Feminism is constituted as a current of thought that brings together a set of movements and ideologies, both political and cultural and economic, that seek to achieve gender equity and the transformation of power relations between the sexes.
It could be understood that this political and social movement seeks to make women -as a human collective- aware of the oppression, domination and exploitation to which they have been and are subjected by men throughout history. Over recent years, the word feminism has been gaining relevance in many contexts, in some of them surrounded by a negative connotation. Feminism is not hating men, nor wanting the supremacy of women.
Even so, there is still some reluctance to declare themselves openly feminist or to support this ideology on the part of some groups due to the lack of knowledge of its meaning.
Achieving absolute equality of rights between men and women continues to be one of the main demands of feminism in the XXI century. The woman has had to fight so that her figure was respected in society. It is undeniable that a large part of human cultures have been (and many continue to be) tremendously sexist, relegating women to an absolutely secondary role.
Fortunately, the woman rose and refused to be simply an object to serve men and a body to give offspring. The movement has encountered various obstacles.
In this sense, feminism is divided into different waves that are marked by historical and relevant chapters in which women fought for fundamental rights such as education, suffrage and labor equality.
The feminist struggle for the vindication of their rights began at the time of the French Revolution. Since then, four periods or waves are counted in which women have conquered intense battles. And in this present essay, we will delve deeper into the waves of feminism and its historical context, addressing the progress it has had in society and why it is necessary to promote it.
• According to Constance Grady, the use of the term “waves” dates back to 1968, when journalist Martha Weinman Lear wrote an article for the New York Times called “The Second Feminist Wave”. With that title, Weinman Lear tried to condense into an image the massive resurgence of the feminist movement in the United States of America, after the silence that had elapsed during the period of the two world wars of the 20th century. In the same categorizing movement, the American journalist declared the suffragette movement a “first wave”, establishing continuity in the struggle for women’s rights with two major peaks of intensity. This new terminology spread rapidly and became the popular way of defining feminism. Although the metaphor of “feminist waves” is useful for people to distinguish between the different stages of women’s activism, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact dates of the beginning or end of each wave.
First wave.
The first feminist wave developed throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although it took place in various parts of the world.
In the context of both the Enlightenment, a European cultural and intellectual movement, and the Industrial Revolution, a group of European writers and thinkers launch ideas about the nature of women, questioning the hierarchy of the sexes and pointing out the lack of coherence in the French motto of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.
If these were the values of the social class struggle, why were women still relegated to a role of simple object of use for men? Surely without knowing it, these revolutionary women had just given birth to the feminist movement, thus establishing the first wave.
In this first feminist wave, male privilege was questioned, arguing that women are also good for the same things as men and using the studies of different philosophers and scientists as evidence.
This stage served to demand equal civil rights, including those to work and receive a decent education. It was also here that the possibility of women’s suffrage began to be contemplated, something that would be key in the second wave.
In 1848, the first convention on women’s rights in the United States took place in New York City, known as the Seneca Falls Convention, whose declaration was signed by around 100 women, and which was a milestone in the feminist struggle.
Poullain de Barre, Emilie du Châtelet, Harriet Taylor, Olympe de Gouges and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792), one of the most important texts of feminism and the book that served as a starting point to change the mentality of society, they were some of the most relevant women who marked the beginning of feminism. This first wave in which, little by little, women were raising their voices around the world, lasted until the middle of the 19th century, when the second wave began.
Second wave
The second wave of feminism arises during the vindication of one of the most fundamental rights: universal suffrage. The second feminist wave takes place during the second half of the 20th century, specifically from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s.
It was in the United States that four women joined the fight for the independence of the country and the cause for the liberation of slaves. These two events gave rise to women beginning to deal with social and political issues. Given this, suffragism was born, which pursued two objectives: the right to vote for women and the educational right, which remained related, since the movement defended that with the possibility of educational training it would be more difficult to deny them the right to vote. The first country where it was achieved was New Zealand, in 1893, and later, other countries in the world followed.
This second wave of the movement focuses its struggle on a wide variety of issues, not only on the legal or the recognition of civil rights as the first did.
