Waves of Feminism

Why This Matters

When you encounter feminist political thought on an exam, you're not just being asked to recall dates and names—you're being tested on your understanding of how social movements evolve, why certain strategies emerge in specific historical contexts, and what theoretical frameworks shape political activism. The waves of feminism represent more than a timeline; they demonstrate how political movements respond to changing material conditions, build on previous gains, and fracture along ideological lines about the very nature of oppression itself.

Each wave and theoretical strand you'll study illustrates core concepts in political theory: the tension between reform and revolution, the challenge of universal versus particular claims, and the question of who gets to define liberation. Don't just memorize which wave happened when—know what type of analysis each approach represents and how they critique one another. That comparative understanding is what separates a strong exam response from a surface-level answer.

---

The Historical Waves: How the Movement Evolved

The "wave" metaphor captures how feminist activism has surged in distinct periods, each responding to the limitations and achievements of what came before. Each wave expanded the definition of "women's issues" while also generating internal debates about priorities and methods.

First Wave Feminism

• Legal equality and suffrage—the primary focus was securing formal citizenship rights, particularly the vote, within existing liberal democratic frameworks
• Key figures include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth, whose "Ain't I a Woman?" speech exposed tensions around race within the movement
• 19th Amendment (1920) marked the major U.S. achievement, though voting rights remained restricted for many women of color until the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Second Wave Feminism

• "The personal is political"—this wave expanded feminist analysis beyond legal rights to examine how private life reproduces gender inequality through family structure, sexuality, and workplace dynamics
• Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" (1963) articulated the dissatisfaction of white suburban housewives, while Gloria Steinem brought feminist ideas to mainstream media
• Major legislative wins include Roe v. Wade (1973) and Title IX (1972), demonstrating the wave's focus on reproductive autonomy and institutional access

Third Wave Feminism

• Individualism and diversity—emerging in the 1990s, this wave challenged the idea of a universal "women's experience" and emphasized the multiplicity of feminisms
• Rebecca Walker coined the term in 1992, while Judith Butler's work on gender performativity fundamentally questioned whether "woman" was a stable category at all
• Body positivity, sexual freedom, and intersectionality became central concerns, reflecting a generation that inherited legal gains but faced persistent cultural barriers

Fourth Wave Feminism

• Digital activism and viral movements—characterized by social media organizing, this wave uses technology to expose everyday sexism and mobilize rapid collective response
• #MeToo movement exemplifies Fourth Wave tactics: decentralized, testimonial, and focused on accountability for sexual harassment and assault
• Inclusivity debates intensify around transgender rights, sex work, and whose voices center the movement—reflecting unresolved tensions from earlier waves

---

Theoretical Frameworks: How Feminists Diagnose Oppression

Beyond the historical waves, feminist political thought divides along analytical lines—different theories about what causes gender inequality and what would end it. These frameworks often cut across waves and can be in direct tension with one another.

Liberal Feminism

• Reform within existing structures—advocates for gender equality through legal changes, policy reform, and equal opportunity without fundamentally restructuring society
• Individual rights and meritocracy are central values, emphasizing education, workforce participation, and removing formal barriers to women's advancement
• John Stuart Mill and Betty Friedan represent this tradition, which critics argue accepts too much of the existing economic and political order

Radical Feminism

• Patriarchy as the root cause—views male dominance as a fundamental, cross-cultural system of oppression that predates and underlies other forms of hierarchy
• Structural transformation required—unlike liberal feminism, radical feminism argues that reform is insufficient; society must be reorganized to eliminate male control over women's bodies and labor
• Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon focused particularly on sexuality and pornography as sites where patriarchal power operates

Marxist/Socialist Feminism

• Capitalism and patriarchy intertwined—analyzes how economic structures produce and depend on women's unpaid domestic labor and lower wages
• Class struggle lens means that gender liberation requires economic transformation, not just legal or cultural change; the nuclear family serves capitalist reproduction
• Silvia Federici's work on wages for housework and Angela Davis's analysis of race, gender, and class exemplify this framework's attention to material conditions

Ecofeminism

• Domination of women and nature linked—argues that patriarchal logic treats both women and the environment as resources to be exploited and controlled
• Environmental justice as feminist issue—sustainability, climate change, and ecological destruction cannot be separated from gender analysis
• Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant connect colonialism, capitalism, and environmental degradation to the oppression of women, particularly in the Global South

---

Critical Interventions: Who Is "Woman"?

Some of the most significant feminist theoretical work challenges the category of "woman" itself, asking whose experiences have defined feminist politics and whose have been excluded.

Intersectional Feminism

• Kimberlé Crenshaw's framework—introduced in 1989 to analyze how race, class, gender, and other identities create overlapping and compounding forms of discrimination
• Beyond additive models—intersectionality argues that a Black woman's experience isn't "racism + sexism" but a distinct form of oppression that neither antiracist nor feminist frameworks alone can address
• Methodological and political implications for research, policy, and activism: who is centered matters for what solutions get proposed

Postcolonial Feminism

• Critique of Western feminism's universalism—challenges the assumption that Euro-American feminist frameworks apply globally or represent all women's interests
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty's "Under Western Eyes" argues that Western feminists often construct "Third World women" as passive victims, erasing their agency and diverse contexts
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's question "Can the Subaltern Speak?" examines how colonial power structures shape whose voices get heard, even in liberatory movements

---

Quick Reference Table

---

Self-Check Questions

1. What distinguishes liberal feminism's approach to change from radical feminism's? Which theorists best represent each position?

2. How does intersectionality challenge earlier feminist frameworks, and why did Crenshaw argue that existing civil rights and feminist approaches were insufficient?

3. Compare Second Wave and Third Wave feminism: what did Third Wave feminists critique about their predecessors' assumptions?

4. If an FRQ asked you to evaluate feminist critiques of capitalism, which two theoretical frameworks would you draw on, and how do their analyses differ?

5. How might a postcolonial feminist critique the priorities and assumptions of First Wave feminism in the United States and Britain?