It is a well agreed idea that there have been three major “waves” of feminism. The first “wave” of feminism took place from around the early to mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The second wave took place from the nineteen-sixties to the nineteen-eighties. The third wave is generally thought to be in the nineteen-nineties. There is argument that there is a separate fourth wave of feminism that is happening today. These periods, or waves, are divided by the main ideas and goals that each movement wanted to accomplish. This essay will explore the history of feminism and how they compare to the new fourth wave of feminism happening right now.
The first main wave of feminism really started in the mid nineteenth century. People
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In 1992, the Supreme Court reaffirmed a woman’s right to have an abortion. In 1996, the Supreme court ruled that a public all-boys military school in Virginia had to admit girls to get public funding. Third wave feminism was about reproductive rights and freeing the female body. Fourth wave feminism started in the early twenty-first century. The main themes of fourth wave feminism are women in the workplace, exploring sexuality, transgender issues, reproductive rights, and masculinity expectations. Each of these topics will be touched upon.
Women getting treated equally in the workplace is an important issues within the feminist movement. This includes both the gender pay gap as well as behavior in the workplace. “Equal pay for equal work” is a common phrase used to protest men getting paid more than women for the same job with the same experience. Despite 58.6% of all Bachelor degrees being earned by women, women still continue to make significantly less money than men. Women earn, on average, about 23.7% less than men, creating the phrase, “seventy-seven cents to a man’s dollar.” Women can also be treated differently than men in the workplace. One waitress told Women’s Health that when two male waiters talk to each other, there is nothing wrong, although when two female waitresses talk, it is assumed that they are gossiping and they are told to get back to work. Karen, who is 27, told Bustle that when she was an intern,
Throughout the world, discrimination in all forms has continued to be a constant struggle; whether it’s racial, gender based, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything that makes one person different from another, it’s an everyday occurrence. A major place that discrimination is occurring at is in the workplace. One of the largest problems discrimination issues is believed to be gender. Women, who have the same amount of experience as men are not getting paid at the same rate as men, these women also are equally trained and educated. According to the article Gender Pay, it was discovered in 2007 that a woman makes 81 cents for every dollar a man earns.(“Gender Pay”) . This shouldn’t be happening in today’s society for the fact the society lived in today is suppose to be more accepting. Men are viewed as being more popular, valuable and having higher powers than women. The Reason Discrimination is involved in the equal pay equal work is because of the significance it has to how some businesses pay their employees.
The 1960s cultural movement in the United States sent shockwaves through American society. Nearly every aspect of traditional life was challenged and among these was the role of women. Following in the footsteps of suffragettes during the turn of the twentieth century, a new wave of feminism was emerging in the United States that aspired to take the women's right movement beyond the realm of constitutional rights. This movement, now known as second-wave feminism, sought to bring what they viewed as true gender equality by focusing on a number of issues that negatively affected women. The second-wave accomplished much, but there is a historical consensus that it came to an end during the eighties, giving way to a third-wave of feminism in the early nineties.
In the United States there have been three waves of women’s rights movements. The first movement was called the women’s right movement. This movement was mainly focused on white women and their right to vote as well as hold office. (Wood, p.62) The second movement was the women’s liberation movement, also known as radical feminism. This movement mainly impacted college students because college campuses were a great place for radical feminism to emerge. The radical feminists protested the Vietnam War and fought for civil rights. The women in this movement risked their lives and physical abuse just like the males did. (Wood, p.64) The third wave of feminism in the United States was known as third- wave feminism. In this movement woman with different ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, classes, appearances, sexual orientation and gender identities came together to fight for their rights as women. (Wood, p.74)
Feminism is categorized into 4 main stages, known as the first-wave feminism (early 20th c, second-wave feminism (the 1960s to mid-1980s), third-wave feminism (1990s), and post-feminism (21st c). The emergence of second-wave feminism is distinguished by
The first wave of feminism is more commonly known as the women’s liberation or women’s suffrage movement. First wave feminist’s main concern was in political power especially in terms of the right to vote, having a voice. They believed that changes within society could be made gradually within society to achieve equality rather than having to demolish the way things were and reconstruct them.
