feminism movement essay

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.

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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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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.

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

Unit V: Historical and Contemporary Feminist Social Movements

19th Century Feminist Movements

What has come to be called the first wave of the feminist movement began in the mid 19th century and lasted until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. White middle-class first wave feminists in the 19th century to early 20th century, such as suffragist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, primarily focused on women’s suffrage (the right to vote), striking down coverture laws, and gaining access to education and employment. These goals are famously enshrined in the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, which is the resulting document of the first women’s rights convention in the United States in 1848.

Image of women marching in London, 1908, with signs advocating for women’s right to vote.

Demanding women’s enfranchisement, the abolition of coverture, and access to employment and education were quite radical demands at the time. These demands confronted the ideology of the cult of true womanhood , summarized in four key tenets—piety, purity, submission and domesticity—which held that white women were rightfully and naturally located in the private sphere of the household and not fit for public, political participation or labor in the waged economy. However, this emphasis on confronting the ideology of the cult of true womanhood was shaped by the white middle-class standpoint of the leaders of the movement. As we discussed in Chapter 3, the cult of true womanhood was an ideology of white womanhood that systematically denied black and working-class women access to the category of “women,” because working-class and black women, by necessity, had to labor outside of the home.

The white middle-class leadership of the first wave movement shaped the priorities of the movement, often excluding the concerns and participation of working-class women and women of color. For example, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) in order to break from other suffragists who supported the passage of the 15th Amendment, which would give African American men the right to vote before women. Stanton and Anthony privileged white women’s rights instead of creating solidarities across race and class groups. Accordingly, they saw women’s suffrage as the central goal of the women’s rights movement. For example, in the first issue of her newspaper, The Revolution , Susan B. Anthony wrote, “We shall show that the ballot will secure for woman equal place and equal wages in the world of work; that it will open to her the schools, colleges, professions, and all the opportunities and advantages of life; that in her hand it will be a moral power to stay the tide of crime and misery on every side” (cited by Davis 1981: 73). Meanwhile, working-class women and women of color knew that mere access to voting did not overturn class and race inequalities. As feminist activist and scholar Angela Davis (1981) writes, working-class women “…were seldom moved by the suffragists’ promise that the vote would permit them to become equal to their men—their exploited, suffering men” (Davis 1981: 74-5). Furthermore, the largest suffrage organization, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)—a descendent of the National Women Suffrage Association—barred the participation of Black women suffragists in its organization.

Although the first wave movement was largely defined and led by middle class white women, there was significant overlap between it and the abolitionist movement —which sought to end slavery—and the racial justice movement following the end of the Civil War. Historian Nancy Cott (2000) argues that, in some ways, both movements were largely about having self-ownership and control over one’s body. For slaves, that meant the freedom from lifelong, unpaid, forced labor, as well as freedom from the sexual assault that many enslaved Black women suffered from their masters. For married white women, it meant recognition as people in the face of the law and the ability to refuse their husbands’ sexual advances. White middle-class abolitionists often made analogies between slavery and marriage, as abolitionist Antoinette Brown wrote in 1853 that, “The wife owes service and labor to her husband as much and as absolutely as the slave does to his master” (Brown, cited. in Cott 2000: 64). This analogy between marriage and slavery had historical resonance at the time, but it problematically conflated the unique experience of the racialized oppression of slavery that African American women faced with a very different type of oppression that white women faced under coverture. This illustrates quite well Angela Davis’ (1983) argument that while white women abolitionists and feminists of the time made important contributions to anti-slavery campaigns, they often failed to understand the uniqueness and severity of slave women’s lives and the complex system of chattel slavery.

Black activists, writers, newspaper publishers, and academics moved between the racial justice and feminist movements, arguing for inclusion in the first wave feminist movement and condemning slavery and Jim Crow laws that maintained racial segregation. Sojourner Truth’s famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, which has been attributed to the Akron Women’s Convention in 1851, captured this contentious linkage between the first wave women’s movement and the abolitionist movement well. In her speech, she critiqued the exclusion of black women from the women’s movement while simultaneously condemning the injustices of slavery:

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me!….I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Feminist historian Nell Painter (1996) has questioned the validity of this representation of the speech, arguing that white suffragists dramatically changed its content and title. This illustrates that certain social actors with power can construct the story and possibly misrepresent actors with less power and social movements.

Photographic portrait of Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

Despite their marginalization, Black women emerged as passionate and powerful leaders. Ida B. Wells , a particularly influential activist who participated in the movement for women’s suffrage, was a founding member of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a journalist, and the author of numerous pamphlets and articles exposing the violent lynching of thousands of African Americans in the Reconstruction period (the period following the Civil War). Wells argued that lynching in the Reconstruction Period was a systematic attempt to maintain racial inequality, despite the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868 (which held that African Americans were citizens and could not be discriminated against based on their race) (Wells 1893). Additionally, thousands of African American women were members of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, which was pro-suffrage, but did not receive recognition from the predominantly middle-class, white National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

The passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 provided a test for the argument that the granting of women’s right to vote would give them unfettered access to the institutions they had been denied from, as well as equality with men. Quite plainly, this argument was proven wrong, as had been the case with the passage of the 18th Amendment followed by a period of backlash. The formal legal endorsement of the doctrine of “separate but equal” with Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the complex of Jim Crow laws in states across the country, and the unchecked violence of the Ku Klux Klan, prevented Black women and men from access to voting, education, employment, and public facilities. While equal rights existed in the abstract realm of the law under the 18th and 19th amendments, the on-the-ground reality of continued racial and gender inequality was quite different.

Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies by Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, Sonny Nordmarken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Home › Feminism: An Essay

Feminism: An Essay

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 27, 2016 • ( 6 )

Feminism as a movement gained potential in the twentieth century, marking the culmination of two centuries’ struggle for cultural roles and socio-political rights — a struggle which first found its expression in Mary Wollstonecraft ‘s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The movement gained increasing prominence across three phases/waves — the first wave (political), the second wave (cultural) and the third wave (academic). Incidentally Toril Moi also classifies the feminist movement into three phases — the female (biological), the feminist (political) and the feminine (cultural).

The first wave of feminism, in the 19th and 20th centuries, began in the US and the UK as a struggle for equality and property rights for women, by suffrage groups and activist organisations. These feminists fought against chattel marriages and for polit ical and economic equality. An important text of the first wave is Virginia Woolf ‘s A Room of One’s Own (1929), which asserted the importance of woman’s independence, and through the character Judith (Shakespeare’s fictional sister), explicated how the patriarchal society prevented women from realising their creative potential. Woolf also inaugurated the debate of language being gendered — an issue which was later dealt by Dale Spender who wrote Man Made Language (1981), Helene Cixous , who introduced ecriture feminine (in The Laugh of the Medusa ) and Julia Kristeva , who distinguished between the symbolic and the semiotic language.

The second wave of feminism in the 1960s and ’70s, was characterized by a critique of patriarchy in constructing the cultural identity of woman. Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1949) famously stated, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman” – a statement that highlights the fact that women have always been defined as the “Other”, the lacking, the negative, on whom Freud attributed “ penis-envy .” A prominent motto of this phase, “The Personal is the political” was the result of the awareness .of the false distinction between women’s domestic and men’s public spheres. Transcending their domestic and personal spaces, women began to venture into the hitherto male dominated terrains of career and public life. Marking its entry into the academic realm, the presence of feminism was reflected in journals, publishing houses and academic disciplines.

Mary Ellmann ‘s Thinking about Women (1968), Kate Millett ‘s Sexual Politics (1969), Betty Friedan ‘s The Feminine Mystique (1963) and so on mark the major works of the phase. Millett’s work specifically depicts how western social institutions work as covert ways of manipulating power, and how this permeates into literature, philosophy etc. She undertakes a thorough critical understanding of the portrayal of women in the works of male authors like DH Lawrence, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller and Jean Genet.

In the third wave (post 1980), Feminism has been actively involved in academics with its interdisciplinary associations with Marxism , Psychoanalysis and Poststructuralism , dealing with issues such as language, writing, sexuality, representation etc. It also has associations with alternate sexualities, postcolonialism ( Linda Hutcheon and Spivak ) and Ecological Studies ( Vandana Shiva )

Elaine Showalter , in her “ Towards a Feminist Poetics ” introduces the concept of gynocriticism , a criticism of gynotexts, by women who are not passive consumers but active producers of meaning. The gynocritics construct a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature, and focus on female subjectivity, language and literary career. Patricia Spacks ‘ The Female Imagination , Showalter’s A Literature of their Own , Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar ‘s The Mad Woman in the Attic are major gynocritical texts.

The present day feminism in its diverse and various forms, such as liberal feminism, cultural/ radical feminism, black feminism/womanism, materialist/neo-marxist feminism, continues its struggle for a better world for women. Beyond literature and literary theory, Feminism also found radical expression in arts, painting ( Kiki Smith , Barbara Kruger ), architecture( Sophia Hayden the architect of Woman’s Building ) and sculpture (Kate Mllett’s Naked Lady).

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

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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.”

Machinists working for Ford Motors attending a Women's Conference on equal rights on June 28, 1968.

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.

Woman’s suffrage march in New York City circa 1900.

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.

Cartoon representing feminist speaker denouncing men at the first Women's Rights Convention in July 1848, in Seneca Falls, NY, where the American feminist movement was launched.

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?

Susan B. Anthony sitting at her desk, circa 1868.

“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.)

Suffragettes hold a jubilee celebrating their victory on August 31, 1920.

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.

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.

Betty Friedan (top row, fourth from left) with feminists at her home in June 7, 1973. The gathering was described as a session of the International Feminist Conference and included Yoko Ono (second row, center).

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.

Nurse showing a diaphragm to birth control patients, in 1967.

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 .)

Women’s Liberation march at Copley Square plaza in Boston on April 17, 1971.

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.

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.

Anita Hill testified in the Caucus room of the Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on October 11, 1991.

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.”

Thousands of demonstrators gathered for the March for Women’s Lives, sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW), in Washington DC, on April 5, 1992.

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.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw speaks onstage at 2018 Women's March Los Angeles, California, on January 20, 2018.

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.

Bikini Kill and Joan Jett (center), 1994.

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.

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.

Woman’s March in Washington DC, on January 21, 2017.

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.

Beyoncé in front of a sign that says FEMINIST

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.

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).

Women’s March in Washington, DC on Saturday January 21, 2017.

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?

Women's March in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2018.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 8, 2022 | Original: February 28, 2019

Feminism, a belief in the political, economic and cultural equality of women, has roots in the earliest eras of human civilization. It is typically separated into three waves: first wave feminism, dealing with property rights and the right to vote; second wave feminism, focusing on equality and anti-discrimination, and third wave feminism, which started in the 1990s as a backlash to the second wave’s perceived privileging of white, straight women.

From Ancient Greece to the fight for women’s suffrage to women’s marches and the #MeToo movement, the history of feminism is as long as it is fascinating.

Early Feminists

In his classic Republic , Plato advocated that women possess “natural capacities” equal to men for governing and defending ancient Greece . Not everyone agreed with Plato; when the women of ancient Rome staged a massive protest over the Oppian Law, which restricted women’s access to gold and other goods, Roman consul Marcus Porcius Cato argued, “As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors!” (Despite Cato’s fears, the law was repealed.)

In The Book of the City of Ladies , 15th-century writer Christine de Pizan protested misogyny and the role of women in the Middle Ages . Years later, during the Enlightenment , writers and philosophers like Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Mary Wollstonecraft , author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , argued vigorously for greater equality for women.

READ MORE: Milestones in U.S. Women's History

Abigail Adams, first lady to President John Adams, specifically saw access to education, property and the ballot as critical to women’s equality. In letters to her husband John Adams , Abigail Adams warned, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice.”

The “Rebellion” that Adams threatened began in the 19th century, as calls for greater freedom for women joined with voices demanding the end of slavery . Indeed, many women leaders of the abolitionist movement found an unsettling irony in advocating for African Americans rights that they themselves could not enjoy.

First Wave Feminism: Women’s Suffrage and The Seneca Falls Convention

At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention , abolitionists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott boldly proclaimed in their now-famous Declaration of Sentiments that “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal.” Controversially, the feminists demanded “their sacred right to the elective franchise,” or the right to vote.

Many attendees thought voting rights for women were beyond the pale, but were swayed when Frederick Douglass argued that he could not accept the right to vote as a Black man if women could not also claim that right. When the resolution passed, the women’s suffrage movement began in earnest, and dominated much of feminism for several decades.

READ MORE: American Women's Suffrage Came Down to One Man's Vote

The 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote

Slowly, suffragettes began to claim some successes: In 1893, New Zealand became the first sovereign state giving women the right to vote, followed by Australia in 1902 and Finland in 1906. In a limited victory, the United Kingdom granted suffrage to women over 30 in 1918.

