism concentrates on ending gender violence, expanding reproductive rights, and challenging media misrepresentations of young women. Five years later, the Third Wave Foundation was created to foster youth-led activism for gender justice. Third Wave Foundation records, Duke University .

2004 March for Women’s Lives

One of the largest women’s rights marches, and one of the largest protest marches in American history, was held on April 25, 2004 in Washington, DC. Marchers raised awareness and called for action on the issues of abortion and reproductive freedom. Previous marches for reproductive rights were held in 1986, 1989, and 1992. The first of the marches led to the creation of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Video, “March for Women’s Lives,” Democracy NOW! Video, “March for Women’s Lives,” C-SPAN . Article and photos by Jo Freeman . 10th anniversary of the March, Feminist Majority . ACLU Celebrity Coalition . Photo by Rebecca DeLisle , Creative Commons license .

2010 UN Women

Officially known as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, this group focuses on the empowerment of women economically and in leadership positions, ending violence against women, and keeping gender equality at the forefront of development initiatives. UN Women . UN Women Watch .

2011 UN Day of the Girl Child

In December 2011, a UN resolution declared October 11 the Day of the Girl Child to promote the empowerment and equality of girls worldwide. As stated on the website dayofthegirl.org , “October 11 is not just a day; it’s a movement. A worldwide revolution. We want ourselves, and girls everywhere, to be seen as equals, in the eyes of others and in our own eyes.” UN Girls’ Education Initiative . “Preventing Child Marriages,” National Institutes of Health . Day of the Girl, U.S.

2013 Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized movement that campaigns against violence and racism towards black people. It was founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in the wake of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin. Website . Interview . Sydney Peace Prize .

2015 Obergefell v. Hodges

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot ban gay marriage and must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Case documents . Supreme Court proceedings and commentary . Photo by Tony Webster, Creative Commons license .

2016 Hillary Clinton wins Nomination

At the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to receive the presidential nomination from a major political party. “When there are no ceilings,” she stated in her acceptance speech, “the sky’s the limit.” Acceptance Speech .

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Feminist theory.

• Pelagia Goulimari Pelagia Goulimari Department of English, University of Oxford
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.976
• Published online: 19 November 2020

Feminist theory in the 21st century is an enormously diverse field. Mapping its genealogy of multiple intersecting traditions offers a toolkit for 21st-century feminist literary criticism, indeed for literary criticism tout court. Feminist phenomenologists (Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, Toril Moi, Miranda Fricker, Pamela Sue Anderson, Sara Ahmed, Alia Al-Saji) have contributed concepts and analyses of situation, lived experience, embodiment, and orientation. African American feminists (Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Hortense J. Spillers, Saidiya V. Hartman) have theorized race, intersectionality, and heterogeneity, particularly differences among women and among black women. Postcolonial feminists (Assia Djebar, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Florence Stratton, Saba Mahmood, Jasbir K. Puar) have focused on the subaltern, specificity, and agency. Queer and transgender feminists (Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Susan Stryker) have theorized performativity, resignification, continuous transition, and self-identification. Questions of representation have been central to all traditions of feminist theory.

• continuous transition
• heterogeneity
• intersectionality
• lived experience
• performativity
• resignification
• self-identification
• the subaltern

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5 Essays About Feminism

On the surface, the definition of feminism is simple. It’s the belief that women should be politically, socially, and economically equal to men. Over the years, the movement expanded from a focus on voting rights to worker rights, reproductive rights, gender roles, and beyond. Modern feminism is moving to a more inclusive and intersectional place. Here are five essays about feminism that tackle topics like trans activism, progress, and privilege:

“Trickle-Down Feminism” – Sarah Jaffe

Feminists celebrate successful women who have seemingly smashed through the glass ceiling, but the reality is that most women are still under it. Even in fast-growing fields where women dominate (retail sales, food service, etc), women make less money than men. In this essay from Dissent Magazine, author Sarah Jaffe argues that when the fastest-growing fields are low-wage, it isn’t a victory for women. At the same time, it does present an opportunity to change the way we value service work. It isn’t enough to focus only on “equal pay for equal work” as that argument mostly focuses on jobs where someone can negotiate their salary. This essay explores how feminism can’t succeed if only the concerns of the wealthiest, most privileged women are prioritized.

Sarah Jaffe writes about organizing, social movements, and the economy with publications like Dissent, the Nation, Jacobin, and others. She is the former labor editor at Alternet.

“What No One Else Will Tell You About Feminism” – Lindy West

Written in Lindy West’s distinct voice, this essay provides a clear, condensed history of feminism’s different “waves.” The first wave focused on the right to vote, which established women as equal citizens. In the second wave, after WWII, women began taking on issues that couldn’t be legally-challenged, like gender roles. As the third wave began, the scope of feminism began to encompass others besides middle-class white women. Women should be allowed to define their womanhood for themselves. West also points out that “waves” may not even exist since history is a continuum. She concludes the essay by declaring if you believe all people are equal, you are a feminist.

Jezebel reprinted this essay with permission from How To Be A Person, The Stranger’s Guide to College by Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizelle, and Bethany Jean Clement. Lindy West is an activist, comedian, and writer who focuses on topics like feminism, pop culture, and fat acceptance.

“Toward a Trans* Feminism” – Jack Halberstam

The history of transactivsm and feminism is messy. This essay begins with the author’s personal experience with gender and terms like trans*, which Halberstam prefers. The asterisk serves to “open the meaning,” allowing people to choose their categorization as they see fit. The main body of the essay focuses on the less-known history of feminists and trans* folks. He references essays from the 1970s and other literature that help paint a more complete picture. In current times, the tension between radical feminism and trans* feminism remains, but changes that are good for trans* women are good for everyone.

This essay was adapted from Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability by Jack Halberstam. Halberstam is the Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. He is also the author of several books.

“Rebecca Solnit: How Change Happens” – Rebecca Solnit

The world is changing. Rebecca Solnit describes this transformation as an assembly of ideas, visions, values, essays, books, protests, and more. It has many layers involving race, class, gender, power, climate, justice, etc, as well as many voices. This has led to more clarity about injustice. Solnit describes watching the transformation and how progress and “ wokeness ” are part of a historical process. Progress is hard work. Not exclusively about feminism, this essay takes a more intersectional look at how progress as a whole occurs.

“How Change Happens” was adapted from the introduction to Whose Story Is it? Rebecca Solnit is a writer, activist, and historian. She’s the author of over 20 books on art, politics, feminism, and more.

“Bad Feminist” extract – Roxane Gay

People are complicated and imperfect. In this excerpt from her book Bad Feminist: Essays , Roxane Gay explores her contradictions. The opening sentence is, “I am failing as a woman.” She goes on to describe how she wants to be independent, but also to be taken care of. She wants to be strong and in charge, but she also wants to surrender sometimes. For a long time, she denied that she was human and flawed. However, the work it took to deny her humanness is harder than accepting who she is. While Gay might be a “bad feminist,” she is also deeply committed to issues that are important to feminism. This is a must-read essay for any feminists who worry that they aren’t perfect.

Roxane Gay is a professor, speaker, editor, writer, and social commentator. She is the author of Bad Feminist , a New York Times bestseller, Hunger (a memoir), and works of fiction.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained

If you have no idea which wave of feminism we’re in right now, read this.

by Constance Grady

If one thing’s for sure, it’s that the second-wave feminists are at war with the third-wave feminists.

No, wait, the second-wavers are at war with the fourth-wave feminists.

No, it’s not the second-wavers, it’s the Gen X-ers.

Are we still cool with the first-wavers? Are they all racists now?

Is there actually intergenerational fighting about feminist waves? Is that a real thing?

Do we even use the wave metaphor anymore?

As the #MeToo movement barrels forward, as record numbers of women seek office, and as the Women’s March drives the resistance against the Trump administration, feminism is reaching a level of cultural relevance it hasn’t enjoyed in years. It’s now a major object of cultural discourse — which has led to some very confusing conversations because not everyone is familiar with or agrees on the basic terminology of feminism. And one of the most basic and most confusing terms has to do with waves of feminism.

People began talking about feminism as a series of waves in 1968 when a New York Times article by Martha Weinman Lear ran under the headline “ The Second Feminist Wave .” “Feminism, which one might have supposed as dead as a Polish question, is again an issue,” Lear wrote. “Proponents call it the Second Feminist Wave, the first having ebbed after the glorious victory of suffrage and disappeared, finally, into the sandbar of Togetherness.”