Whereas first wave feminism focused primarily on suffrage and removing legal obstacles to gender equality (including the right to vote and property), second wave feminism incorporated discussion of issues such as sexuality, family, work, reproductive rights and inequalities.
Many fundamental rights had already been achieved in the second wave, but there was still a long way to go, especially as far as the macho mentality of society was concerned. Women felt empty because of the role they had to play in society, that of mother, wife and housewife. It was then that Betty Friedan, psychologist and feminist theorist, activist and leader, created the National Organization for Women (NOW), becoming the most representative women’s organization of liberal feminism.
The Second World War had contributed greatly to the incorporation of women into the world of work.
Some very important milestones are achieved, such as the right to own property, the right to paid work and the right to receive an education. Women begin to have visibility in society, clothing and aesthetic fashions emerge, they live on their own and occupy jobs that historically had been for men.
Third wave
Like the first and second waves, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the third wave of the feminist movement began. However, this resurgence of women’s rights activism has traditionally been seen as a response to general second-wave feminism. With the start of the third wave in the 1990s, women’s rights activists longed for a movement that would continue the work of their predecessors while addressing their struggles today.
All the economic progress in the world was not matched by social progress, since women still did not enjoy full equality. Thus, was born a new wave of women who rebelled against the most traditional and archaic morals and ethics of society.
Thanks to the progress and struggles of this third wave, some protection measures against gender violence, penalties against rape and protection against unfair dismissals during pregnancy, as well as the right to paid maternity leave began.
Contraceptives were fundamental in this movement, because they gave it the power of birth control (and the liberation of sexual enjoyment, not tied to reproduction) and divorce became law in multiple countries. Ecofeminism, institutional feminism, feminism of difference and post-feminism are currents that appear here. It is at this time, in addition to carrying out numerous protests in the streets, that organizational spaces are also multiplying.
In this third wave, feminism not only organized itself as an institution, but also diversified, introduced concepts such as patriarchy, and described how genders are imposed by society. As we see, modern feminism was being born.
Fourth wave
The transition between the third and fourth waves is not very clear, as the boundaries are very blurred. In fact, multiple authors consider that we are still in the third wave. The fourth wave of feminism is usually considered as the most modern stage of the feminist movement, since it begins after the eighties and is concentrated in the present, where the feminist collective claims the need for another wave, due to the continuity of gender abuse, the abuses and violations, the differences that still exist in the world of work, the inequality in judicial sentences, etc.
In the face of this, the feminist movement is stronger than ever and is characterized by its activism on the Internet. They take advantage of social networks to increase their visibility and their greater international impact, claiming the fight for equality, the right to abortion, civil rights, opposition to sexist violence and stereotypes, the defense of sexual freedom, where the LGTBI collective enters fully and the denunciation of sexism in the media.
In this sense, social networks and the media are tools that we have to disseminate content that defends feminist values and fights to end social, political and economic inequalities between men and women. They fight to break with the imposed stereotypes, especially with regard to femininity and masculinity. The feminist movement is more alive than ever. And it will continue to be.
Feminism, a necessary movement?
Being a feminist does not mean thinking that women deserve special rights; it means that we know and fight because we deserve the same rights as them. Defending equity does not imply belittling, punishing or hating men.
Feminism does not speak of superiority or discrimination against men, it simply fights against the inequalities suffered by women simply because they are women. It does not fight to be “more”, it fights to be equal. Feminism, as a social and collective movement, will never seek supremacy.
Feminism is a movement by and for women, but this fact responds to a historical context of inequality. And it focuses on women’s problems because, historically, men have always been above women, leaving them in a secondary role. Feminists stand up, to be on the same level.
And it is not to minimize the problems that men also suffer, but the fact that there is a movement with a specific purpose does not diminish the importance of the others. In fact, feminism also helps men remove multiple burdens that society has always placed on them.
Feminism seeks that anyone can be free to do what they want with their lives, regardless of gender. And it seeks to dismantle the patriarchy that negatively affects us all.
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