In the United States, women’s participation in World War I proved to many that they were deserving of equal representation. In 1920, thanks largely to the work of suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt , the 19th Amendment passed. American women finally earned the right to vote. With these rights secured, feminists embarked on what some scholars refer to as the “second wave” of feminism.

Women And Work

Women began to enter the workplace in greater numbers following the Great Depression , when many male breadwinners lost their jobs, forcing women to find “ women’s work ” in lower paying but more stable careers like housework, teaching and secretarial roles.

During World War II , many women actively participated in the military or found work in industries previously reserved for men, making Rosie the Riveter a feminist icon. Following the civil rights movement , women sought greater participation in the workplace, with equal pay at the forefront of their efforts

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was among the first efforts to confront this still-relevant issue.

Second Wave Feminism: Women's Liberation

But cultural obstacles remained, and with the 1963 publication of The Feminine Mystique , Betty Friedan —who later co-founded the National Organization for Women —argued that women were still relegated to unfulfilling roles in homemaking and child care. By this time, many people had started referring to feminism as “women’s liberation.” In 1971, feminist Gloria Steinem joined Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug in founding the National Women’s Political Caucus. Steinem’s Ms. Magazine became the first magazine to feature feminism as a subject on its cover in 1976.

The Equal Rights Amendment , which sought legal equality for women and banned discrimination on the basis of sex, was passed by Congress in 1972 (but, following a conservative backlash, was never ratified by enough states to become law). One year later, feminists celebrated the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade , the landmark ruling that guaranteed a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

READ MORE: Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century

Third Wave Feminism: Who Benefits From the Feminist Movement?

Critics have argued that the benefits of the feminist movement , especially the second wave, are largely limited to white, college-educated women, and that feminism has failed to address the concerns of women of color, lesbians, immigrants and religious minorities. Even in the 19th century, Sojourner Truth lamented racial distinctions in women’s status in a speech before the 1851 Ohio Women's Rights Convention. She was later quoted as saying:

In fact, contemporaneous reports of Truth’s speech did not include the words “Ain’t I a Woman?” and quoted Truth in standard English. The distortion of Truth's words in later years reflected the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent. Truth was, in fact, a New Yorker.

#MeToo and Women’s Marches

By the 2010s, feminists pointed to prominent cases of sexual assault and “rape culture” as emblematic of the work still to be done in combating misogyny and ensuring women have equal rights. The #MeToo movement gained new prominence in October 2017, when the New York Times published a damning investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against influential film producer Harvey Weinstein. Many more women came forward with allegations against other powerful men—including President Donald Trump.

On January 21, 2017, the first full day of Trump’s presidency, hundreds of thousands of people joined the Women’s March on Washington in D.C., a massive protest aimed at the new administration and the perceived threat it represented to reproductive, civil and human rights. It was not limited to Washington: Over 3 million people in cities around the world held simultaneous demonstrations, providing feminists with a high-profile platforms for advocating on behalf of full rights for all women worldwide.

Women in World History Curriculum Women's history, feminist history, Making History , The Institute of Historical Research A Brief History of Feminism, Oxford Dictionaries Four Waves of Feminism, Pacific Magazine, Pacific University

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Women, Gender, and Families of Color

This essay is part of our online special issue honoring bell hooks

bell hooks: Feminism as the Transformational Work of Love

By Elizabeth Ann Bartlett

In her groundbreaking essay “Feminism: A Transformational Politic,” bell hooks boldly declares, “Embedded in the commitment to feminist revolution is the challenge to love” (hooks 1989, 26). These words, and her recognition of love as the defining quality of feminism, resonated with me immediately and drew me deeply to her work. This was the message I had found so compelling in the work of other resistance writers and in my own deep desire for justice in the world. Popular misconceptions of feminism have miscast feminism as a hatred of men, a resentful complaint, and/or a desire for equal access to power and position in the patriarchal, capitalist hierarchy. But the feminism I know and love works toward the transformation of systems of domination and oppression to a world of justice, solidarity, and love. This is the feminism bell hooks articulated so well.

Hooks defined feminism as “a struggle to end sexist oppression . . . [that] is necessarily a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture” (hooks 1984, 24). As such, it requires a commitment to restructure society to one that prioritizes people over profit. Feminism demands that we expand our concerns to the collective, recognizing that our commitment to fighting oppressions extends well beyond our own lives to any and all who are oppressed (hooks 1984). Thus, it requires a generous love toward the lives and well-being of all. Hooks knew love to be the foundation that sustains the work of creating a world without domination. She emphasized that every great movement for social justice has been grounded in love as a transformative force. “It was always love that created the motivation for profound inner and outer transformation. Love was the force that empowered folks to resist domination and create new ways of living and being in the world” (hooks 2013 , 194-195).

With this work of ending domination as the centerpiece of feminist commitment comes the recognition that none of us is immune from acts of domination. As Audre Lorde reflected, “What woman here is so enamored of her own oppression that she cannot see her heelprint upon another woman’s face?” (Lorde 1984,132). Recognizing that we all have the capacity to oppress and dominate, hooks challenged each of us to examine our own participation in systems of domination. This “ongoing, critical self-examination and reflection about feminist practice, about how we live in the world” (hooks 1989,24) is one of the hallmarks of feminism. While essential, to be of use in the transformation of domination, it must be accompanied by incumbent action. Feminist solidarity requires that we each take responsibility for recognizing and rectifying those instances in which our actions contribute to the oppression and domination of others, as well as of ourselves, and that we continually make the effort to reduce our participation in all systems of domination—parent/child, racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, imperialism. For hooks, this is the very work of love. As she writes, “When women and men understand that working to eradicate patriarchal domination is a struggle rooted in the longing to make a world where everyone can live fully and freely, then we know our work to be a gesture of love” (hooks 1989,27). Conversely, as she reiterates so often in her work, “Anytime we do the work of love, we are doing the work of ending domination” (hooks 2009, 248).

The love that hooks invokes is demanding. As she says, it entails accepting “the fullness of our humanity, which then allows us to recognize the humanity of others” (hooks 2013, 198). That is not such an easy task. It requires us to recognize not only the goodness in those we cast as “the enemy,” but also our own shortcomings. As one of her inspirations, Sam Keen, writes, “When I know my shadow, I know that ‘they’ are like me. . . . [Those] I cast into the category of aliens are fellow humans who, like myself, are faulted, filled with contradictory impulses of love and hate, generosity, and the blind will to survive . . . ” (Keen 1983, 150). It is this recognition that galvanizes our refusal to engage in acts of domination, even against those who have oppressed and dominated us. It enables us instead, in hooks’s words, to “engage a practice of loving kindness, forgiveness, and compassion” (hooks 2013, 198).

Much of hooks’s work centered around defining and refining the meaning and practice of love in action in the world, culminating in her book All About Love. In it she articulates a feminist vision of society shaped by this ethic of love, in which citizens and neighbors value and protect the common good—a notion that seems to have disappeared from our national consciousness and will as of late, but that we sorely need in this time. How very different our society could be if we as a nation, as a world, lived by this love ethic. As hooks writes, “If all public policy was created in the spirit of love”—which for her required care, respect, honesty, commitment—“we would not have to worry about unemployment, homelessness, schools failing to teach children, or addiction” (hooks 2000, 98). And, I would add public health, health care for all, poverty, childcare, structural racism, the school to prison pipeline, gun violence, environmental destruction, and climate change. The list could go on and on. Imagine it: public policy created in the spirit of love. Hooks challenged us to do more than imagine; she inspires us to do the daily hard and rewarding work of creating this society and these relationships based in love.

This is the work of transformational love. This is the work of feminism. To that end, I conclude with hooks’s charge to us all: “Let us draw upon that love to heighten our awareness, deepen our compassion, intensify our courage, and strengthen our commitment” (hooks 1989, 27).

hooks, bell. 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.

___. 1989. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End Press.

___. 2000. All About Love: New Visions. New York: William Morrow & Co.

___. 2009. “Lorde: The Imagination of Justice.” In I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde , edited by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, 242-248. New York: Oxford U. Press.

___. 2013. Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Keen, Sam. 1983. The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press.

Elizabeth Ann Bartlett , Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she taught in the Political Science and WGSS departments for forty years. She is the author of numerous books and articles, including Rebellious Feminism: Camus’s Ethic of Rebellion and Feminist Thought, Making Waves: Grassroots Feminism in Duluth and Superior, and Journey of the Heart: Spiritual Insights on the Road to a Transplant. She has been active in feminist, peace and justice, Indigenous rights, and climate justice movements, and she currently serves as a spiritual companion.

Module 9: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

Feminist movements and feminist theory, learning outcomes.

Evaluate feminist movements in the U.S. and the strengths and weaknesses of each
Describe feminist theory

The Feminist Movement

One of the underlying issues that continues to plague women in the United States is misogyny . This is the hatred of or, aversion to, or prejudice against women. Over the years misogyny has evolved as an ideology that men are superior to women in all aspects of life. There have been multiple movements to try and fight this prejudice.

The feminist movement (also known as the women’s liberation movement, the women’s movement, or simply feminism) refers to a series of political campaigns for reform on a variety of issues that affect women’s quality of life. Although there have been feminist movements all over the world, this section will focus on the four eras of the feminist movement in the U.S.

First Wave Feminism (1848-1920)

The first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York (now known as the Seneca Falls Convention) from July 19-20, 1848, and advertised itself as “a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” While ther e, 68 women and 32 men–100 out of some 300 attendees–signed the Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, which was principally authored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

There was a notable connection between the movement to abolish slavery and the women’s rights movement. Frederick Douglass was heavily involved in both projects and believed it was essential for both groups to work together. As a fellow activistic the pursuit of equality and freedom from arbitrary discrimination, he was asked to speak at the Convention and to sign the Declaration of Sentiments. Despite this instance of movement kinship and intersectionality, it is important to note that no women of color attended the Seneca Convention.

In 1851, Lucy Gage led a women’s convention in Ohio where Sojourner Truth, who was born a slave and gave birth to five children in slavery, gave her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. Truth was born Isabella Bomfree in 1797 in New York, and was bought and sold four times during her lifetime. Her five-year-old son Peter was illegally sold into slavery in Alabama, though in 1827, with the help of an abolitionist family, she was able to buy her freedom and to successfully sue for the return of her son. [1] . She moved to New York City in 1828 and became part of the religious revivals then underway. Becoming an activist and speaker, in 1843 she renamed herself Sojourner Truth and dedicated her life to working toward the end of slavery and for women’s rights and temperance.

The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, was unpopular with suffragists because it did not include women in its guarantee of the right to vote irrespective of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Suffragette Susan B. Anthony (in)famously said, “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman,” but abolitionists and early Republicans were intent on prioritizing Black men’s suffrage over that of women [2] . This further complicated the suffragist movement, as many prominent participants opposed the 15th amendment, which earned them unhelpful support from Reconstruction-era racists who opposed suffrage for Black men.

A map showing only Norway, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, and the states of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado having equal suffrage in 1908, with Canada and Iceland having municipal suffrage, and Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England having every suffrage save parliamentary.

Figure 1. Woman’s suffrage around the world in 1908.

The 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment is the biggest success of the first wave, and it took 72 years to get it passed. As you can see from the map above, the United States was far behind other countries in terms of suffrage. Charlotte Woodward, one of 100 signers of the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments, was the only signatory still alive when the Nineteenth Amendment passed; however, Woodward was not well enough to vote. Another leading feminist from this early period was Margaret Sanger, who advocated for free and available birth control.

The limitations of this wave were related to its lack of inclusion of women of color and poor women. The movement was led by educated white women and often willfully ignored pressing issues for the rest of the women in the United States.

Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1980s)

Whereas the first wave of feminism was generally propelled by middle class, western, cisgender, white women, the second phase drew in women of color and women from developing nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity, and claiming “Women’s struggle is class struggle.” [3] Feminists spoke of women as a social class and coined phrases such as “the personal is political” and “identity politics” in an effort to demonstrate that race, class, and gender oppression are all related. They initiated a concentrated effort to rid society top-to-bottom of sexism, from children’s cartoons to the highest levels of government (Rampton 2015).

Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate from the first wave, lived to see the Food and Drug Administration approve the combined oral contraceptive pill in 1960, which was made available in 1961 (she died in 1966). President Kennedy made women’s rights a key issue of the New Frontier (a slate of ambitious domestic and foreign policy initiatives), and named women (such as Esther Peterson) to many high-ranking posts in his administration (1961-1963).