The wave metaphor caught on: It became a useful way of linking the women’s movement of the ’60s and ’70s to the women’s movement of the suffragettes, and to suggest that the women’s libbers weren’t a bizarre historical aberration, as their detractors sneered, but a new chapter in a grand history of women fighting together for their rights. Over time, the wave metaphor became a way to describe and distinguish between different eras and generations of feminism.

It’s not a perfect metaphor. “The wave metaphor tends to have built into it an important metaphorical implication that is historically misleading and not helpful politically,” argued feminist historian Linda Nicholson in 2010 . “That implication is that underlying certain historical differences, there is one phenomenon, feminism, that unites gender activism in the history of the United States, and that like a wave, peaks at certain times and recedes at others. In sum, the wave metaphor suggests the idea that gender activism in the history of the United States has been for the most part unified around one set of ideas, and that set of ideas can be called feminism.”

The wave metaphor can be reductive. It can suggest that each wave of feminism is a monolith with a single unified agenda, when in fact the history of feminism is a history of different ideas in wild conflict.

It can reduce each wave to a stereotype and suggest that there’s a sharp division between generations of feminism, when in fact there’s a fairly strong continuity between each wave — and since no wave is a monolith, the theories that are fashionable in one wave are often grounded in the work that someone was doing on the sidelines of a previous wave. And the wave metaphor can suggest that mainstream feminism is the only kind of feminism there is, when feminism is full of splinter movements.

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And as waves pile upon waves in feminist discourse, it’s become unclear that the wave metaphor is useful for understanding where we are right now. “I don’t think we are in a wave right now,” gender studies scholar April Sizemore-Barber told Vox in January. “I think that now feminism is inherently intersectional feminism — we are in a place of multiple feminisms.”

But the wave metaphor is also probably the best tool we have for understanding the history of feminism in the US, where it came from and how it developed. And it’s become a fundamental part of how we talk about feminism — so even if we end up deciding to discard it, it’s worth understanding exactly what we’re discarding.

Here is an overview of the waves of feminism in the US, from the suffragettes to #MeToo. This is a broad overview, and it won’t capture every nuance of the movement in each era. Think of it as a Feminism 101 explainer, here to give you a framework to understand the feminist conversation that’s happening right now, how we got here, and where we go next.

The first wave: 1848 to 1920

People have been suggesting things along the line of “Hmmm, are women maybe human beings?” for all of history, so first-wave feminism doesn’t refer to the first feminist thinkers in history. It refers to the West’s first sustained political movement dedicated to achieving political equality for women: the suffragettes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For 70 years, the first-wavers would march, lecture, and protest, and face arrest, ridicule, and violence as they fought tooth and nail for the right to vote. As Susan B. Anthony’s biographer Ida Husted Harper would put it , suffrage was the right that, once a woman had won it, “would secure to her all others.”

The first wave basically begins with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 . There, almost 200 women met in a church in upstate New York to discuss “the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” Attendees discussed their grievances and passed a list of 12 resolutions calling for specific equal rights — including, after much debate, the right to vote.

The whole thing was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were both active abolitionists. (They met when they were both barred from the floor of the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London; no women were allowed.)

At the time, the nascent women’s movement was firmly integrated with the abolitionist movement: The leaders were all abolitionists, and Frederick Douglass spoke at the Seneca Falls Convention, arguing for women’s suffrage. Women of color like Sojourner Truth , Maria Stewart , and Frances E.W. Harper were major forces in the movement, working not just for women’s suffrage but for universal suffrage.

But despite the immense work of women of color for the women’s movement, the movement of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony eventually established itself as a movement specifically for white women, one that used racial animus as fuel for its work.

The 15th Amendment’s passage in 1870 , granting black men the right to vote, became a spur that politicized white women and turned them into suffragettes. Were they truly not going to be granted the vote before former slaves were?

“If educated women are not as fit to decide who shall be the rulers of this country, as ‘field hands,’ then where’s the use of culture, or any brain at all?” demanded one white woman who wrote in to Stanton and Anthony’s newspaper, the Revolution. “One might as well have been ‘born on the plantation.’” Black women were barred from some demonstrations or forced to walk behind white women in others.

Despite its racism, the women’s movement developed radical goals for its members. First-wavers fought not only for white women’s suffrage but also for equal opportunities to education and employment, and for the right to own property.

