The Third Wave Feminism

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The social movement of third wave feminism began in the middle of the 1990s and started a new aspect of looking at the feminists perspectives in the world. The third wave of feminism is the beginnings of a social movement in regards to gender equality, sexuality and defining “womanhood”. Third wave feminism covers a broad spectrum however, not just gender equality, sexuality and defining “womanhood” but; crime against women, challenging women standards, the use of derogatory words that turn women against women, and the old school ideology of women being subservient to men, are just to name a few of the issues that cycle within third wave feminism. Because of this broad spectrum, many argue that third wave feminism is not a social movement at …show more content…

The first wave of feminism took place within the late 1800s and the early 1900s and, focused primarily on women’s legal rights along with women’s suffrage or, the right to vote. This first wave had two prominent women leaders; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The second wave of feminism took place from the 1960s to the early1990s and focused primarily on the view as women as a minority group and, sexuality and reproductive rights were prominent issues at this time (Rampton, 2014). This wave is most commonly referred to as the women’s liberation movement and formed multiple feminist groups. For instance, the second wave of feminism gave birth to the radical feminist; a radical feminist is one that focuses on the patriarchy as a large reason to women’s oppression. Most recently the third wave of feminism has been attempting to make a strong social impact within gender equality, statements against women violence and breaking women talking down to women. This paper will explore the third wave of feminism as the prospects of social movement and the movement’s prominent figures and …show more content…

The interesting concept with these three leadership parties is that they all contrast one another yet, they all hold a responsibility within the third wave of feminism, “perhaps the most important function of social movement leaders is becoming the symbol of their movement” (Woodward, Denton, 2014, p.248). All three became a figure of the movement, all three symbolized a part of the third wave of feminism and the leadership is still growing

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