Like first wave feminists, second wave feminists were influenced by other contemporaneous social movements. During the 1960s, these included the civil rights movement, anti-war movement, environmental movement, student movement, gay rights movement, and the farm workers movement.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed by first wave feminists in 1923, and was premised on legal equality of the sexes. It was ratified by Congress in 1972 but failed to achieve the three-fourths majority in the states required to make it the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution. [4] . Although this effort was not successful, other gains were made, including increased attention to domestic violence and marital rape issues, the establishment of rape crisis and battered women’s shelters, and changes in child custody and divorce law.

In 1963 Betty Friedan, influenced by Simone De Beauvoir’ s 1947 book The Second Sex , wrote the bestselling The Feminine Mystique , in which she objected to the m ainstream media depiction of women and argued that narrowly reducing women to the status of homemakers limited their potential and wasted their talent. The idealized nuclear family that was prominently marketed at the time, she wrote, did not reflect authentic happiness and was in fact often unsatisfying and degrading for women. Friedan’s book is considered one of the most important founding texts of second wave feminism. In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) formed and proceeded to set an agenda for the feminist movement . Framed by a statement of purpose written by Friedan, the agenda began by proclaiming NOW’s goal to make possible women’s participation in all aspects of American life and to gain for them all the rights enjoyed by men.

Link to Learning

Watch this video clip to learn more about the success and impact of Friedan’s book .

Feminists engaged in protests and actions designed to bring awareness and change. For example, the New York Radical Women demonstrated at the 1968 Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City to bring attention to the contest’s—and society’s—exploitation of women. The protestors tossed instruments of women’s oppression, including high-heeled shoes, curlers, girdles, and bras, into a “freedom trash can.” News accounts incorrectly described the protest as a “bra burning,” which at the time was a way to demean and trivialize the issue of women’s rights (Gay 2018).

Other protests gave women a more significant voice in a male-dominated social, political, and entertainment climate. For decades, Ladies Home Journal had been a highly influential women’s magazine, managed and edited almost entirely by men. Men even wrote the advice columns and beauty articles. In 1970, protesters held a sit-in at the magazine’s offices, demanding that the company hire a woman editor-in-chief, add women and non-White writers at fair pay, and expand the publication’s focus.

Feminists were concerned with far more than protests, however. In the 1970s, they opened battered women’s shelters and successfully fought for protection from employment discrimination for pregnant women, reform of rape laws (such as the abolition of laws requiring a witness to corroborate a woman’s report of rape), criminalization of domestic violence, and funding for schools that sought to counter sexist stereotypes of women. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade invalidated a number of state laws under which abortions obtained during the first three months of pregnancy were illegal. This made a nontherapeutic abortion a legal medical procedure nationwide.

Thus, the successes of the second wave included a more individualistic approach to feminism, a broadening of issues beyond voting and property rights, and greater awareness of timely feminist objectives through books and television. However, there were some impactful political disappointments, as the ERA was not ratified by the states, and second wave feminists were not able to create lasting coalitions with other social movements.

Many advances in women’s rights were the result of women’s greater engagement in politics. For example, Patsy Mink, the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, was the co-author of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, Title IX of which prohibits sex discrimination in education. Mink had been interested in fighting discrimination in education since her youth, when she opposed racial segregation in campus housing while a student at the University of Nebraska. She went to law school after being denied admission to medical school because of her gender. Like Mink, many other women sought and won political office, many with the help of the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC). In 1971, the NWPC was formed by Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and other leading feminists to encourage women’s participation in political parties, elect women to office, and raise money for their campaign.

Figure 2 . “Unbought and Unbossed”: Shirley Chisholm was the first Black United States Congresswoman, the co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a candidate for a major-party Presidential nomination.

Shirley Chisholm personally took up the mantle of women’s involvement in politics. Born of immigrant parents, she earned degrees from Brooklyn College and Columbia University, and began a career in early childhood education and advocacy. In the 1950’s she joined various political action groups, worked on election campaigns, and pushed for housing and economic reforms. After leaving one organization over its refusal to involve women in the decision-making process, she sought to increase gender and racial diversity within political and activist organizations throughout New York City. In 1968, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress. Refusing to take the quiet role expected of new Representatives, she immediately began sponsoring bills and initiatives. She spoke out against the Vietnam War, and fought for programs such as Head Start and the national school lunch program, which was eventually signed into law after Chisholm led an effort to override a presidential veto. Chisholm would eventually undertake a groundbreaking presidential run in 1972, and is viewed as paving the way for other women, and especially women of color, achieving political and social prominence (Emmrich 2019).

Third Wave Feminism (1990s-2008)

We Can Do It! image of Rosie the Riveter showing her flexed arm muscle.

Figure 3. The “We Can Do It!” poster from 1943 was re-appropriated as a symbol of the feminist movement in the 1980s.

Third-wave feminism refers to several diverse strains of feminist activity and study, whose exact boundaries in the history of feminism are a subject of debate. The movement arose partially as a response to the perceived failures of and backlash against initiatives and movements created by second-wave feminism. Post-colonial and postmodern theory, which work, among other goals, toward the destabilization of social constructions of gender and sexuality, including the notion of “universal womanhood,” have also been important influences (Rampton 2015). This wave broadened the parameters of feminism to include a more diverse group of women and a more fluid range of sexual and gender identities.

Popular television shows like Sex in the City (1998-2004) elevated a type of third wave feminism that merged feminine imagery (i.e., lipstick, high heels, cleavage), which were previously associated with male oppression, with high powered careers and robust sex lives. The “grrls” of the third wave stepped onto the stage as strong and empowered, eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not as objects of a sexist patriarchy; they developed a rhetoric of mimicry, which appropriated derogatory terms like “slut” and “bitch” in order to subvert sexist culture and deprive it of verbal weapons (Rampton 2015).

Third wave feminists effectively used mass media, particularly the web (“cybergrrls” and “netgrrls”), to create a feminism that is global, multicultural, and boundary-crossing. One important third wave sub-group was the Riot Grrrl movement, whose DIY (do it yourself) ethos produced a number of influential, independent feminist musicians, such as Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney.

Third wave feminism’s focus on identity and the blurring of boundaries, however, did not effectively address many persistent macrosociological issues such as sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Fourth Wave Feminism (2008-present)

Fourth wave feminism is shaped by technology and characterized by the #metoo and the #timesup movements. Considering that these hashtags were first introduced on Twitter in 2007, this movement has grown rapidly, as social media activism has spread interest in and awareness of feminism.

Waves of accusations against men in powerful positions—from Hollywood directors, to Supreme Court justices, to the President of the United States, have catalyzed feminists in a way that appears to be fundamentally different compared to previous iterations.

As Rampton (2015) states, “The emerging fourth wavers are not just reincarnations of their second wave grandmothers; they bring to the discussion important perspectives taught by third wave feminism; they speak in terms of intersectionality whereby women’s suppression can only fully be understood in a context of the marginalization of other groups and genders—feminism is part of a larger consciousness of oppression along with racism, ageism, classism, ableism, and sexual orientation (no “ism” to go with that).”

Successes of fourth wave feminists include the proliferation of social media tags that promote inclusion and more effectively dismantle the gender and sexual binaries that have fragmented the movement. Female farm workers are demanding to have sexual harassment in the fields addressed alongside Hollywood actors.

The unprecedented number of women who were elected to Congress in the 2018 midterm elections is another sign of success for fourth wave feminists. Specifically, we can see that women of color, whose intersectional commitments also extend to environmental issues and income inequality, are represented in substantial numbers in both chambers.

Watch this video for an overview of gender in sociology. The video begins with an explanation of Harriet Martineau and her important contributions to sociology, then examines gender-conflict theory and three of the four waves of feminism.

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues. It uses the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and uneven power relations. Radical feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in perpetuating male dominance (note that “radical” means “at the root”). In patriarchal societies, men’s contributions are seen as more valuable than those of women. Patriarchal perspectives and arrangements are widespread and taken for granted. As a result, women’s viewpoints tend to be silenced or marginalized to the point of being discredited or considered invalid. Peggy Reeves Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau (2004) revealed that in societies considered to be matriarchies (where women comprise the dominant group), women and men tend to work cooperatively rather than competitively, regardless of whether a job would be gendered as feminine by U.S. standards. The men, however, do not experience the sense of bifurcated (i.e., divided into two parts) consciousness under this social structure that modern U.S. females encounter (Sanday 2004).

Patriarchy refers to a set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power, relationship to sources of income) that are based on the belief that men and women are dichotomous and unequal categories of being. The key to patriarchy is what might be called the dominant gender ideology toward sexual differences: the assumption that physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences in their character, behavior, and ability (i.e., their gender). These differences are used to justify a gendered division of social roles and inequality in access to rewards, positions of power, and privilege. The question that feminists ask therefore is: How does this distinction between male and female, and the attribution of different qualities to each, serve to organize our institutions (e.g., the family, law, the occupational structure, religious institutions, the division between public and private) and to perpetuate inequality between the sexes?

One of the influential sociological insights that emerged within second wave feminism is that “the personal is political.” This is a way of acknowledging that the challenges and personal crises that emerge in one’s day-to-day lived experience are symptomatic of larger systemic political issues, and that the solutions to such problems must be collectively pursued. As Friedan and others showed, these personal dissatisfactions often originated in previously unquestioned, stubbornly gendered discrepancies.

Standpoint Theory

Many of the most immediate and fundamental experiences of social life—from childbirth to who washes the dishes to the experience of sexual violence—had simply been invisible or regarded as unimportant politically or socially. Dorothy Smith’s development of standpoint theory was a key innovation in sociology that enabled these issues to be seen and addressed in a systematic way by examining one’s position in life (Smith 1977). She recognized from the consciousness-raising exercises and encounter groups initiated by feminists in the 1960s and 1970s that many of the immediate concerns expressed by women about their personal lives had a commonality of themes.

Smith argued that instead of beginning sociological analysis from the abstract point of view of institutions or systems, women’s lives could be more effectively examined if one began from the “actualities” of their lived experience in the immediate local settings of “everyday/ everynight” life. She asked, “What are the common features of women’s everyday lives?” From this standpoint, Smith observed that women’s position in modern society is acutely divided by the experience of dual consciousness (recall W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness ). Every day women crossed a tangible dividing line when they went from the “particularizing work in relation to children, spouse, and household” to the institutional world of text-mediated, abstract concerns at work, or in their dealings with schools, medical systems, or government bureaucracies. In the abstract world of institutional life, the actualities of local consciousness and lived life are “obliterated” (Smith 1977). Note again that Smith’s argument is in keeping with the second wave feminist idea that “the personal” (child-rearing, housekeeping) complicates and illuminates one’s relationship to “the political” (work life, government bureaucracies).

Intersectional Theory

Recall that intersectional theory examines multiple, overlapping identities and social contexts (Black, Latina, Asian, gay, trans, working class, poor, single parent, working, stay-at-home, immigrant, undocumented, etc.) and the unique, various lived experiences within these spaces. Intersectional theory combines critical race theory, gender conflict theory, and critical components of Marx’s class theory. Kimberlé Crenshaw describes it as a “prism for understanding certain kinds of problems.”

How does the convergence or racial or gender stereotypes play out in classrooms? How does this influence the opportunity for equal education? Consider these issues as you watch this short clip from Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Michals, D. "Soujourner Truth." National Women's History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth . ↵
Ford, S. 2017. "How racism split the suffrage movement. Bust Magazine. https://bust.com/feminism/19147-equal-means-equal.html . ↵
Rampton, M. (2015). "Four waves of feminism." Pacific University Oregon. https://www.pacificu.edu/about/media/four-waves-feminism . ↵
"Equal Rights Amendment." This Day in History. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/equal-rights-amendment-passed-by-congress . ↵
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Introduction to feminism, topics: what is feminism.

Introduction
What is Feminism?
Historical Context
Normative and Descriptive Components
Feminism and the Diversity of Women
Feminism as Anti-Sexism
Topics in Feminism: Overview of the Sub-Entries

Bibliography

Works cited.

General Bibliography [under construction]
Topical Bibliographies [under construction]

Other Internet Resources

Related entries, i. introduction, ii. what is feminism, a. historical context, b. normative and descriptive components.

i) (Normative) Men and women are entitled to equal rights and respect. ii) (Descriptive) Women are currently disadvantaged with respect to rights and respect, compared with men.