And as the movement developed, it began to turn to the question of reproductive rights. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the US, in defiance of a New York state law that forbade the distribution of contraception. She would later go on to establish the clinic that became Planned Parenthood.

In 1920, Congress passed the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. (In theory, it granted the right to women of all races, but in practice, it remained difficult for black women to vote , especially in the South.)

The 19th Amendment was the grand legislative achievement of the first wave. Although individual groups continued to work — for reproductive freedom, for equality in education and employment, for voting rights for black women — the movement as a whole began to splinter. It no longer had a unified goal with strong cultural momentum behind it, and it would not find another until the second wave began to take off in the 1960s.

Further reading: first-wave feminism

A Vindication of the Rights of Women , Mary Wollstonecraft (1791)

Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions , Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1848)

Ain’t I a Woman? Sojourner Truth (1851)

Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors: Is the Classification Sound? A Discussion on the Laws Concerning the Property of Married Women , Frances Power Cobbe (1868)

Remarks by Susan B. Anthony at her trial for illegal voting (1873)

A Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf (1929)

Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings , edited by Miriam Schneir (1994)

The second wave: 1963 to the 1980s

The second wave of feminism begins with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique , which came out in 1963. There were prominent feminist thinkers before Friedan who would come to be associated with the second wave — most importantly Simone de Beauvoir, whose Second Sex came out in France in 1949 and in the US in 1953 — but The Feminine Mystique was a phenomenon. It sold 3 million copies in three years .

The Feminine Mystique rails against “the problem that has no name”: the systemic sexism that taught women that their place was in the home and that if they were unhappy as housewives, it was only because they were broken and perverse. “I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn’t have an orgasm waxing the kitchen floor,” Friedan later quipped .

But, she argued, the fault didn’t truly lie with women, but rather with the world that refused to allow them to exercise their creative and intellectual faculties. Women were right to be unhappy; they were being ripped off.

The Feminine Mystique was not revolutionary in its thinking, as many of Friedan’s ideas were already being discussed by academics and feminist intellectuals. Instead, it was revolutionary in its reach . It made its way into the hands of housewives, who gave it to their friends, who passed it along through a whole chain of well-educated middle-class white women with beautiful homes and families. And it gave them permission to be angry.

And once those 3 million readers realized that they were angry, feminism once again had cultural momentum behind it. It had a unifying goal, too: not just political equality, which the first-wavers had fought for, but social equality.

“The personal is political,” said the second-wavers. (The phrase cannot be traced back to any individual woman but was popularized by Carol Hanisch .) They would go on to argue that problems that seemed to be individual and petty — about sex, and relationships, and access to abortions, and domestic labor — were in fact systemic and political, and fundamental to the fight for women’s equality.

So the movement won some major legislative and legal victories: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 theoretically outlawed the gender pay gap; a series of landmark Supreme Court cases through the ’60s and ’70s gave married and unmarried women the right to use birth control; Title IX gave women the right to educational equality; and in 1973, Roe v. Wade guaranteed women reproductive freedom.

The second wave worked on getting women the right to hold credit cards under their own names and to apply for mortgages. It worked to outlaw marital rape, to raise awareness about domestic violence and build shelters for women fleeing rape and domestic violence. It worked to name and legislate against sexual harassment in the workplace.

But perhaps just as central was the second wave’s focus on changing the way society thought about women. The second wave cared deeply about the casual, systemic sexism ingrained into society — the belief that women’s highest purposes were domestic and decorative, and the social standards that reinforced that belief — and in naming that sexism and ripping it apart.

The second wave cared about racism too, but it could be clumsy in working with people of color. As the women’s movement developed, it was rooted in the anti-capitalist and anti-racist civil rights movements, but black women increasingly found themselves alienated from the central platforms of the mainstream women’s movement.

The Feminine Mystique and its “problem that has no name” was specifically for white middle-class women: Women who had to work to support themselves experienced their oppression very differently from women who were socially discouraged from working.

Earning the right to work outside the home was not a major concern for black women, many of whom had to work outside the home anyway. And while black women and white women both advocated for reproductive freedom, black women wanted to fight not just for the right to contraception and abortions but also to stop the forced sterilization of people of color and people with disabilities , which was not a priority for the mainstream women’s movement. In response, some black feminists decamped from feminism to create womanism. (“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender,” Alice Walker wrote in 1983 .)

