the waves of feminism

While I have always considered myself a feminist, I have to admit that I never really knew much about the history of feminism. In fact, I hardly knew what exactly the current feminist movement entailed. So when I was asked to write up an article about the different waves of feminism I jumped at the chance. Nothing quite like learning while doing, right?

So I have compiled below a quick, simple guide to the three feminist waves.

First wave feminism:
This wave of feminism began in the 1800s and lasted through to the early twentieth century. Though there were women fighting for equality long before that, this was the first time a large, organised movement had been formed. This wave of feminism was focused around officially mandated inequalities, such as education, employment, marriage laws (divorce and child custody laws), property rights and healthcare. However, this movement is most famous for their fight for suffrage. This movement is usually said to have ended when women gained the right to vote, with another strong feminist wave not springing up again until the early 1960s.

Second wave feminism:
Second wave feminism began in the early 1960s and is still somewhat around today, though many claim that it ended in the late 1980s with the Feminist Sex Wars (a division between the ‘anti-pornography’ feminists and the ‘sex-positive’ feminists). This wave was concerned with unofficial inequalities, and the link that they had with legally mandated inequalities. One could not change without the other. Their focus was on the sexist structures of power: again in the workplace (a strong focus on pay gaps), in the family, in education, and, more controversially, reproductive rights. While this movement did have many successes, it was seen by some to have ultimately to have failed in its goals. This is when the third wave of feminism arose.

Third wave feminism:
Third wave feminism is similar to second wave feminism (with many of the same issues still being debated), but looks at it from the view of all, rather than simply the white middle-class women who seemed to have dominated second-wave feminism. Differences had arisen before the “end” of the second movement between social feminism, black feminism, liberal feminism and lesbian feminism, all of which the third wave is trying to address. The focus of third wave feminism has been criticised as being too broad; the focus being to fight all inequalities that women face simply because of their economic status, age, sexual orientation, gender and race.

Another term that has sadly gained popularity over the last decade is ‘post feminism’ – meaning that the struggles of second wave feminism have been achieved, or are no longer an issue, making third-wave feminism irrelevant and unnecessary (which it, obviously, is not).

I hope this guide answers any questions about feminism that you may have had. If not, the references below (which I used for this article) are a valuable source of information about the history of feminism, as well as what feminism means today.

References:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/392800/feminism_in_waves_a_brief_overwiew_pg3.html?cat=75

http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/Departments/ws/1st,_2nd,_3rd_wave.htm

http://www.uscphilosophy.org/2011/08/third-wave-feminism.html

(Image credit: 1.)