Feminism is grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or unjustified. Under the umbrella of this general characterization there are, however, many interpretations of women and their oppression, so that it is a mistake to think of feminism as a single philosophical doctrine, or as implying an agreed political program. (James 2000, 576)

C. Feminism and the Diversity of Women

Feminism, as liberation struggle, must exist apart from and as a part of the larger struggle to eradicate domination in all its forms. We must understand that patriarchal domination shares an ideological foundation with racism and other forms of group oppression, and that there is no hope that it can be eradicated while these systems remain intact. This knowledge should consistently inform the direction of feminist theory and practice. (hooks 1989, 22)

Unlike many feminist comrades, I believe women and men must share a common understanding--a basic knowledge of what feminism is--if it is ever to be a powerful mass-based political movement. In Feminist Theory: from margin to center, I suggest that defining feminism broadly as "a movement to end sexism and sexist oppression" would enable us to have a common political goal…Sharing a common goal does not imply that women and men will not have radically divergent perspectives on how that goal might be reached. (hooks 1989, 23)

…no woman is subject to any form of oppression simply because she is a woman; which forms of oppression she is subject to depend on what "kind" of woman she is. In a world in which a woman might be subject to racism, classism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, if she is not so subject it is because of her race, class, religion, sexual orientation. So it can never be the case that the treatment of a woman has only to do with her gender and nothing to do with her class or race. (Spelman 1988, 52-3)

D. Feminism as Anti-Sexism

i) (Descriptive claim) Women, and those who appear to be women, are subjected to wrongs and/or injustice at least in part because they are or appear to be women. ii) (Normative claim) The wrongs/injustices in question in (i) ought not to occur and should be stopped when and where they do.

III. Topics in Feminism: Overview of the Sub-Entries

Alexander, M. Jacqui and Lisa Albrecht, eds. 1998. The Third Wave: Feminist Perspectives on Racism. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
Anderson, Elizabeth. 1999a. “What is the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109(2): 287-337.
______. 1999b. "Reply” Brown Electronic Article Review Service, Jamie Dreier and David Estlund, editors, World Wide Web, (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/bears/homepage.html), Posted 12/22/99.
Anzaldúa, Gloria, ed. 1990. Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
Baier, Annette C. 1994. Moral Prejudices: Essays on Ethics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Barrett, Michèle. 1991. The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Bartky, Sandra. 1990. “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” In her Femininity and Domination. New York: Routledge, 63-82.
Basu, Amrita. 1995. The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women's Movements in Global Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. 2000. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Beauvoir, Simone de. 1974 (1952). The Second Sex. Trans. and Ed. H. M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books.
Benhabib, Seyla. 1992. Situating the Self: Gender, Community, and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics. New York: Routledge.
Calhoun, Cheshire. 2000. Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet: Lesbian and Gay Displacement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______. 1989. “Responsibility and Reproach.” Ethics 99(2): 389-406.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black Feminist Thought. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
Cott, Nancy. 1987. The Grounding of Modern Feminism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.“ Stanford Law Review , 43(6): 1241-1299.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller and Kendall Thomas. 1995. “Introduction.” In Critical Race Theory, ed., Kimberle Crenshaw, et al. New York: The New Press, xiii-xxxii.Davis, Angela. 1983. Women, Race and Class. New York: Random House.
Crow, Barbara. 2000. Radical Feminism: A Documentary Reader. New York: New York University Press.
Delmar, Rosalind. 2001. "What is Feminism?” In Theorizing Feminism, ed., Anne C. Hermann and Abigail J. Stewart. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 5-28.
Duplessis, Rachel Blau, and Ann Snitow, eds. 1998. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation. New York: Random House (Crown Publishing).
Dutt, M. 1998. "Reclaiming a Human Rights Culture: Feminism of Difference and Alliance." In Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age , ed., Ella Shohat. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 225-246.
Echols, Alice. 1990. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-75. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Engels, Friedrich. 1972 (1845). The Origin of The Family, Private Property, and the State. New York: International Publishers.
Findlen, Barbara. 2001. Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation, 2nd edition. Seattle, WA: Seal Press.
Fine, Michelle and Adrienne Asch, eds. 1988. Women with Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Fraser, Nancy and Linda Nicholson. 1990. "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism." In Feminism/Postmodernism, ed., Linda Nicholson. New York: Routledge.
Friedan, Betty. 1963. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton.
Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The Politics of Reality. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. 1997. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Grewal, I. 1998. "On the New Global Feminism and the Family of Nations: Dilemmas of Transnational Feminist Practice." In Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age, ed., Ella Shohat. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 501-530.
Hampton, Jean. 1993. “Feminist Contractarianism,” in Louise M. Antony and Charlotte Witt, eds. A Mind of One’s Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Haslanger, Sally. Forthcoming. “Oppressions: Racial and Other.” In Racism, Philosophy and Mind: Philosophical Explanations of Racism and Its Implications, ed., Michael Levine and Tamas Pataki. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Held, Virginia. 1993. Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Herrman, Anne C. and Abigail J. Stewart, eds. 1994. Theorizing Feminism: Parallel Trends in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Heywood, Leslie and Jennifer Drake, eds. 1997. Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism.
Hillyer, Barbara. 1993. Feminism and Disability. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Hoagland, Sarah L. 1989. Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Values. Palo Alto, CA: Institute for Lesbian Studies.
Hooks, bell. 1989. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End Press.
______. 1984. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.
______. 1981. Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.
Hurtado, Aída. 1996. The Color of Privilege: Three Blasphemies on Race and Feminism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Jagger, Alison M. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
James, Susan. 2000. “Feminism in Philosophy of Mind: The Question of Personal Identity.” In The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, ed., Miranda Fricker and Jennifer Hornsby. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kiss, Elizabeth. 1995. "Feminism and Rights." Dissent 42(3): 342-347
Kittay, Eva Feder. 1999. Love’s Labor: Essays on Women, Equality and Dependency. New York: Routledge.
Kymlicka, Will. 1989. Liberalism, Community and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Mackenzie, Catriona and Natalie Stoljar, eds. 2000. Relational Autonomy: Feminist perspectives on Autonomy, Agency and the Social Self. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1989. Towards a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
______. 1987. Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mohanty, Chandra, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds. 1991. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Molyneux, Maxine and Nikki Craske, eds. 2001. Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.
Moody-Adams, Michele. 1997. Fieldwork in Familiar Places: Morality, Culture and Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Moraga, Cherrie. 2000. "From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism." In her Loving in the War Years, 2nd edition. Boston: South End Press.
Moraga, Cherrie and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. 1981. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings of Radical Women of Color. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.
Narayan, Uma. 1997. Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism. New York: Routledge.
Nussbaum, Martha. 1995. "Human Capabilities, Female Human Beings." In Women, Culture and Development : A Study of Human Capabilities, ed., Martha Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 61-104.
_______. 1999. Sex and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
O’Brien, Mary. 1979. “Reproducing Marxist Man.” In The Sexism of Social and Political Theory: Women and Reproduction from Plato to Nietzsche, ed., Lorenne M. G. Clark and Lynda Lange. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 99-116. Reprinted in (Tuana and Tong 1995: 91-103).
Ong, Aihwa. 1988. "Colonialism and Modernity: Feminist Re-presentation of Women in Non-Western Societies.” Inscriptions 3(4): 90. Also in (Herrman and Stewart 1994).
Okin, Susan Moller. 1989. Justice, Gender, and the Family. New York: Basic Books.
______. 1979. Women in Western Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Reagon, Bernice Johnson. 1983. "Coalition Politics: Turning the Century." In: Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 356-368.
Robinson, Fiona. 1999. Globalizing Care: Ethics, Feminist Theory, and International Affairs. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex.” In Towards an Anthropology of Women , ed., Rayna Rapp Reiter. New York: Monthly Review Press, 157-210.
Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon Press.
Schneir, Miriam, ed. 1994. Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present. New York: Vintage Books.
______. 1972. Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings. New York: Vintage Books.
Scott, Joan W. 1988. “Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference: or The Uses of Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism.” Feminist Studies 14 (1): 33-50.
Silvers, Anita, David Wasserman, Mary Mahowald. 1999. Disability, Difference, Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy . Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner, ed., 1989. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OED Online. Oxford University Press. “feminism, n1” (1851).
Snitow, Ann. 1990. “A Gender Diary.” In Conflicts in Feminism, ed. M. Hirsch and E. Fox Keller. New York: Routledge, 9-43.
Spelman, Elizabeth. 1988. The Inessential Woman. Boston: Beacon Press.
Tanner, Leslie B. 1970 Voices From Women's Liberation. New York: New American Library (A Mentor Book).
Taylor, Vesta and Leila J. Rupp. 1996. "Lesbian Existence and the Women's Movement: Researching the 'Lavender Herring'." In Feminism and Social Change , ed. Heidi Gottfried. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Tong, Rosemarie. 1993. Feminine and Feminist Ethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Tuana, Nancy and Rosemarie Tong, eds. 1995. Feminism and Philosophy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Walker, Alice. 1990. “Definition of Womanist,” In Making Face, Making Soul: Haciendo Caras , ed., Gloria Anzaldúa. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 370.
Walker, Margaret Urban. 1998. Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics. New York: Routledge.
______, ed. 1999. Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Walker, Rebecca, ed. 1995. To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism. New York: Random House (Anchor Books).
Ware, Cellestine. 1970. Woman Power: The Movement for Women’s Liberation . New York: Tower Publications.
Weisberg, D. Kelly, ed. 1993. Feminist Legal Theory: Foundations. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Wendell, Susan. 1996. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability. New York and London: Routledge.
Young, Iris. 1990a. "Humanism, Gynocentrism and Feminist Politics." In Throwing Like A Girl. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 73-91.
Young, Iris. 1990b. “Socialist Feminism and the Limits of Dual Systems Theory.” In her Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
______. 1990c. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Zophy, Angela Howard. 1990. "Feminism." In The Handbook of American Women's History , ed., Angela Howard Zophy and Frances M. Kavenik. New York: Routledge (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities).

General Bibliography

Topical bibliographies.

Feminist Theory Website
Race, Gender, and Affirmative Action Resource Page
Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement (Duke Univ. Archives)
Core Reading Lists in Women's Studies (Assn of College and Research Libraries, WS Section)
Feminist and Women's Journals
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
Feminist Internet Search Utilities
National Council for Research on Women (including links to centers for research on women and affiliate organizations, organized by research specialties)
Feminism and Class
Marxist, Socialist, and Materialist Feminisms
M-Fem (information page, discussion group, links, etc.)
WMST-L discussion of how to define “marxist feminism” Aug 1994)
Marxist/Materialist Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
MatFem (Information page, discussion group)
Feminist Economics
Feminist Economics (Feminist Theory Website)
International Association for Feminist Economics
Feminist Political Economy and the Law (2001 Conference Proceedings, York Univ.)
Journal for the International Association for Feminist Economics
Feminism and Disability
World Wide Web Review: Women and Disabilities Websites
Disability and Feminism Resource Page
Center for Research on Women with Disabilities (CROWD)
Interdisciplinary Bibliography on Disability in the Humanities (Part of the American Studies Crossroads Project)
Feminism and Human Rights, Global Feminism
World Wide Web Review: Websites on Women and Human Rights
International Gender Studies Resources (U.C. Berkeley)
Global Feminisms Research Resources (Vassar Library)
Global Feminism (Feminist Majority Foundation)
NOW and Global Feminism
United Nations Development Fund for Women
Global Issues Resources
Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI)
Feminism and Race/Ethnicity
General Resources
WMST-L discussion on “Women of Color and the Women’s Movement” (5 Parts) Sept/Oct 2000)
Women of Color Resources (Princeton U. Library)
Core Readings in Women's Studies: Women of Color (Assn. of College and Research Libraries, WS Section)
Women of Color Resource Sites
African-American/Black Feminisms and Womanism
African-American/Black/Womanist Feminism on the Web
Black Feminist and Womanist Identity Bibliography (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library)
The Womanist Studies Consortium (Univ. of Georgia)
Black Feminist/Womanist Works: A Beginning List (WMST-L)
African-American Women Online Archival Collection (Duke U.)
Asian-American and Asian Feminisms
Asian American Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
Asian-American Women Bibliography (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe)
American Women's History: A Research Guide (Asian-American Women)
South Asian Women's Studies Bibliography (U.C. Berkeley)
Journal of South Asia Women's Studies
Chicana/Latina Feminisms
Bibliography on Chicana Feminism (Cal State, Long Beach Library)
Making Face, Making Soul: A Chicana Feminist Website
Defining Chicana Feminisms, In Their Own Words
CLNet's Chicana Studies Homepage (UCLA)
Chicana Related Bibliographies (CLNet)
American Indian, Native, Indigenous Feminisms
Native American Feminism (Feminist Theory Website)
Bibliography on American Indian Gender Roles and Relations
Bibliography on American Indian Feminism
Bibliography on American Indian Gay/Lesbian Topics
Links on Aboriginal Women and Feminism
Feminism, Sex, and Sexuality
1970's Lesbian Feminism (Ohio State Univ., Women's Studies)
The Lesbian History Project
History of Sexuality Resources (Duke Special Collections)
Lesbian Studies Bibliography (Assn. of College and Research Libraries)
Lesbian Feminism/Lesbian Philosophy
Society for Lesbian and Gay Philosophy Internet Resources
QueerTheory.com
World Wide Web Review: Webs of Transgender

First published: Content last modified:

Modern Feminist Movements Essay

Today many sociologists and psychologists discuss the phenomenon that contemporary women express more and more masculine features when men are inclined to act atypically to their gender role and appear to have some feminine features.