Even with its limited scope, second-wave feminism at its height was plenty radical enough to scare people — hence the myth of the bra burners. Despite the popular story, there was no mass burning of bras among second-wave feminists .

But women did gather together in 1968 to protest the Miss America pageant and its demeaning, patriarchal treatment of women. And as part of the protest, participants ceremoniously threw away objects that they considered to be symbols of women’s objectification, including bras and copies of Playboy.

That the Miss America protest has long lingered in the popular imagination as a bra-burning, and that bra-burning has become a metonym for postwar American feminism, says a lot about the backlash to the second wave that would soon ensue.

In the 1980s, the comfortable conservatism of the Reagan era managed to successfully position second-wave feminists as humorless, hairy-legged shrews who cared only about petty bullshit like bras instead of real problems, probably to distract themselves from the loneliness of their lives, since no man would ever want a ( shudder ) feminist.

“I don’t think of myself as a feminist,” a young woman told Susan Bolotin in 1982 for the New York Times Magazine. “Not for me, but for the guy next door that would mean that I’m a lesbian and I hate men.”

Another young woman chimed in, agreeing. “Look around and you’ll see some happy women, and then you’ll see all these bitter, bitter women,” she said. “The unhappy women are all feminists. You’ll find very few happy, enthusiastic, relaxed people who are ardent supporters of feminism.”

That image of feminists as angry and man-hating and lonely would become canonical as the second wave began to lose its momentum, and it continues to haunt the way we talk about feminism today. It would also become foundational to the way the third wave would position itself as it emerged.

Further reading: second-wave feminism

The Second Sex , Simone de Beauvoir (1949)

The Feminine Mystique , Betty Friedan (1963)

Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape , Susan Brownmiller (1975)

Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination , Catharine A. MacKinnon (1979)

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination , Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar (1979)

Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism , bell hooks (1981)

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose , Alice Walker (1983)

Sister Outsider , Audre Lorde (1984)

The third wave: 1991(?) to ????

It is almost impossible to talk with any clarity about the third wave because few people agree on exactly what the third wave is, when it started, or if it’s still going on. “The confusion surrounding what constitutes third wave feminism,” writes feminist scholar Elizabeth Evans , “is in some respects its defining feature.”

But generally, the beginning of the third wave is pegged to two things: the Anita Hill case in 1991, and the emergence of the riot grrrl groups in the music scene of the early 1990s.

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her at work. Thomas made his way to the Supreme Court anyway, but Hill’s testimony sparked an avalanche of sexual harassment complaints , in much the same way that last fall’s Harvey Weinstein accusations were followed by a litany of sexual misconduct accusations against other powerful men.

And Congress’s decision to send Thomas to the Supreme Court despite Hill’s testimony led to a national conversation about the overrepresentation of men in national leadership roles. The following year, 1992, would be dubbed “ the Year of the Woman ” after 24 women won seats in the House of Representatives and three more won seats in the Senate.

And for the young women watching the Anita Hill case in real time, it would become an awakening. “I am not a postfeminism feminist,” declared Rebecca Walker (Alice Walker’s daughter) for Ms. after watching Thomas get sworn into the Supreme Court. “I am the Third Wave.”

Early third-wave activism tended to involve fighting against workplace sexual harassment and working to increase the number of women in positions of power. Intellectually, it was rooted in the work of theorists of the ’80s: Kimberlé Crenshaw , a scholar of gender and critical race theory who coined the term intersectionality to describe the ways in which different forms of oppression intersect; and Judith Butler , who argued that gender and sex are separate and that gender is performative. Crenshaw and Butler’s combined influence would become foundational to the third wave’s embrace of the fight for trans rights as a fundamental part of intersectional feminism.

Aesthetically, the third wave is deeply influenced by the rise of the riot grrrls, the girl groups who stomped their Doc Martens onto the music scene in the 1990s.

“BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives,” wrote Bikini Kill lead singer Kathleen Hanna in the Riot Grrrl Manifesto in 1991. “BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.”

The word girl here points to one of the major differences between second- and third-wave feminism. Second-wavers fought to be called women rather than girls : They weren’t children, they were fully grown adults, and they demanded to be treated with according dignity. There should be no more college girls or coeds: only college women, learning alongside college men.

