Lesson Three

The battle over equality for women is the longest revolution on record, and one that's caused a fair bit of anxiety. In fact, it has aroused (and continues to arouse) more fear, dread, and resistance than any other group of people fighting for equal treatment in society. Seems like every 50 years, it shows up again, wearing a new outfit but dressed to fight the same war. And when it arrives, it fights hard for10-20 years—it comes on strong with amazing vision and power. Then the visionary dies, the movement fades and it hits the dressing room to change into new garb to fight the next battle.

Over the past century, there have been 3 waves of feminism:

1 st wave is associated with the suffragist movement of the early 1900s

2 nd wave feminism is associated with social and economic equality of the early 1970s

3 rd wave feminism is associated with cultural critiques of the early 1990s

 

The 1 st wave of the feminist movement for equality began as early as 1792 with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman . At the time, women had few legal, social or economic rights —they had no direct relationship to the law outside of their relationships as daughters or wives. In fact, married women lost property rights upon marriage and women were mostly barred from higher education. Another 50 years passed before the first wave of feminism really gained momentum. It all began with the world Anti-Slavery Convention in London 1840 . When the American women delegates arrived at the conference, they found that they would be required to sit behind a curtain and not be seen or heard! The protest and outrage that followed the segregation of women at the Anti-Slavery Convention paved the way for the landmark Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 , which marked the first important expression of the demand for women's equality.

Many early feminist activists had experience with social activism in the abolition movement . They became aware of inequalities elsewhere in societ y doing anti-slavery activism, and, in doing so, realized that to improve women's status a separate movement was required. Early feminist activism began to gain momentum, and led to the1878 introduction of the ‘ Anthony Amendment' (named after the eminent feminist leader Susan B. Anthony) into Congress. This amendment was proposed to give women the right to vote, because even though the 14 th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote to all citizens, women continued to be disenfranchised. Unfortunately, even with decades of feminist activism, it took Congress 42 years to ratify the Anthony Amendment! So, in 1920, the 19 th Amendment was ratified, acknowledging women's position as full citizens and guaranteeing their right to vote, declaring, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

That brings us to the 2 nd wave of feminism. By the 1950s, women were experiencing sharp conflict among the expectations that were placed on them—they were expected to be wife and mothers, roles that did not always fit with their high levels of education and experience in the workforce. Women of these years didn't always believe that Father Knows Best , and thus the growing undercurrent of resentment led to the beginnings of the second wave of the feminist movement.

Many early feminists were reacting to sexism that they saw in the other social movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Women played an integral role in social groups agitating for peace, civil rights, social welfare and free speech, and were angered by the ways in which they were routinely subordinated by the men in charge. Other early feminists joined together to talk about the loss of their jobs when men returned home from World War II. Women across the country began conversations about the systemic inequality facing women. As these discussions gained momentum, women began networking and lobbying for their own rights in society. In 1966 a group of women formed the National Organization for Women (NOW) , an organization “dedicated to making legal, political, social and economic change in our society in order to achieve our goal, which is to eliminate sexism and end all oppression.”

The second wave of feminism led to a number of successes, including legal victories (such as new rape legistlation), education victories (making changes in curricula and textbooks to remove sexist overtones), social victories (bringing taboo topics such as violence against women into public conversation), parental victories (including the increase of day-care centers and parental leave laws), employment victories (unionizing jobs predominantly held by women, often referred to as ‘pink-collar' jobs), and even personal victories (such as changing the perceptions of women who marry late or not at all, or women who leave abusive partners, or even women who live in alternative family structures).

And though the second wave of feminism was wildly successful, the movement itself was often less than perfect. Not the least of these tensions stemmed from the fact that the vast majority of feminist leaders were white women, and they set the feminist agenda to reflect their needs, hopes and desires. Not surprisingly, women of color critiqued the feminist platform as exclusionary, and began to point out the racism and classism and homophobia that existed in the movement. Their critiques have opened up the space for new conversations about the future of feminism without racism, and has led to a feminist movement that values the diversity inherent in women's lives.

That brings us to feminism today. Many have sounded the death knell of feminism, and feminism has been declared obsolete, irrelevant and passé. Is there a third wave of feminism? Today, feminism is much less a single, orchestrated social movement and is instead an eclectic mix of women and men organizing around a variety of issues. So while it worked for second wave feminists to fight for equality on all fronts and for all women, third wavers have recognized that that sort of movement is no longer useful in today's society. What, then, is feminism today? It's not surprising that so many young women struggle with the feminist label. And it's not because young women don't appreciate the suffragists of the first wave or the women's libbers of the second wave. It's also not because they are scared of being labeled man-haters, lesbians, witches, or any of the numerous stereotypes our media hurls at feminist women. Oftentimes, young women and men believe that being a “feminist” today requires all of us to be too perfect, too good, too much of an activist, a champion, a constant advocate. As Rebecca Walker (a popular third wave feminist) writes, “For many of us it seems that to be a feminist in the way that we have seen or understood feminism is to conform to an identity and way of living that doesn't allow for individuality, complexity, or less than perfect personal histories. We fear that the identity will dictate and regulate our lives, instantaneously pitting us against someone, forcing us to choose inflexible and unchanging sides, female against male, black against white, oppressed against oppressor, good against bad.”

Third wave feminists want a different sort of feminism. We grew up in a time of bisexual, interracial, transgender, multiculturalism—we know that things are never either/or, and we want our feminism to reflect that. Third wave feminism is much more nuanced and individual and alternative. Many believe that the third wave of feminism started with the Riot Grrrl movement of the early to mid-1990s which spoke out about gender inequality through zines, web sites, and song lyrics. This new wave of feminism grew out of an analysis of everyday life, continuing and building on the feminist tradition of allowing the personal to influence the theoretical.

A particular focus of the early third wave feminists was their reclamation of words like bitch, slut, girl and cunt. For so long those words were used against women . Now using them is women's attempt to reclaim them and to say, as Amy Richards (another third wave feminist) says "Yes, I am difficult. I am a bitch. Call me a bitch. I'm going to reclaim bitch and make it my own word, because the word has more hostility when it's being used against me than when it's being used by me." Third wave feminists realize that language is powerful and women can access this power by reclaiming words that have been used to degrade. The same is true with the word “feminist,” which has a different meaning if it is used against you (“What are you, a FEMINIST?!?”) versus used by you (“I'm a feminist, damn it!”)

So third wavers have a new approach to feminism. We have distinctive ideas of what is important, what is necessary, what our strategies will be, and how we will accomplish our goals. How will we use our personal history and experience to define our issues and act on them? How will we negotiate our differences? The third wave is young and we are still learning to negotiate the differences in not just our cultures, races, sexualities, and classes, but our experiences that were shaped by these factors. Theorizing and understanding these differences will help us break down the barriers differences cause so we may work together without sacrificing our identities.

What exactly is third wave feminism? Name an issue in women's lives: body image, child care, sexuality, marriage, birth, paid work, housework, etc. and you can bet that it's a feminist issue and that it's part of the third wave of feminism.