Is it the tendency affected by the peculiarities of the development of modern society or the result of the movement for equal positions of men and women in it? Equal social positions of men and women are the intense intrinsic desire of the feminists in the 19th century.

It is the fact that men always were considered as the dominated class because of their social status and rights, and those women who followed the active social position were inclined to lead the struggle for their civil and legal rights. It was the first wave of feminism when equal civil positions, rights, and freedoms were discussed as the way to the total social equality.

Contemporary feminists pay more attention to the role of women in society because the problem of equal rights is solved, but in general, the positions of men and women did not change.

Christina Hoff Sommers belongs to the contemporary wave of feminists whose approach to the main issues of the movement is rather controversial. She accentuates the fact that today the principles proclaimed by the equity feminists are not current because the equality in civil and legal rights was achieved, but the major social structure is still based on the peculiarities of distributing the gender roles between men and women (Sommers, 2008a; Sommers, 2008b).

At the end of the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton emphasized the necessity to struggle for equal civil rights and for acquiring equal education and labor opportunities (Stanton, 2008a; Stanton, 2008b). The problem of rational education for women was also discussed by Wollstonecraft who made accents on the position of women in society and the necessity to give them adequate education (Wollstonecraft, 2008).

However, could these alternations in the principles of the legal and civil sectors change the situation of men and women’s inequality? It is important that Virginia Woolf among the possible solutions to the problem of men and women’s inequality determines only the issue of sharing the labor (Woolf, 2008).

Was it enough to speak about equal rights and positions? Developing the problem further, Kate Chopin focused on the oppressive character of marriages for women, their dependence, and sufferings from the men’s domination (Chopin, n.d.). The issues emphasized by Chopin can be discussed as the closest ones to the modern situation because of their connection with the problem of gender.

Thus, it is possible to state that the equity feminists of the 19th – 20th centuries created a great platform for achieving the goals of their movement (Rauchut, 2008). Today women have the opportunity to vote, to get the education which they want, to take the career positions of their dream, to be independent in having property and income. However, the issues accentuated by Kate Chopin were not fully addressed.

A woman in modern society is still considered as a wife and mother, but not as the equal partner for a man. Therefore, if a woman wants, she could reach the career tops, but there are no many men who are ready to share her households while she is working. The modern society functions according to the principles provided by the distribution of gender roles.

Nevertheless, definite changes in the process can be observed, but they do not respond to the feminists’ intentions. In her works, Sommers focuses on the fact that each sex can be considered as unique and there is no necessity to interchange some characteristics and gender roles because the boys with the features of girls and the girls with the features of boys are unnatural (Sommers, 2008a).

Determining the key issues for modern feminists, in her article, Shalit discusses the problem of modesty as reflective for the situation of shifting the standards (Shalit, 2008). Why should modesty be discussed as the feature which is characteristic only for women? The author’s position is close to the strict feminists who try to achieve equality in all the spheres. Nevertheless, is it really important for a modern woman?

From this point, Sommers’s position can be discussed as the most argumentative one. And if it is necessary to concentrate on the contemporary feminist who continues the traditions of Stanton and Wollstonecraft, the figure of Paula Kamen is appropriate for this role. Thus, Kamen states that the major aims of the women today are to approve their equal rights and have the reason for self-respect and dignity as an equal partner of a man (Kamen, 2008).

Modern feminists’ movement is divided into equity feminism and gender feminism. If the equity feminism has a lot of similar features with the first wave of feminism of the 19th century, the gender feminism is more typical for the contemporary social situation where the borders between the genders are one of the most controversial questions.

Chopin, K. (n.d.). The story of an hour .

Kamen, P. (2008). Feminist Fatale. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 413-423). USA: Belleview University Press.

Rauchut, E. A. (2008). American vision and values. USA: Belleview University Press.

Shalit, W. (2008). Modesty Revisited. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 431-434). USA: Belleview University Press.

Sommers, C.H. (2008a). The War against Boys. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 445-454). USA: Belleview University Press.

Sommers, C.H. (2008b). Who Stole Feminism. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 454-458). USA: Belleview University Press.

Stanton, E. C. (2008a). Declaration of sentiments. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 411-413). USA: Belleview University Press.

Stanton, E. C. (2008b). Eighty years and more. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 423-434). USA: Belleview University Press.

Wollstonecraft, M. (2008). A vindication of the rights of woman. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 399-411). USA: Belleview University Press.

Woolf, V. (2008). Professions for women. In K. C. Mason & E. A. Rauchut (Eds.), Kirkpatrick signature series reader (pp. 442-445). USA: Belleview University Press.

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Bibliography

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Criticisms of the Nineteenth-Century Gender Order
"A Room of One’s Own" by Woolf V. and "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by Wollstonecraft M.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Address on Equality and Rights
Feminist Theories in Relation to Family Functions
Gender Equity Issues in Work Practices
The Women of the Veil: Gaining Rights and Freedoms
Gender Inequality in Afghanistan
Gender Roles in Toy Stores

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ACADEMIC ESSAY: The Social Movement of Feminism

The fundamental nuts and bolts of Feminism is a concept or a belief that focuses on how women should be allowed to get the same rights as men. This social movement pursues equality for women. The Feminism, social and political movement rallied round and transformed the lives of many individual women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Western world. In Britain, and this is where it started in 1866, women who were in full time occupation, because of the industrial revolution, had got the fortuitous chance to discuss in a highly organised groups about the their social issues within the British society as well as their political rights.

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Balabhadra Tripathy

Feminism is an ideology which seeks not only to understand the world but to change it to the advantages of women. It aims at defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic and social rights for women. Feminism focuses on the marginalisation of women and how they are being relegated to a secondary position. Most feminists believe that our culture is a patriarchal culture and it is organised in favour of the interests of men. Feminist literary critics try to explain how power imbalances due to gender in a given culture are reflected in or challenged by literary texts. Feminism is a movement for the empowerment of women. It is a social movement which redresses the gender imbalance in society. Aim of the Study The aim of the study is to find a connection between women empowerment and the movement of feminism. Being popularised in the early twentieth century, feminism struggles for securing women"s suffrage and the later socio-political movement for women"s eman...

Senanur Güvercinoğlu

Research Question: What special, economic and historical conditions led to feminism movement in the world? Give specific examples from specific societies and periods. Throughout the history of humanity, the physiological and biological differences between women and men have led to men and women gaining different roles in society, although they are not officially aware of society. For example, while women are expected to do household chores and take care of children, it is expected that men will work in various jobs and make money. But as time progresses and technology evolves, the impact of biological and physiological differences between women and men on the efficiency of jobs is reduced as societies become more prosperous. Men and women who are aware of this, women should be more prominent in social life, as well as women and men should have equal rights, otherwise, they argue that it is unfair for women. This way of thinking, which argued that women should have equal rights with men, began to form under the concept of feminism. Of course, the reasons that were effective in the formation of feminism were not only this idea but also many historical, economic and social reasons caused the concept of the feminism movement. The main reasons that led to the formation of the feminist movement are that women begin their search for identity as a result of the economic and social relief that occurs after the Second World War, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. In order to find answers to the questions and problems of women in this quest and to change the image of women in society, some of the reasons that caused the feminism movement to start. Although the emergence of the movement of feminism differs in all countries, the problems of women in the emergence of this movement and the problems of inequality between women and men were common.

Gulce Ozkan

Isaac Azzopardi

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Feminism - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

Feminism has been a driving force in advocating for equality and women’s rights. Through feminist arguments, the movement challenges societal norms and promotes women empowerment. Persuasive and argumentative essays on feminism serve as powerful tools to raise awareness and spark change. These papers delve into feminist topics for essays, addressing issues such as gender inequality, reproductive justice, and much more.

When creating a research paper on feminism, it is essential to develop compelling titles that capture the essence of the study. They should reflect the critical nature of the topic and engage readers from the outset. Also, strong thesis statements are crucial in guiding the research and presenting a clear argument. They set the tone for the entire paper and highlight the significance of the investigation question. Papers on feminism shed light on the challenges faced by women and provide evidence-based arguments to support feminist claims. With a clear outline, they present a well-structured and organized discussion on various feminist topics.

The Essay introduction and conclusion are crucial elements in exploring and analyzing the complex and evolving topic. An introduction serves as an opportunity to provide background information about the feminist movement, its historical context, and the specific focus of the essay. By summarizing the main arguments and findings, the conclusion reaffirms the significance of your study. Integrating essay examples about feminism in the introduction and conclusion strengthens the essay as a whole. It provides concrete evidence and relevant narratives. They serve as powerful illustrations of feminist ideologies, struggles, and achievements.

Feminism of Romeo and Juliet

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Feminism in a Doll’s House

Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of being politically, socially, and economically equal to men. In the nineteenth century, women were viewed as secondary to men and had little rights. In 1890, married women were given the right to control their own wealth, and in 1882 women finally were given access to higher education. During the time that Ibsen wrote A Doll House, he lived in a patriarchal society which we can tell as we read […]

Women’s Rights in the United States in the 1970s

In the 1940’s-1960’s, there was a blurred distinction between clinical and sexual exams within the medical field (Wendy Kline, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry). For example, many male doctors would provide pelvic exams as a means to teach women sex instruction, and were taught to assert their power over their patients. This led to women instituting new training programs for proper examinations, creating a more gentle and greatly-respected method of examining women and their bodies. There was also an increase […]

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Gender Inequality and Feminism

Gender inequality is a concept which has been occurring over a number of years and due to gender differences it fuels up gender inequality, which gave rise to gender socialization. Gender socialization is the process of learning gender roles which emerge from society and nowadays social media, throughout this process men and women learn their roles in society. The most common attribute we ascribe to women is that they can be vulnerable and sensitive, on the other hand, men hear […]

Expressing Feminism in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Background Information Jane Austen was an English novelist born in Hampshire, South of England on 16th December in 1775. She was very close to Cassandra, her sister. When together, the two would share a bedroom but when apart they would write to each other almost every. After Jane's death on 18th July 1817, her sister testified how the two loved each other, ""she was gilder of every pleasure, the sun of my life, and the soother of sorrow"" (Bendit 245). […]

Mona Lisa Smile

The 2003 romance movie, "Mona Lisa Smile," directed by Mike Newell, portrays a recent UCLA graduate female art history professor named Katherine Watson. She is hired at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953 to teach an art history class to a classroom full of hardworking and demanding young girls, determined to make her feel unwelcome. The girls who attend Wellesley are from some of the most wealthy, influential, and upper-class families in Massachusetts. Despite all the hardships and judgmental […]

About Feminism in Hamlet

Ophelia agrees to take Laertes’s advice. She agrees to take his advice because she knows nothing else than to listen a man. She is dependent on men and continues to do whatever they tell her. She saids “this is a good lesson keep, As a watchman to my heart.” (1.3.51) She sees it as he is looking out for her, which he is but it reality he is demanding her to stay away from Hamlet to keep her purity. Laertes […]

Gladwell Outliers, Privilege Video, Intersectional Feminism

Race, gender, and conversation are controversial issues among most Americans, especially Blacks. For instance, the "Safe Space to Brave Space" article calls for freedom of speech. Comparatively, Chapter 3 of Gladwell presents a story about Christopher Langan which focuses on geniuses; children possessing innate genius, yet racism, conversation issues, and poverty caused Langan's misery. This concept is therefore incongruent with the privilege video's details where backgrounds tremendously influence people's social and economic welfare. The "Safe Space to Brave Space" article […]

Femininism and Masculinity in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”

For a considerable amount of the literature in English language, sex and gender are shown to be equitable with certain human traits. Strength is defined as a predominantly male trait while weakness is shown as the female one. Men are depicted as stable while women are shown as impulsive and unpredictable. Logic is shown as masculine while imagination is equated with femininity. It is often possible to identify a character as female or male by simply judging the behavior of […]

Feminism is for Everybody Themes of Feminism Marriage and Respect Found in a Doll’s House

The late, great Maya Angelou once said, ""You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."" This idea is one that is clearly embraced my Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House, a dramatic script filled with many heavy themes that leave a reader questioning their views on some rather hot topics. Feminism reigns supreme in the play, as the rights to equality for womankind are demanded, […]

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Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, the protagonist is described as a woman of the 1800’s facing oppression by male dominance. In comparison, the protagonist from Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour”, experiences the same oppression. Both protagonists are dealing with some type of loss over the course of their short story, but in contrast the effectiveness of their loss differs on opposite ends of the spectrum. Ultimately both protagonists are portrayed as women who experience […]

“Pride and Prejudice” Satire

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is famous for satirizing society's rules and for exaggerating the extent to which they impact people. Although Austen is parodying the class structure in society throughout the whole novel, she is also enforcing the importance of self-awareness. Austen exaggerates the interactions between high and low status people because it ridicules society's rules. She condemns characters like Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine because of their inability to reject society's norms, and rewards Elizabeth because she is […]

Three Waves of Feminism

Women are a huge part of our Nation’s history. From stories of our Great American Heroes, to the patriotic American Flag itself, women have been a driving factor in the uprising of America. There was a time when women did not have rights, Which created the wills of Feminists. Historic Feminists such as Sojourner Truth, Betty Friedan, And Susan B. Anthony are the reason why the country is shaped how it is for women today. Their fight for civil justice […]

Feminism in Jane Eyre

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The Yellow Wallpaper Feminism

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Feminism in Frankenstein

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Short Essay on Feminism

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Abstract For centuries, there have been several social issues that have been resolved by the actions of pioneers who stood for change. Whether the goal was to resolve violent bigotry or give equal rights to those without, these changes were vital in shaping our nation today. With every development in the system, more people became pursuant in advocating for change. The topic that will be discussed in this analysis revolves around the women's rights movement. The greatest advocate for the […]

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Since 1920 a society has changed, but have the effects of modern feminism created a counter-productive culture? Our society has taken a turn from worse to increasingly better. There are countless women using terms such as “mansplaining” to try and shut down anything factual that a man has to say (Goodwin 1). The pink tax is built on the belief that women are charged more for products when statistically it’s just marketing. Feminists complain of the gender wage gap, but […]

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Feminist Film Theory: An Introductory Reading List

Evolving from the analysis of representations of women in film, feminist film theory asks questions about identity, sexuality, and the politics of spectatorship.