But third-wavers liked being girls. They embraced the word; they wanted to make it empowering, even threatening — hence grrrl . And as it developed, that trend would continue: The third wave would go on to embrace all kinds of ideas and language and aesthetics that the second wave had worked to reject: makeup and high heels and high-femme girliness.

In part, the third-wave embrace of girliness was a response to the anti-feminist backlash of the 1980s, the one that said the second-wavers were shrill, hairy, and unfeminine and that no man would ever want them. And in part, it was born out of a belief that the rejection of girliness was in itself misogynistic: girliness, third-wavers argued, was not inherently less valuable than masculinity or androgyny.

And it was rooted in a growing belief that effective feminism had to recognize both the dangers and the pleasures of the patriarchal structures that create the beauty standard and that it was pointless to punish and censure individual women for doing things that brought them pleasure.

Third-wave feminism had an entirely different way of talking and thinking than the second wave did — but it also lacked the strong cultural momentum that was behind the grand achievements of the second wave. (Even the Year of Women turned out to be a blip, as the number of women entering national politics plateaued rapidly after 1992.)

The third wave was a diffuse movement without a central goal, and as such, there’s no single piece of legislation or major social change that belongs to the third wave the way the 19th Amendment belongs to the first wave or Roe v. Wade belongs to the second.

Depending on how you count the waves, that might be changing now, as the #MeToo moment develops with no signs of stopping — or we might be kicking off an entirely new wave.

Further reading: third-wave feminism

Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity , Judith Butler (1990)

The Beauty Myth , Naomi Woolf (1991)

“ Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color ,” Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991)

“ The Riot GRRRL Manifesto ,” Kathleen Hanna (1991)

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women , Susan Faludi (1991)

The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order , edited by Marcelle Karp and‎ Debbie Stoller (1999)

Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics , bell hooks (2000)

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture , Ariel Levy (2005)

The present day: a fourth wave?

Feminists have been anticipating the arrival of a fourth wave since at least 1986, when a letter writer to the Wilson Quarterly opined that the fourth wave was already building. Internet trolls actually tried to launch their own fourth wave in 2014 , planning to create a “pro-sexualization, pro-skinny, anti-fat” feminist movement that the third wave would revile, ultimately miring the entire feminist community in bloody civil war. (It didn’t work out.)

But over the past few years, as #MeToo and Time’s Up pick up momentum, the Women’s March floods Washington with pussy hats every year, and a record number of women prepare to run for office , it’s beginning to seem that the long-heralded fourth wave might actually be here.

While a lot of media coverage of #MeToo describes it as a movement dominated by third-wave feminism, it actually seems to be centered in a movement that lacks the characteristic diffusion of the third wave. It feels different.

“Maybe the fourth wave is online,” said feminist Jessica Valenti in 2009 , and that’s come to be one of the major ideas of fourth-wave feminism. Online is where activists meet and plan their activism, and it’s where feminist discourse and debate takes place. Sometimes fourth-wave activism can even take place on the internet (the “#MeToo” tweets), and sometimes it takes place on the streets (the Women’s March), but it’s conceived and propagated online.

As such, the fourth wave’s beginnings are often loosely pegged to around 2008, when Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were firmly entrenched in the cultural fabric and feminist blogs like Jezebel and Feministing were spreading across the web. By 2013, the idea that we had entered a fourth wave was widespread enough that it was getting written up in the Guardian . “What’s happening now feels like something new again,” wrote Kira Cochrane.

Currently, the fourth-wavers are driving the movement behind #MeToo and Time’s Up, but in previous years they were responsible for the cultural impact of projects like Emma Sulkowicz’s Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) , in which a rape victim at Columbia University committed to carrying their mattress around campus until the university expelled their rapist.

The trending hashtag #YesAllWomen after the UC Santa Barbara shooting was a fourth-wave campaign, and so was the trending hashtag #StandWithWendy when Wendy Davis filibustered a Texas abortion law. Arguably, the SlutWalks that began in 2011 — in protest of the idea that the way to prevent rape is for women to “stop dressing like sluts” — are fourth-wave campaigns.

Like all of feminism, the fourth wave is not a monolith. It means different things to different people. But these tentpole positions that Bustle identified as belonging to fourth-wave feminism in 2015 do tend to hold true for a lot of fourth-wavers; namely, that fourth-wave feminism is queer, sex-positive, trans-inclusive, body-positive, and digitally driven. (Bustle also claims that fourth-wave feminism is anti-misandry, but given the glee with which fourth-wavers across the internet riff on ironic misandry , that may be more prescriptivist than descriptivist on their part.)

