Feminism

Chapter 4 History of Feminism: Part II

This chapter contains: The different waves of Feminism throughout history. 

First wave

First-wave feminism refers to an extended period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. Originally it focused on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of women's suffrage. Yet feminists such as Voltairine de Cleyre and Margaret Sanger were still active in campaigning for women's sexual, reproductive, and economic rights at this time. In 1854, Florence Nightingale established female nurses as adjuncts to the military.

The term first wave was coined retrospectively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural inequalities as political inequalities.

Second wave

Second-wave feminism refers to the period of activity in the early 1960s and lasting through the late 1980s. The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation of the earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA. Second-wave feminism has continued to exist since that time and coexists with what is termed third-wave feminism. The scholar Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights such as suffrage, whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as ending discrimination.

The feminist activist and author Carol Hanisch coined the slogan "The Personal is Political" which became synonymous with the second wave. Second-wave feminists saw women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power structures.

Third wave

Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's essentialist definitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasize the experiences of upper middle-class white women.

A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on "micro-politics" and challenge the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females. The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, Bell Hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other black feminists, sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of race-related subjectivities.

Fourth wave

The fourth wave of feminism is a recent development within the feminist movement. Jennifer Baumgardner identifies fourth-wave feminism as starting in 2008 and continuing into the present day. Kira Cochrane, author of All the Rebel Women: The Rise of the Fourth Wave of Feminism, defines fourth wave feminism as a movement that is connected through technology. Researcher, Diana Diamond, defines fourth wave feminism as a movement that "combines politics, psychology, and spirituality in an overarching vision of change."

Fourth wave feminism is often associated with online feminism, especially using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and other forms of social media to discuss, uplift, and activate gender equality and social justice.According to NOW Toronto, the internet has created a "call-out" culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be called out and challenged immediately with relative ease. This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on micro-politics and challenging sexism and misogyny insofar as they appear in everyday rhetoric, advertising, film, television and literature, the media, and so on. This online feminism aspect of the fourth wave has impacted how companies market to women so that they are not "called out" for sexism in their marketing strategies.

Besides online feminism, the fourth-wave has been associated with the increased focus on intersectionality, including the repudiation of trans-exclusionary radical feminism and a focus on solidarity with other social justice movements.

Other aspects of fourth-wave feminism include individuals who are uncomfortable with the word feminism, because of "assumptions of a gender binary and exclusionary subtext: 'For women only,'" according to Martha Rampton, director of the Centre for Gender Equality at Pacific University Oregon. "Yet the word is winning the day," she wrote in 2015

Problems of fourth wave:

Aside from speculations that the Fourth-wave of feminism may not even exist, there are many problems that present themselves with the new dependence on technology. An article from Blue Stockings Magazine states that "The key problem that this '4th Wave' will face will be the disproportionate access to and ownership of digital media devices." The Fourth wave is then left with the "inherent classism and ableism" created by giving the biggest voice to those who can afford and use technology.

Bibliography:

http://www.gender.cawater-info.net/knowledge_base/rubricator/feminism_e.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_feminism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-wave_of_feminism