Director Julie Dash poses for the movie "Daughters of the Dust," circa 1991

Not unlike the emergence of feminist theory and criticism in the domains of art and literature, the women’s movement of the late 1960s and 1970s sparked a focused interrogation of images of women in film and of women’s participation in film production. The 1970s witnessed the authorship of massively influential texts by writers such as Claire Johnston, Molly Haskell, and Laura Mulvey in the United Kingdom and the United States, and psychoanalysis was a reigning method of inquiry, though Marxism and semiotics also informed the field.

Feminist film theory has provoked debates about the representations of female bodies, sexuality, and femininity on screen while posing questions concerning identity, desire, and the politics of spectatorship, among other topics. Crucially, an increasing amount of attention has been paid by theorists to intersectionality, as scholars investigate the presence and absence of marginalized and oppressed film subjects and producers. This reading list surveys a dozen articles, presented chronologically, as a starting point for readers interested in the lines of inquiry that have fueled the field over the last fifty years.

Laura Mulvey, “ Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema ,” Screen 16, no. 3 (1975): 6–18.

To put it most simply, Mulvey’s 1975 essay is nothing short of iconic. A cornerstone of psychoanalytic feminist film theory, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” describes the ways in which women are displayed on screen for the pleasure of the male spectator. Many of the essays listed below engage explicitly with Mulvey’s essay and the notion of the male gaze, illustrating what Corrin Columpar (2002, see below) describes as a “near compulsive return” to this pioneering work. But even Mulvey herself would later push back on some of her most provocative claims , including her positioning of the spectator as male, as well as her omission of female protagonists.

“ Feminism and Film: Critical Approaches ,” Camera Obscura 1, no. 1 (1976): 3–10.

Established in 1976, Camera Obscura was (and remains) a groundbreaking venue for feminist film studies. This introductory essay to the first issue contextualizes the necessity of such a journal in a scholarly and cultural environment in which there is a true “need” for the feminist study of film. Camera Obscura was, in part, an American response to the wave of British contributions to the field, often published in the journal Screen (the home of Mulvey’s essay). The editors spend much of this essay unpacking the camera obscura, an image projection device, as a metaphor for feminist film theory, as it functions as a symbol of contradiction that “emphasizes the points of convergence of ideology and representation, of ideology as representation.”

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Michelle Criton, Julia Lesage, Judith Mayne, B. Ruby Rich, and Anna Marie Taylor, “ Women and Film: A Discussion of Feminist Aesthetics ,” New German Critique no. 13 (1978): 83–107.

What makes film an enticing object of study for feminists in the first place? As Criton et al. attest, the answers lie in the social rather than individual or private dimensions of film as well as in its accessibility and synthesis of “art, life, politics, sex, etc.” The conversation featured here provides a glimpse into contemporary conversations about the work of Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey and psychoanalysis as a shaping force of early feminist film theory. Additionally, they consider how a feminist filmmaking aesthetic can reveal and critique the ideologies that underpin the oppression of women.

Judith Mayne, “ Feminist Film Theory and Criticism ,” Signs 11, no. 1 (1985): 81–100.

Acknowledging the profound impact of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mayne surveys the development of feminist film theory, including both its historical contexts and its fixations upon psychoanalysis and the notions of spectacle and the gaze. Mayne outlines how contradiction—variously construed—is “ the central issue in feminist film theory and criticism” (emphasis added). Additionally, the author calls into question the historiography of women’s cinema, noting the “risk of romanticizing women’s exclusion from the actual production of films.” She urges scholars to, certainly, continue the necessary exploration of forgotten and understudied female filmmakers but to also open up the conception of women’s cinema to include not just the work of female directors but also their peripheral roles as critics and audience members.

Jane Gaines, “ White Privilege and Looking Relations: Race and Gender in Feminist Film Theory ,” Cultural Critique , no. 4 (1986): 59–79.

What, Gaines asks, are the limitations of feminist theory’s early fixation on gender at the expense of nuanced understandings of race, class, and sexuality? While feminist theory may, in its earliest years, have opened up possibilities for interrogating the gendered politics of spectatorship, it was largely exclusionary of diverse perspectives, including, as Gaines notes, lesbians and women of color. In doing so, “feminist theory has helped to reinforce white middle-class [normative] values, and to the extent that it works to keep women from seeing other structures of oppression, it functions ideologically.” Through an analysis of the 1975 film Mahogany and informed by black feminist theorists and writers such as bell hooks, Mayne argues that psychoanalysis ultimately results in erroneous readings of films about race.

Noël Carroll, “ The Image of Women in Film: A Defense of a Paradigm ,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48, no. 4 (1990): 349–60.

Carroll theorizes why psychoanalysis was so attractive to feminists in the 1970s and 1980s: by providing a theoretical framework, he argues, psychoanalysis was a means to “incorporate” and “organize” the “scattered insights of the image of women in film approach.” Taking issue with Mulvey’s perspective on voyeurism, Carroll positions the image approach, or the study of the image of women in film—in this case with an emphasis on theories of emotion— as a “rival research program” to psychoanalysis. He argues that paradigm scenarios, or cases in which emotions are learned behavioral responses, influence spectatorship and how audiences respond emotionally to women on screen.

Karen Hollinger, “ Theorizing Mainstream Female Spectatorship: The Case of the Popular Lesbian Film ,” Cinema Journal 37, no. 2 (1998): 3–17.

Hollinger surveys theoretical responses to lesbian subjectivity and the female spectatorship of popular lesbian film narratives. She articulates the subversive power of the lesbian look as a challenge to Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze, asserting its potential to empower female spectators as agents of desire.

Corinn Columpar, “ The Gaze As Theoretical Touchstone: The Intersection of Film Studies, Feminist Theory, and Postcolonial Theory ,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 30, no. 1/2 (2002): 25–44.

The male gaze is not, as Columpar articulates, the sole tool “in the contemporary feminist film critic’s box”: so are the ethnographic and colonial gazes, brought to film theory from postcolonial studies. Columpar reiterates that the early fixation upon gender and the male gaze “failed to account for other key determinants of social power and position.” Interdisciplinary perspectives, such as those informed by postcolonial theory, are better equipped to unpack “issues of racial and national difference and acknowledge the role that race and ethnicity play in looking relations.”

Janell Hobson, “ Viewing in the Dark: Toward a Black Feminist Approach to Film ,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 30, no. 1/2 (2002): 45–59.

Hobson illuminates the absence and/or disembodied presence of Black female bodies in Hollywood cinema. She argues that the invisibility of Black women’s bodies on screen was a defense mechanism against the disruption of “whites as beautiful, as the norm.” By turning away from the gaze and toward the sound of Black women’s disembodied voices in speech and song, viewers are better equipped to recognize how their voices are “used in mainstream cinema by way of supporting and defining the normalized (white) male body,” therefore “ensur[ing] the identity of white masculinity.”

E. Ann Kaplan, “ Global Feminisms and the State of Feminist Film Theory ,” Signs 30, no. 1 (2004): 1236–48.

Kaplan reflects on her trajectory as a pioneering feminist film theorist, illuminating her shift from cinema’s depictions of the “oppressions of white Western women” to the study of trauma in global and indigenous cinema. Importantly, she notes that in her earlier research, she failed to “confront the really tough questions of my own positionality.” In doing so, she invites readers to consider the ethics of witnessing and white, Western feminist participation in the development of multicultural approaches.

Jane M. Gaines, “ Film History and the Two Presents of Feminist Film Theory ,” Cinema Journal 44, no. 1 (2004): 113–19.

It may come as a surprise to many that, internationally speaking, women were indeed undertaking various forms of creative labor in the world of film production during the silent era, including screenwriting, producing, directing, etc. The question, then, is not just “why these women were forgotten” but also “why we forgot them.” Gaines considers the “historical turn” in feminist film studies, arguing that scholars must be mindful of how they narrativize and rewrite the rediscovered facts of women’s work in cinema.

Sangita Gopal, “ Feminism and the Big Picture: Conversations ,” Cinema Journal 57, no. 2 (2018): 131–36.

In this fascinating article, Gopal synthesizes responses to a series of questions posed to film scholars regarding feminist theory, praxis, and pedagogy, as well as feminism as “an unfinished project” and feminist media studies as a “boundless” field. Where theory is concerned, Gopal usefully highlights Lingzhen Wang’s and Priya Jaikumar’s suggestions for more explicitly linking and situating feminist media studies within “the big picture.” Notably, Jaikumar ponders the possibilities of feminism creating a framework such that “it is not possible to ask a question if it is absent of a politics.”

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October 7 reminds us the feminist fight has a way to go

I n a world where attention often veers away from the struggles of the oppressed and marginalized, October 7 serves as a reminder of the consequences when we collectively choose silence. On this day, instances of violence, particularly against women, reverberated globally, prompting us to confront the harsh realities of our era.

As the world contends with the looming threat of aggression from state actors, Russia’s actions in Ukraine draw parallels with those of Hamas, warranting a deeper examination of our collective response, or lack thereof.

The feminist movement now finds itself at a pivotal moment.

Violence against women has been normalized

Despite making notable progress in certain areas, it has yet to adequately address and confront the normalization of violence against women on the international stage. October 7 is a call to action to dismantle the structures perpetuating this violence and ensure the rights and dignity of all women, regardless of geopolitical contexts.

October 7 serves as a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of global conflicts and their impact on societal norms, particularly regarding the treatment of women and the apparent stagnation of feminism. It illustrates the repercussions of aggressive acts, especially those perpetrated by state actors, on international norms and human rights.

The parallel strategies employed by Russia in its military aggression in Ukraine and those by Hamas, influenced by Russia’s actions, indicate a troubling acceptance of violence.

This normalization of violence against women by Russia has emboldened other global actors, with historical examples such as Chechnya, Serbia, and Moldova providing a grim blueprint for aggression. The use of violence as a strategic tool to destabilize regions poses a significant threat not only to immediate victims but also to fundamental principles of international law and human decency.

The hypothesis that the Kremlin has used Hamas’ actions to gauge the West’s tolerance for aggression is alarming and revealing. It suggests a calculated use of violence to destabilize and undermine the international order. This strategy, though not new, takes on a more sinister dimension in the context of Ukraine, emphasizing the urgent need for a robust and unified response to such tactics.

It is imperative to reflect on the consequences of inaction and the implicit messages conveyed by the global community’s failure to decisively counteract these trends. The silence and lack of decisive action targeting violence against women in Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine indicate a broader failure, not only in protecting women’s rights but also in advancing feminism and human rights amidst rising authoritarianism and aggression.

The feminist movement faces a critical juncture. Despite significant achievements, it has not adequately addressed the normalization of violence against women on the international stage. This failure necessitates introspection and evolution.

The current state of the feminist movement appears mired in addressing the systemic and pervasive nature of violence against women globally.

This violence undermines the foundation of equality and justice that feminism seeks to establish. Acts of violence in conflict zones, where women’s bodies are often used as battlegrounds for psychological warfare, have not received the condemnation and action they warrant from the global feminist community.