And now the fourth wave has begun to hold our culture’s most powerful men accountable for their behavior. It has begun a radical critique of the systems of power that allow predators to target women with impunity.

Further reading: fourth-wave feminism

The Purity Myth , Jessica Valenti (2009)

How to Be a Woman , Caitlin Moran (2012)

Men Explain Things to Me , Rebecca Solnit (2014)

We Should All Be Feminists , Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014)

Bad Feminist , Roxane Gay (2014)

So is there a generational war between feminists?

As the fourth wave begins to establish itself, and as #MeToo goes on, we’ve begun to develop a narrative that says the fourth wave’s biggest obstacles are its predecessors — the feminists of the second wave.

“The backlash to #MeToo is indeed here,” wrote Jezebel’s Stassa Edwards in January , “and it’s liberal second-wave feminism.”

Writing with a lot less nuance, Katie Way, the reporter who broke the Aziz Ansari story , smeared one of her critics as a “burgundy-lipstick, bad-highlights, second-wave-feminist has-been.”

And there certainly are second-wave feminists pushing a #MeToo backlash. “If you spread your legs because he said ‘be nice to me and I’ll give you a job in a movie’ then I’m afraid that’s tantamount to consent,” second-wave feminist icon Germaine Greer remarked as the accusations about Weinstein mounted, “and it’s too late now to start whingeing about that.” (Greer, who has also said on the record that she doesn’t believe trans women are “real women,” has become something of a poster child for the worst impulses of the second wave. Die a hero or live long enough to become a villain, etc.)

But some of the most prominent voices speaking out against #MeToo, like Katie Roiphe and Bari Weiss , are too young to have been part of the second wave. Roiphe is a Gen X-er who was pushing back against both the second and the third waves in the 1990s and has managed to stick around long enough to push back against the fourth wave today. Weiss, 33, is a millennial. Other prominent #MeToo critics, like Caitlin Flanagan and Daphne Merkin , are old enough to have been around for the second wave but have always been on the conservative end of the spectrum.

“In the 1990s and 2000s, second-wavers were cast as the shrill, militant, man-hating mothers and grandmothers who got in the way of their daughters’ sexual liberation. Now they’re the dull, hidebound relics who are too timid to push for the real revolution,” writes Sady Doyle at Elle . “And of course, while young women have been telling their forebears to shut up and fade into the sunset, older women have been stereotyping and slamming younger activists as feather-headed, boy-crazy pseudo-feminists who squander their mothers’ feminist gains by taking them for granted.”

It is not particularly useful to think of the #MeToo debates as a war between generations of feminists — or, more creepily, as some sort of Freudian Electra complex in action. And the data from our polling shows that these supposed generational gaps largely don’t exist . It is perhaps more useful to think of it as part of what has always been the history of feminism: passionate disagreement between different schools of thought, which history will later smooth out into a single overarching “wave” of discourse (if the wave metaphor holds on that long).

The history of feminism is filled with radicals and progressives and liberals and centrists. It’s filled with splinter movements and reactionary counter-movements. That’s part of what it means to be both an intellectual tradition and a social movement, and right now feminism is functioning as both with a gorgeous and monumental vitality. Rather than devouring their own, feminists should recognize the enormous work that each wave has done for the movement, and get ready to keep doing more work.

After all, the past is past. We’re in the middle of the third wave now.

Or is it the fourth?

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Mary Wollstonecraft’s Contribution to Feminism

Mary Wollstonecraft’s Contribution to Feminism

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 4, 2016 • ( 4 )

The 18th century British writer Mary Wollstonecraft ‘s advocacy of women’s equality and critiques of conventional feminity have been significant in the development of feminism . Influenced by European Enlightenment, Mary Wollstonecraft’s seminal work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) questioned the socialising process in the subordination of women. Being one of the pioneers who radically deviated from the concept of femininity as natural/biological to the view of femininity as social, Wollstonecraft observed that the social norms, values, law and cultural practices demanded, imposed and recommended particular forms of behaviour from women; and not conforming to these norms resulted in their being treated as witches or monsters. Thus women consented to feminine roles and to their own subordination. She asserted that the “so called feminine attributes” such as love for fashion and jewellery, are indoctrinated by society, such that women come to assimilate these values in order to fit into the category of the “feminine”.

