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Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing and defending equal political,
economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Feminist theory emerged from these
feminist movements and includes general theories and theories about the origins of inequality, and, in
some cases, about the social construction of sex and gender, in a variety of disciplines.
Waves of Feminism
The period described as first-wave feminism refers to feminist activity during the nineteenth century and
early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. Originally it focused on the
promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and
ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. However, by the end of the
nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of
women's suffrage.
Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity beginning in the early 1960s and lasting
through the late 1980s. The scholar Imelda Whelehan suggests that the second wave was a continuation
of the earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes in the UK and USA. [13] Second-wave feminism
has continued to exist since that time and coexists with what is termed third-wave feminism. The scholar
Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave feminism saying that the first wave focused on rights
such as suffrage, whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other issues of equality, such as
ending discrimination
the slogan "The Personal is Political" which became synonymous with the second wave. [14][15] Secondwave feminists saw women's cultural and political inequalities as inextricably linked and encouraged
women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and as reflecting sexist power
structures.
Third-wave feminism is siad to have begun in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures
of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by
the second wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second
wave's essentialistdefinitions of femininity, which (according to them) over-emphasize the experiences of
upper middle-class white women. The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted
in the second wave like Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, Cherrie Moraga, Audre
Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many other black feminists, sought to negotiate a space within
feminist thought for consideration of race-related subjectivities. Amelia Jones has written that the postfeminist texts which emerged in the 1980s and 1990s portrayed second-wave feminism as a monolithic
entity and criticized it using generalizations.
There is a view that there are at least four to six basic schools of feminist thought,
although this within of itself is a problematic organisation of womens ideas:
Liberal feminism - women would achieve better equality if they were just more
visible in the current social structure
Radical Feminism: This is the school of thought mainstream society typically equates to genderal
feminism. Radical feminists believe that the biggest oppression working in our society is based on gender.
Some believe a married woman can't be a feminist, or that straight women can't be feminist, all-in-all it
comes down to the arguement that any dependance on men will equal the oppression of women.
Although not all radical feminists are lesbians, this is the school of thought that has influenced a all of
lesbian separatist groups.
exploitation, oppression and labour. Marxist feminism articulates that the gendered
division of labor contributes to women's inequality. The central theme is that
overcoming class oppression overcomes gender oppression. Class consciousness
therefore is a critical component to understanding gender inequality, and the
systems and structures which work to create and reinforce gender difference. We
see here the expansion of the theories of social reproduction, most notably
theorized by Antonella Picchio in Social Reproduction: the political economy of the
labour market
Multicultural/Women-of-Color Feminism: These feminists believe that traditional schools of feminist
thought have been created by middle-class white women who didn't recognize that women-of-color may
also be oppressed based on racial inequalities. This school of thought argues for separate feminist
thoughts like "womanism" (for afriacn-american women, also a separate movement for latina feminists,
native american feminists, et
class, and religion, like Black feminist thought, it sees these distinctive systems of
oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination.
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