The urgency for the feminist movement to evolve and adapt has never been more apparent. This evolution must involve a recalibration of strategies and priorities, with a renewed focus on influencing global policies and societal norms to combat the normalization of violence against women. Feminism must extend its reach beyond traditional areas of gender equality to address the root causes and enablers of violence against women.

To influence global policies, the feminist movement must forge stronger alliances across borders, transcending geopolitical divisions, to present a united front against the oppression of women. This requires engagement with international institutions, leveraging social media and technology to amplify silenced voices, and advocating for the implementation of existing international legal frameworks.

The movement must champion a more inclusive feminism that acknowledges and addresses the intersectionality of gender, race, ethnicity, and class in the context of violence. By doing so, feminism can broaden its appeal and relevance, ensuring it speaks to the experiences and struggles of women in all their diversity.

October 7 serves as a reminder of the work ahead, prompting us to confront uncomfortable truths about the state of feminism and the fight against violence toward women.

It is time for the feminist movement to introspect, innovate, and emerge more resilient and focused. Only then can we hope to dismantle the structures perpetuating violence and ensure the rights and dignity of all women, regardless of geopolitical landscapes.

The fight against the normalization of violence against women is not just a feminist issue; it is a measure of our humanity and the values we uphold. Let us rise to this challenge with courage and determination.

The writer is director of the Russian Democratic Society, one of the central voices of the Russian opposition based in the UK.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, speaks during the United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation amid Russia

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JK Rowling contributes to new feminist book on struggle against SNP’s trans agenda

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JK Rowling has contributed to a new book about feminists’ struggle against the SNP’s trans agenda and how they helped trigger Nicola Sturgeon’s “downfall” .

The Harry Potter author disclosed she had written an essay for the book titled The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, which she explained “means ‘be quiet’ or ‘hush up’.”

Due to be published on May 30, the book’s synopsis states: “It is the story of women who risked their job, reputation, even the bonds of family and friendship, to make their voices heard, and ended up - unexpectedly - contributing to the downfall of Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first woman first minister.”

Ms Rowling’s chapter explains “why she used her global reach to stand up for women”, with the author regularly posting messages on the issue to her 14.2 million followers on X, formerly Twitter.

She has repeatedly argued that trans women are not women and should not have access to female safe spaces, such as changing rooms.

The author tweeted: “I’m very proud to have contributed an essay to this book, alongside many women I’m proud to call my friends.” It has been compiled by Lucy Hunter Blackburn, eminent policy analyst, and Susan Dalgety, a writer and journalist.

I'm very proud to have contributed an essay to this book, alongside many women I'm proud to call my friends. For non-Scots, 'wheesht' means 'be quiet' or 'hush up', but I suspect you could have worked that out from the context… https://t.co/EpcDW3CTmf — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 16, 2024

Other contributors include Ash Regan , who became the first SNP government minister to resign “on a question of principle” after she refused to back Ms Sturgeon’s controversial gender self-ID reforms.

Ms Regan, who has since defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, quit in Oct 2022 as Community Safety Minister, saying her conscience would not allow her to support the plans.

The Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill would have allowed Scots to change their legal gender by simply signing a statutory declaration, dropping the requirement for a formal medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

It was later vetoed by the UK Government over concerns it undermined women’s rights and safety.

Trans prisoner scandal

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) previously sent trans prisoners to jails that aligned with their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The practice was exposed when Isla Bryon, who was previously known as Adam Graham, was transported to the Cornton Vale women’s jail in 2023 after being convicted of two rapes.

In another contribution to the book, Rhona Hotchkiss, former prison governor, describes how changes in prison policy in Scotland led to the Bryson scandal .

Joanna Cherry, an SNP MP and a high-profile critic of Ms Sturgeon’s self-ID policy, has also written an essay for the book on “how she risked her political career for her beliefs.”

The synopsis also states: “On the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, this book captures an important moment in contemporary history: how a grassroots women’s movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, took on the political establishment - and changed the course of history.

“Through a collection of over thirty essays and photographs, some of the women involved tell the story of the five-year campaign to protect women’s sex-based rights.”

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Companies hoping to evade CFPB don't get what they want from Supreme Court

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ThreadsDeck? Threads in testing pinned columns on the web

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The Meater Plus smart meat thermometer drops to a record-low price

The Meater Plus smart meat thermometer has dropped to $70, its lowest price to date.

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At Google’s I/O developer conference, the company made its case to developers – and to some extent, consumers – why its bets on AI are ahead of rivals. At the event, the company unveiled a revamped AI-powered search engine, an AI model with an expanded context window of 2 million tokens, AI helpers across its suite of Workspace apps, like Gmail, Drive and Docs, tools to integrate its AI into developers’ apps and even a future vision for AI, codenamed Project Astra, which can respond to sight, sounds, voice, and text combined. Is Gemini Live sort of like Google Lens?

4 of the best-selling air compressors on Amazon are on sale for up to 27% off

Looking for an affordable way to keep your tires pumped up this winter? These portable air compressor deals can save you up to 27% off a new tire inflator.

Hacker claims theft of India's Samco account data

A hacker claims to be selling user records associated with Indian online brokerage firm Samco Securities, one of the widely-used platforms offering discount broking trading accounts for the country's stock exchanges. The pseudonymous hacker listed the data allegedly breached from Samco on a known cybercrime forum, which they are selling for an undisclosed amount. TechCrunch was given a sample of the allegedly stolen data, which we have verified as matching customers' personal data.

Premier League betting: Despite Manchester City's status as extreme title favorites, there's still value to be had Sunday

City is -1600 to win the league but only -900 to beat West Ham. A victory over West Ham locks up a fourth consecutive EPL title.

Top 25 MLB free-agent rankings: Are Juan Soto, Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso helping or hurting their future paydays?

Free agency is more than 5 months away, but today's performances will shape this winter's contracts.

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Fantasy baseball analyst Fred Zinkie delivers his full-scale blueprint to finishing Week 7 on a high note.

'College Football 25' cover will feature Travis Hunter, Quinn Ewers and Donovan Edwards in return on July 19

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Disney-Fox-Warner Bros. sports streaming service has a new name: Venu Sports

The streaming service, announced in February, is set to debut sometime this fall.

Fantasy Baseball Numbers Do Lie: Luck evening out will change fortunes for these 5 players

Dalton Del Don puts some fraudulent stats under the magnifying glass as we move through Week 7 of the fantasy baseball season.

Flock Safety's solar-powered cameras could make surveillance more widespread

Flock Safety is a multibillion-dollar startup that's got eyes everywhere. As of Wednesday, with the company's new Solar Condor cameras, those eyes are solar-powered and using wireless 5G networks to make them all that much easier to install. Adding solar power to the mix means that the company's mission to blanket the country with cameras just got a lot easier.

New York Giants reveal 'Century Red' uniforms ahead of franchise's 100th season

They will wear these up to two times during the 2024 NFL season.

NFL responds to Harrison Butker's commencement speech: His views are not the NFL's

"The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”

Colab's collaborative tools for engineers line up $21M in new funding

Engineers Adam Keating and Jeremy Andrews were tired of using spreadsheets and screenshots to collab with teammates — so they launched a startup, Colab, to build a better way. The two met as undergraduates at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where they studied mechanical engineering together. While they were completing their last internships prior to graduating (Andrews at Tesla, Keating at health startup Reflexion Medical), they noticed that professional engineering teams were relying on clunky tools — namely spreadsheets and Powerpoint decks — to get collaborative work done.

What the 4B movement and boycotting men tells American women about where we are

Instead of blaming women, we should strive to understand that this isn’t a personal attack on men – it’s a step forward in dismantling the patriarchy..

In 2017, the #MeToo movement gained momentum and encouraged women worldwide to speak out about their experiences living in a patriarchal society.

Today, in South Korea, the " 4B movement " − based on four Korean words that start with the letter B − is led by women protesting rampant misogyny, gender-based violence and discrimination.

These women are reclaiming their autonomy by refusing heterosexual marriage (“bihon”), childbirth (“bichulsan”), dating (“biyeonae”) and sex (“bisekseu”). Though some might want marriage or children, the risks of having to conform to traditional gender roles outweigh any benefits. Abstaining is the only way women can maintain a sense of self.

Reddit forums claim that the 4B movement is an online phenomenon that has been sensationalized by Western media. Search “4B movement” on TikTok and there are hundreds of videos on the topic, usually in reaction to dating horror stories or relationship struggles, each receiving millions of views.

One male creator went viral for his stance on single women, declaring that there’s something wrong with a woman who doesn’t understand that her sole purpose on earth is to create a family. One of the top comments has 93,000 likes: “ You’re just CONVINCING women to join the 4B movement at this point.”

Coopted or not, the 4B movement has drawn attention to the unmistakable: Relationship expectations between cisgender men and women are at odds.

Women’s rights are a relatively new notion

The concept of marriage was established as coverture , or a legal doctrine meant to erase a woman’s legal identity once she married. Women were to be treated as property; taking the husband’s surname signified transfer of ownership and their only qualification became the status of “wife.”

Though times have changed, and, at present, marriage is viewed more as tradition or financial practicality, women’s rights are a relatively new notion, having only come to fruition in the past century, and remnants of coverture remain.

Despite annals of oppression and erasure, women are gradually making inroads. Increased access to education and job opportunities have led to financial independence. In fact, in the United States as of 2022, women make up the majority of the college-educated workforce and outnumber men in undergraduate enrollment.

From Martha Washington to Jill Biden: Kamala Harris is the first female vice president, but women have a long history at the White House

Women are now able to make money, vote, own property, run for office and lead companies. As a result of growing civil liberties − and enabled by the freedom of choice − women are having children later. In 1970, the average woman in the United States had her first baby around 21 years old . Now, the birth rate among U.S. women in their early 30s is higher than those in their 20s .

Though there’s still a long way to go to achieve parity, women are experiencing a modicum of control over their lives for the very first time. We are living out the dreams of our female ancestors; aspirations have risen and so have our standards.

Thus, we are no longer settling for the bare minimum − especially when it comes to the men we choose to spend our lives with.

Dating culture hasn't kept up with women's success

But the more that women come into their power socially, politically and economically, the more they are experiencing difficulty in love. Unfortunately, dating culture has not kept up with the advancement of women. In fact, one recent study showed that the higher a woman’s social status, meaning the higher her investment in her education or career path, the less likely she was to have mating or "reproductive success.”

Truth is, men don’t know what to do with empowered women after being socialized into a world entrenched with patriarchal values. From a young age, girls are taught to be compassionate, caring and nurturing while boys are brought up to be strong, individualistic and assertive. Boys are often discouraged from expressing vulnerability or sadness whereas girls may be raised to share feelings more freely.

Great news: Men are enjoying NCAA women's basketball and living to talk about it

In adulthood, this renders as a horde of disorganized attachment styles where men are emotionally unavailable, withdrawing during conflict, and women are anxiously seeking reassurance. Due to society’s reluctance to change, gender roles persist masquerading as sexist stereotypes (men are to be tough and masculine, women must be soft and feminine) and any deviation from the norm is considered wholly unattractive.

There are always exceptions to the rule, of course, but as women increasingly de-center men from their lives, having to no longer rely on a man for survival, men are threatened and mistaking women’s liberation for misandry, or hatred.

In 2023, a team of researchers coined the term “misandry myth” revealing that feminist women's attitudes toward men were no more negative than men's attitudes toward men.

Women who want more don't hate men

Personally, I’m a lover girl; I do not hate men. I do not think all men are evil or toxic.

I do want to find a partner, get married and have children. But I will not do so at the cost of my inner peace – sacrificing my values or identity to overlook bad behavior – nor will I continue to downgrade my achievements or suppress my needs in order to inflate a man’s ego.

Hermeneutic labor , or understanding one’s own feelings while discerning those of others to devise solutions for relational issues, is a burden that disproportionately falls on women within heterosexual relationships.

In other words, because of their ability to self-reflect and repair, women are required to serve “both as informal therapists for men and as informal couples’ therapists for the relationship,” according to assistant professor Ellie Anderson .

What’s intended to be harmoniously symbiotic turns parasitic, with the woman giving an immense amount of her time and energy to the man.

At the end of the day, men want the perks of feminism – subscribing when it best serves their interests such as splitting the bill at dinner – without striving to decipher their role in perpetuating dysfunctional dynamics or deigning to advocate for women’s rights.

The 4B movement began as a protest, but it has morphed into a global awakening. Women are realizing that they can have more enriching lives single.

Instead of blaming women, we should strive to understand that this isn’t a personal attack on men. It’s a step forward in dismantling the patriarchy.

Isha Sharma is a first-generation Indian American writer based in Brooklyn, New York. A Case Western Reserve University and Georgetown University graduate, she aims to highlight and advocate for underrepresented voices in mainstream media. Follow her on Instagram: @isha__sharma

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More Than A Magazine, A Movement

Meet the Courageous Recipients of FMF’s Global Women’s Rights Awards

The 16th annual Global Women’s Rights Awards, hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms .), convened Tuesday evening in Los Angeles. This year’s awards celebrated the activism to secure final ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and the bravery of both U.S. and Afghan women in the face of misogynistic laws and leadership.

The evening recognized three honorees in particular who have contributed greatly to advancing the rights of women and girls: Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney , Dr. Austin Dennard , and the Bread and Roses documentary team, including director Sahra Mani . ( Explore the red carpet highlights on Instagram .)

Carolyn Maloney

Maloney is a leading advocate for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and chair of the national Sign4ERA.org petition drive. On Tuesday, she received the Champion of Equality Award, presented by FMF co-founder and president Ellie Smeal and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass .

“I firmly believe the Dobbs decision was a wake-up call,” said Maloney upon accepting the award. “If they can take back women’s rights there, they can take them back anywhere. An ERA puts women’s rights where they cannot be touched: in the Constitution. … It is painful and shocking that my daughters have fewer rights than I had at their age. The ERA can fix this, as courts in Nevada and Pennsylvania have used their state ERAs to expand abortion rights. In my 30 years in Congress, we have never been closer.”

The ERA passed Congress in 1972 with the needed two-thirds vote of the U.S. House and Senate. The required three-fourths of the state legislatures then ratified the ERA when Virginia became the 38th state in 2020. ERA advocates are now pushing members of both the House and Senate to support joint resolutions and a discharge petition , while making it a priority in the 2024 elections.

Seven in 10 voters support the ERA being placed in the Constitution, with a strong majority (57 percent) strongly supporting the ERA, according to a national poll by Lake Research Partners for Ms . and FMF, compared to 12 percent who oppose the ERA. And while abortion and the ERA are strong voter turnout issues separately, they’re even more powerful when combined. In particular, candidates talking about abortion and the ERA together is a powerful combination to mobilize Democrats and Independents (especially Independent women), younger women, voters who support abortion rights, college-educated women, Latinas and Black voters, and voters ages 30-39.

“One thing that is wonderful about feminist energy is that we support each other,” said Bass. “We lift each other up.”

“It is painful and shocking that my daughters have fewer rights than I had at their age… the Equal Rights Amendment can help fix this.” @CarolynBMaloney pic.twitter.com/crqoWysg6J — Ms. Magazine (@MsMagazine) May 15, 2024

On Wednesday, Bass signed the Sign4ERA.org petition publicly in downtown Los Angeles, alongside feminist leaders and ERA advocates including Spillar, Smeal, Huerta and Maloney.

“We are going to go to mayors all around the country to build up momentum for women’s rights,” said Bass . “We need an Equal Rights Amendment ever, given the Supreme Court. If we had an ERA, we wouldn’t have to worry about Congress threatening to pass a national law to prohibit a woman’s right to choose.”

Austin Dennard

At Dr. Austin Dennard’s 11-week appointment in 2022, she found out her fetus had anencephaly, meaning it was developing without part of the brain and skull. As an OB-GYN herself, Dennard was horrified , picturing her would-be child’s quality of life. Knowing she would not qualify under the exceptions of Texas’ abortion bans, since the risks were not immediate, Dennard traveled out of state to get abortion care so that she would not be forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term.

Today, Dr. Dennard is one of 22 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state’s draconian abortion bans. The historic case , which seeks to clarify the scope of Texas’ “medical emergency” exception under its state abortion bans, is the first time women have directly sued a state over abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. A ruling from the state Supreme Court is expected in the coming weeks or months.

“I’m just a mother like anyone else, a wife, an OB-GYN, just a woman who needed an abortion but could not get one in her home state. So how does someone who’s never been particularly political, or public, become the face of abortion? I’ll admit, over the past year I have turned to my adoring husband—who proudly considers himself a feminist, I might add—and asked him the same question,” said Dennard. “The answer is you. All of you. Everyone sitting here tonight. You have all helped me find my voice.”

Dennard received the Courage Award on Tuesday, presented by actor and activist Amy Brenneman.

“Austin is the face of what it looks like to authentically, compassionately and courageously stand up to what is wrong with the right-wing approach to women’s reproductive healthcare,” said Brenneman. “Since coming forward, her clinic has been threatened and harassed, but she’s refused to back down.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joe Biden (@joebiden)

Sahra Mani, Bread and Roses

Bread and Roses is a film that offers a powerful window into the seismic impact on women’s rights and livelihoods after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 and captures the spirit and resilience of Afghan women. The documentary is entirely composed of footage sent to Mani by friends on the ground in Afghanistan navigating a Taliban-ruled city. Together, these videos offer an unparalleled look at Kabul, a city still at war.

The documentary releases on June 21, 2024, on Apple TV.

Mani received the inaugural Mavis Leno Award for Global Women’s Rights, presented by philanthropist and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno , philanthropist and FMF board member Mavis Leno , and Dr. Sima Samar , former head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Starting in the late ’90s, Mavis Leno traveled throughout the U.S. speaking and garnering attention to the need to support Afghan women’s human rights. As chair of FMF’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid , Mavis recruited over 100 celebrities to reach the public on the plight of women and girls and urge the U.S. government not to recognize the Taliban. In a touching moment on Tuesday, Jay saluted his wife for her tireless advocacy, calling her “my conscience” as he remarked, “I just simply tell jokes.”

“Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls are not allowed to have access to education beyond sixth grade,” said Samar, who accepted the award on behalf of Mani (who could not be in attendance due to visa issues). “What is more, Women cannot work outside of the house, and cannot have access to contraception.

“Please remember the elections in the U.S. impact not only women of America but also women around the world. I urge you to elect officials who will protect women’s rights here and strengthen human rights and women’s rights worldwide. The violation of women’s rights is not only a problem for Afghanistan but for humanity as a whole.”

This OB-GYN Was Terrified For Her Patients Who Needed Abortions. Then She Became One.

‘Invisible, Disappeared, Erased’: The Systematic Oppression of Afghan Women and Girls Since the Taliban Takeover

Abortion Bans = Sex Discrimination

U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms . has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms . today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you . For as little as $5 each month , you’ll receive the print magazine along with our e-newsletters, action alerts, and invitations to Ms . Studios events and podcasts . We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity .

About Roxanne Szal

Meet the Anti-Feminist Women’s Group Leveraging Their ‘Independence’ to Convince Americans to Vote Republican

Care Is About Democracy—And It Wins at the Ballot Box

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THE CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES OF FEMINISM IN CONTEMPERORY WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENTS
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Essay On Feminism in English for Students
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.
Feminism
Feminism, the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women's rights and interests. Learn more about feminism.
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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 ...
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The first wave of the feminist movement is usually tied to the first formal Women's Rights Convention that was held in 1848. However, first wave feminists were influenced by the collective activism of women in various other reform movements. In particular, feminists drew strategic and tactical insight from women participating in the French Revolution, the Temperance Movement, and the ...
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First wave of feminism. The fight for women's right to vote in elections is known as the 'suffragette movement'. By the end of the 19th century, this had become a worldwide movement, and the words 'feminism' and 'feminist movement' started to be used from that point on. This first wave of feminism activism included mass ...
Feminist movement
The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. [1] Such issues are women's liberation, reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage ...
Feminism: 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 ...
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19th Century Feminist Movements. What has come to be called the first wave of the feminist movement began in the mid 19th century and lasted until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. White middle-class first wave feminists in the 19th century to early 20th century, such as suffragist leaders Elizabeth ...
Feminism: An Essay
Feminism: An Essay By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 27, 2016 • ( 6). Feminism as a movement gained potential in the twentieth century, marking the culmination of two centuries' struggle for cultural roles and socio-political rights — a struggle which first found its expression in Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The movement gained increasing prominence ...
PDF From Classic to Current: Inspiring Essays on Feminism
The Future is Feminist: Radical, Funny, and Inspiring Writing by Women. Chronicle Books, 2019. 144 pages. $24.95, ISBN 978-1452168333. We've all heard the saying or seen the T-shirts: "The future is feminist!" Now we have the book to confirm it. Between these brightly colored cov-ers are 21 essays about feminism's past, present, and future.
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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 ...
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Feminism, a belief in the political, economic and cultural equality of women, has roots in the earliest eras of human civilization. It is typically separated into three waves: first wave feminism ...
Women's rights movement
women's rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and '70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women.It coincided with and is recognized as part of the "second wave" of feminism.While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women's legal rights, especially the ...
Women, Gender, and Families of Color
In her groundbreaking essay "Feminism: A Transformational Politic," bell hooks boldly declares, "Embedded in the commitment to feminist revolution is the challenge to love" (hooks 1989, 26). These words, and her recognition of love as the defining quality of feminism, resonated with me immediately and drew me deeply to her work.
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Feminist Theory. Feminist theory is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues. It uses the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and uneven power relations. Radical feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in perpetuating male dominance (note that "radical" means ...
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Liberal Feminism. The definition of liberal feminism is the following: "a particular approach to achieving equality between men and women that emphasizes the power of an individual person to alter discriminatory practices against women" ("Liberal Feminism: Definition & Theory" par. 2). In other words, it is based on the idea that in a ...
feminism summary
Women's rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and '70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the "second wave" of feminism. While the first-wave feminism. Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer ...
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Unlike many feminist comrades, I believe women and men must share a common understanding--a basic knowledge of what feminism is--if it is ever to be a powerful mass-based political movement. In Feminist Theory: from margin to center, I suggest that defining feminism broadly as "a movement to end sexism and sexist oppression" would enable us to ...
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Modern Feminist Movements Essay. Exclusively available on IvyPanda. Today many sociologists and psychologists discuss the phenomenon that contemporary women express more and more masculine features when men are inclined to act atypically to their gender role and appear to have some feminine features. We will write a custom essay on your topic.
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The Woman Liberation Movement was a type of feminist that began in the late 1960s and went on throughout the 1970s. In the 1960s and 1970s it originally focused on dismantling workplace inequality such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequality. The role of women has changed by The Women's Liberation Movement and The Feminist ...
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ACADEMIC ESSAY: The Social Movement of Feminism
The essay also demonstrated examples of social movements and how Feminism linked into it. Finally, the question of Feminism is social movement elaborated how Feminism activities affected the sense of global justice on women in terms of globalisation process on Feminism movement. Mohamed Hagi Mohamoud. Department of Politics and International ...
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Through feminist arguments, the movement challenges societal norms and promotes women empowerment. Persuasive and argumentative essays on feminism serve as powerful tools to raise awareness and spark change. These papers delve into feminist topics for essays, addressing issues such as gender inequality, reproductive justice, and much more.
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September 11, 2023. 7 minutes. The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. Not unlike the emergence of feminist theory and criticism in the domains of art and literature, the women's movement of the late 1960s and 1970s sparked a focused interrogation of images of women in film and of women's participation in film ...
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JK Rowling contributes to new feminist book on struggle against SNP's trans agenda. ... how a grassroots women's movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the ...
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Essay on Feminism

Importance of Feminism

Impact of Feminism

Conclusion of the Essay on Feminism

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5 Essays About Feminism

“Trickle-Down Feminism” – Sarah Jaffe

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

“Toward a Trans* Feminism” – Jack Halberstam

“Rebecca Solnit: How Change Happens” – Rebecca Solnit

“Bad Feminist” extract – Roxane Gay

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Feminism: The Second Wave

FEMINISM : The Second Wave

The Second Wave

The Predecessor

The Instigator

The Movement Begins

The Women's Liberation Movement

The Civil Rights Movement

Rethinking Feminism

The Gay Rights Movement

Bra Burning Women

19th Century Feminist Movements

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Feminism: An Essay

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

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The first wave: 1848 to 1920

Further reading: first-wave feminism

The second wave: 1963 to the 1980s

Further reading: second-wave feminism

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

Further reading: third-wave feminism

The present day: a fourth wave?

Further reading: fourth-wave feminism

So is there a generational war between feminists?

Inside the bombshell scandal that prompted two Miss USAs to step down

Early Feminists

First Wave Feminism: Women’s Suffrage and The Seneca Falls Convention

The 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote

Women And Work

Second Wave Feminism: Women's Liberation

Third Wave Feminism: Who Benefits From the Feminist Movement?

#MeToo and Women’s Marches

Sign up for Inside History

Women, Gender, and Families of Color

bell hooks: Feminism as the Transformational Work of Love

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Module 9: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

The Feminist Movement

First Wave Feminism (1848-1920)

Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1980s)

Link to Learning

Third Wave Feminism (1990s-2008)

Fourth Wave Feminism (2008-present)

Feminist Theory

Standpoint Theory