Written in response to a French report that argued that women should be given only domestic education, Rights of Woman attacks sexual double standards and posits that women should be given .an education commensurate with their position in the society. Attacking male thinkers like Rousseau who argued against women’s education, Wollstonecraft emphasized the social and communal benefits of educating women. Educated women would be better companions to their husbands and will be able to bring up children in a better way.Being empowered by reason and rationality would also help them from being susceptible to excessive emotions and sensibility.

Though Wollstonecraft was radical in seeking education as a means of “improving” the women’s conditions in society, she did  not intend to overturn the gender hierarchies. However it is to be noted that Wollstonecraft laid the foundations of feminism, two centuries before a more vigorous and organised struggle for women’s social, cultural and political emancipation happened – an emancipation for which, education indeed was the springboard.

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Essay on Feminism | 500+ Words Long

Feminism is a powerful movement that has played a significant role in shaping our world. It is a belief in the equal rights, opportunities, and treatment of all genders. In this essay, I will argue for the importance of feminism, a movement that has made significant strides towards gender equality. By exploring its history, examining its goals, and highlighting its impact on society, I aim to convey why feminism is vital for a fair and just world.

The History of Feminism

Feminism has a long and diverse history that dates back to the 19th century. It emerged as a response to the widespread inequality and discrimination faced by women. Early feminists, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, fought for women’s suffrage, paving the way for women to have the right to vote. The history of feminism is marked by countless individuals and movements that have pushed for gender equality and challenged societal norms.

Equality for All Genders

One of the core principles of feminism is the belief in equality for all genders. It acknowledges that discrimination and inequality affect not only women but also people of all gender identities. Feminism seeks to break down traditional gender roles and stereotypes, allowing everyone to pursue their interests and dreams without limitations. It advocates for a society where every person’s worth and potential are recognized, regardless of their gender.

Empowerment and Choice

Feminism empowers individuals to make choices about their lives, bodies, and careers based on their own desires and goals. Moreover, it emphasizes that women and all individuals should have control over their bodies, including decisions about reproductive health. Consequently, by advocating for choice, feminism ensures that people can lead fulfilling lives that align with their values and aspirations

Challenging Gender Stereotypes

Feminism challenges harmful gender stereotypes that limit the potential of individuals. Stereotypes, such as the idea that women are less capable in STEM fields or that men should not express vulnerability, have long hindered progress. Feminism encourages society to break free from these stereotypes, allowing people to pursue their interests and talents regardless of societal expectations.

Addressing Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence, including domestic violence and sexual harassment, is a pressing issue that feminism addresses. It advocates for the safety and well-being of all individuals, working to create a world where no one has to live in fear of violence due to their gender. Feminism has been instrumental in raising awareness about these issues and pushing for legal and social changes to protect survivors.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a crucial concept within feminism, recognizing that individuals face overlapping forms of discrimination and privilege based on factors such as race, class, sexuality, and more. Feminism strives to be inclusive and intersectional, acknowledging that the fight for gender equality is interconnected with broader struggles for social justice. This approach ensures that feminism is accessible and relevant to people from diverse backgrounds.

Progress and Achievements

Over the years, feminism has achieved significant progress. Women’s suffrage, reproductive rights, and anti-discrimination laws are just a few examples of the victories won through feminist activism. Women have broken barriers in various fields, from science to politics to sports, showcasing the immense potential that can be unlocked when gender equality is pursued.

Ongoing Challenges

While feminism has made remarkable progress, challenges still exist. Gender pay gaps, underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, and violence against women continue to be issues that require attention and action. Feminism remains a driving force in addressing these challenges and pushing for a more equitable society.

Conclusion of Essay on Feminism

In conclusion, feminism is a powerful movement that promotes equality, empowerment, and justice for all genders. It has a rich history of challenging discrimination, advocating for equal rights, and empowering individuals to make choices about their lives. Feminism’s impact on society is undeniable, as it has brought about significant progress while continuing to address ongoing challenges. By acknowledging and supporting feminism, we contribute to a world where every person can live free from discrimination and fully realize their potential. Feminism is not just a movement; it is a vision for a more equitable and inclusive future that benefits us all.

Also Check: List of 500+ Topics for Writing Essay

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