Nancy Fraser (2013) writes the dilemma in the second wave feminism in the middle of contemporary capitalism. In her book, she mentioned a scenario of second wave feminism in three acts; first, represents the moment when the feminist joined radical movement to transform society through uncovering gender injustice and capitalism 's androcentrism. Second, she outlines with regret, is a change from redistribution to recognition and difference and a shift to political identity that risk to support neoliberalism through effort to build a free market society. Lastly, a recovery of the movement. Fraser contends for a reinvigorated feminism to join other emancipatory forces, so they are ready to address the global monetary crisis and develop democratic control (Fraser, 2013:
Throughout the waves of liberal feminism, there is a new characteristic to be associated with the feminist group. In the first waves, it’s white, married, wealthy women who fit the criteria to be a feminist. The first wave begins in 1900 and ends around 1920, during the times of the Suffragettes. This wave began to introduce the inequalities between men and women, especially relating to voting and education. The second wave began to rise in 1950 which introduced reproductive rights, entitlement to sex, marriage, jobs, social lives, and politics. This wave continued to the 1970’s. It’s not until the third wave, which hits in the 1990’s, when inequalities among women are introduced to the feminist movement (FYS Class Notes).
The third wave of feminism is readopting the second wave by young women, for young women. the main goal for third wave was for women to reclaim their bodies for themselves and fighting the patriarchy.
The goal of the first wave was to open up more opportunities women including being able to vote. The second wave of feminism occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s. This wave predominantly revolved around the wage gap, sexuality, and reproductive rights. The passing of the Equal Rights Amendment which was an amendment proposed to the United States Constitution guaranteeing social equality for both genders was a priority of the movement. The third wave of feminism began in the 90s and is still ongoing. This waves main focus is on patriarchy. Unlike the previous two waves, politics is not the main focus although it is a huge factor, third wave feminism is about breaking gender boundaries and old conceptions of what men and women should be. This wave is also all inclusive as I have mentioned before which is the biggest difference between the second and third wave. The third wave of feminism has redefined what the movement is, it used to be about politics and women only, feminism is now much
The origins of Third Wave feminism are highly debated, as there is no clear commonality that this wave uses to differentiate between the First and Second waves that occurred prior. Emerging during the 1990’s, Third Wave feminism sought to build upon the achievements and ideas that were accomplished during First and Second wave’s, by increasing the significance and accessibility of its ideas to a greater spectrum of people.
A brief summary on the position of Women in the years before 1960; the resurgence of the feminist movement – the hows and whys of second wave feminism, and the main principals behind the movement; the effect the popularity of the feminist movement had on women in education and politics; the roles of female students as part of the whole in protests and activism; the lasting influence of second wave feminism on modern students – the third wave. Now, I’ve found that the events of second wave feminism during this period are often overshadowed as part of general history by the Civil Rights movements and the upheaval of the Vietnam War, and so as part of my research I found that the causes for the re-emergence of popular feminism to be integral to its functionality as a movement. Position of Women in the Years Before
Discrimination at work is a touchy issue. Most people, if not all, have experienced some sort or form of it and they ignored it, quit, or got fired from their job. Women tend to be more emotional than men and when women are judged and discriminated they are offended by it immediately. Also, the fact of women getting a lower income than men for the same job is almost unbelievable. It is very important to be concerned on the issue because it is constantly increasing throughout the United States. It upsets me that women are paid less than men because women have the same ability and work ethic as men do, but they are looked at differently. According to AAUW, women are making 77 percent of what men make. This rate hasn’t changed since 2002 (Hill, 2013). Statistics show that women will never make as much as men due to the thought of never being comparable to men (Williams, 2013).
At the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries, a series of events occurred that would be known as the feminist movement. During this time, many women were starting to change the way they thought of themselves and wanted to change their social roles. In his views on feminist analysis Donald Hall says, “Feminist methodologies focus on gender.and explore the complex ways in which women have been denied social power and the right to various forms of self-expression. In this context the many perspectives that fall under the heading ‘feminism’ vary wildly”(Hall 199). Since women were denied social power and self-expression, they went against what society saw as acceptable, a patriarchal world.
In the western world, the feminist movement has gone through three waves; the first
The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then, it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be three waves of feminism, each wave fighting for a different issue concerning women’s rights. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be enacted, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases.