Four Waves of Feminism

By Martha Rampton

It is common to speak of three phases of modern feminism; however, there

is little consensus as to how to characterize these three waves or what to do
with women's movements before the late nineteenth century. Making the
landscape even harder to navigate, a new silhouette is emerging on the
horizon and taking the shape of a fourth wave of feminism.
Some thinkers have sought to locate the roots of feminism in ancient Greece
with Sappho (d. c. 570 BCE), or the medieval world with Hildegard of Bingen
(d. 1179) or Christine de Pisan (d. 1434). Certainly Olympes de Gouge (d.
1791), Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797) and Jane Austen (d. 1817) are
foremothers of the modern women's movement. All of these people advocated
for the dignity, intelligence, and basic human potential of the female sex.
However, it was not until the late nineteenth century that the efforts for
women's equal rights coalesced into a clearly identifiable and self-conscious
movement, or rather a series of movements.
The first wave of feminism took place in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, emerging out of an environment of urban industrialism
and liberal, socialist politics. The goal of this wave was to open up
opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage. The wave formally began
at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 when three hundred men and women
rallied to the cause of equality for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (d.1902)
drafted the Seneca Falls Declaration outlining the new movement's ideology
and political strategies.
In its early stages, feminism was interrelated with the temperance and
abolitionist movements and gave voice to now-famous activists like the
African-American Sojourner Truth (d. 1883), who demanded: "Ain't I a
woman?" Victorian America saw women acting in very "un-ladylike" ways
(public speaking, demonstrating, stints in jail), which challenged the "cult of
domesticity." Discussions about the vote and women's participation in politics
led to an examination of the differences between men and women as they
were then viewed. Some claimed that women were morally superior to men,
and so their presence in the civic sphere would improve public behavior and
the political process.
The second wave began in the 1960s and continued into the 90s. This wave
unfolded in the context of the anti-war and civil rights movements and the
growing self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups around the world.
The New Left was on the rise, and the voice of the second wave was
increasingly radical. In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights were
dominant issues, and much of the movement's energy was focused on passing
the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing social equality
regardless of sex.
This phase began with protests against the Miss America pageant in Atlantic
City in 1968 and 1969. Feminists parodied what they held to be a degrading
"cattle parade" that reduced women to objects of beauty dominated by a
patriarchy that sought to keep them in the home or in dull, low-paying jobs.
The radical New York group called the Redstockings staged a counter pageant
in which they crowned a sheep as Miss America and threw "oppressive"
feminine artifacts such as bras, girdles, high-heels, makeup and false
eyelashes into the trashcan.
Because the second wave of feminism found voice amid so many other social
movements, it was easily marginalized and viewed as less pressing than, for
example, Black Power or efforts to end the war in Vietnam. Feminists reacted
by forming women-only organizations (such as NOW) and "consciousness
raising" groups. In publications like "The BITCH Manifesto" and "Sisterhood is
Powerful," feminists advocated for their place in the sun. The second wave
was increasingly theoretical, based on a fusion of neo-Marxism and psycho-
analytical theory, and began to associate the subjugation of women with
broader critiques of patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality, and the
woman's role as wife and mother. Sex and gender were differentiated—the
former being biological, and the later a social construct that varies culture-to-
culture and over time.
Whereas the first wave of feminism was generally propelled by middle class,
Western, cisgender, white women, the second phase drew in women of color
and developing nations, seeking sisterhood and solidarity, claiming "Women's
struggle is class struggle." Feminists spoke of women as a social class and
coined phrases such as "the personal is political" and "identity politics" in an
effort to demonstrate that race, class, and gender oppression are all related.
They initiated a concentrated effort to rid society top-to-bottom of sexism,
from children's cartoons to the highest levels of government.
One of the strains of this complex and diverse "wave" was the development
of women-only spaces and the notion that women working together create a
special dynamic that is not possible in mixed-groups, which would ultimately
work for the betterment of the entire planet. Women, due whether to their
long "subjugation" or to their biology, were thought by some to be more
humane, collaborative, inclusive, peaceful, nurturing, democratic, and holistic
in their approach to problem solving than men. The term eco-feminism was
coined to capture the sense that because of their biological connection to earth
and lunar cycles, women were natural advocates of environmentalism.
The third wave of feminism began in the mid-90's and was informed by post-
colonial and post-modern thinking. In this phase many constructs were
destabilized, including the notions of "universal womanhood," body, gender,
sexuality and heteronormativity. An aspect of third wave feminism that
mystified the mothers of the earlier feminist movement was the readoption by
young feminists of the very lip-stick, high-heels, and cleavage proudly
exposed by low cut necklines that the first two phases of the movement
identified with male oppression. Pinkfloor expressed this new position when
she said that it's possible to have a push-up bra and a brain at the same time.
The "grrls" of the third wave stepped onto the stage as strong and empowered,
eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as
subjects, not as objects of a sexist patriarchy. They developed a rhetoric of
mimicry, which appropriated derogatory terms like "slut" and "bitch" in order
to subvert sexist culture and deprive it of verbal weapons. The web is an
important tool of "girlie feminism." E-zines have provided "cybergrrls" and
"netgrrls" another kind of women-only space. At the same time — rife with
the irony of third-wave feminism because cyberspace is disembodied — it
permits all users the opportunity to cross gender boundaries, and so the very
notion of gender has been unbalanced in a way that encourages
experimentation and creative thought.
This is in keeping with the third wave's celebration of ambiguity and refusal
to think in terms of "us-them." Most third-wavers refuse to identify as
"feminists" and reject the word that they find limiting and exclusionary. Grrl-
feminism tends to be global, multi-cultural, and it shuns simple answers or
artificial categories of identity, gender, and sexuality. Its transversal politics
means that differences such as those of ethnicity, class, sexual orientation,
etc. are celebrated and recognized as dynamic, situational, and provisional.
Reality is conceived not so much in terms of fixed structures and power
relations, but in terms of performance within contingencies. Third wave
feminism breaks boundaries.
The fourth wave of feminism is still a captivating silhouette. A writer for Elle
Magazine recently interviewed me about the waves of feminism and asked if
the second and third waves may have “failed or dialed down” because the
social and economic gains had been mostly sparkle, little substance, and
whether at some point women substituted equal rights for career and the
atomic self. I replied that the second wave of feminism ought not be
characterized as having failed, nor was glitter all that it generated. Quite the
contrary; many goals of the second wave were met: more women in positions
of leadership in higher education, business and politics; abortion rights; access
to the pill that increased women’s control over their bodies; more expression
and acceptance of female sexuality; general public awareness of the concept
of and need for the “rights of women” (though never fully achieved); a solid
academic field in feminism, gender and sexuality studies; greater access to
education; organizations and legislation for the protection of battered women;
women’s support groups and organizations (like NOW and AAUW); an industry
in the publication of books by and about women/feminism; public forums for
the discussion of women’s rights; and a societal discourse at the popular level
about women’s suppression, efforts for reform, and a critique of patriarchy.
So, in a sense, if the second wave seemed to have “dialed down,” the lull was
in many ways due more to the success of the movement than to any
ineffectiveness. In addition to the sense that many women’s needs had been
met, feminism’s perceived silence in the 1990s was a response to the
successful backlash campaign by the conservative press and media, especially
against the word feminism and its purported association with male-bashing
and extremism.
However, the second wave only quieted down in the public forum; it did not
disappear but retreated into the academic world where it is alive and well—
incubating in the academy. Women’s centers and women’s/gender studies
have became a staple of virtually all universities and most colleges in the US
and Canada (and in many other nations around the word). Scholarship on
women’s studies, feminist studies, masculinity studies, and queer studies is
prolific, institutionalized, and thriving in virtually all scholarly fields, including
the sciences. Academic majors and minors in women’s, feminist, masculinity
and queer studies have produced thousands of students with degrees in the
subjects. However, generally those programs have generated theorists rather
than activists.
Returning to the question the Elle Magazine columnist asked about the third
wave and the success or failure of its goals. It is hard to talk about the aims
of the third wave because a characteristic of that wave is the rejection of
communal, standardized objectives. The third wave does not acknowledge a
collective “movement” and does not define itself as a group with common
grievances. Third wave women and men are concerned about equal rights,
but tend to think the genders have achieved parity or that society is well on
its way to delivering it to them. The third wave pushed back against their
“mothers” (with grudging gratitude) the way children push away from their
parents in order to achieve much needed independence. This wave supports
equal rights, but does not have a term like feminism to articulate that
notion. For third wavers, struggles are more individual: “We don’t need
feminism anymore.”
But the times are changing, and a fourth wave is in the air. A few months ago,
a high school student approached one of the staff of the Center for Gender
Equity at Pacific University and revealed in a somewhat confessional tone, “I
think I’m a feminist!” It was like she was coming out of the closet. Well,
perhaps that is the way to view the fourth wave of feminism.
The aims of the second feminist movement were never cemented to the extent
that they could survive the complacency of third wavers. The fourth wave of
feminism is emerging because (mostly) young women and men realize that
the third wave is either overly optimistic or hampered by blinders. Feminism
is now moving from the academy and back into the realm of public discourse.
Issues that were central to the earliest phases of the women’s movement are
receiving national and international attention by mainstream press and
politicians: problems like sexual abuse, rape, violence against women,
unequal pay, slut-shaming, the pressure on women to conform to a single and
unrealistic body-type and the realization that gains in female representation
in politics and business, for example, are very slight. It is no longer considered
“extreme,” nor is it considered the purview of rarified intellectuals to talk about
societal abuse of women, rape on college campus, Title IX, homo and
transphobia, unfair pay and work conditions, and the fact that the US has one
of the worst records for legally-mandated parental leave and maternity
benefits in the world.
Some people who wish to ride this new fourth wave have trouble with the
word “feminism,” not just because of its older connotations of radicalism, but
because the word feels like it is underpinned by assumptions of a gender
binary and an exclusionary subtext: “for women only.” Many fourth wavers
who are completely on-board with the movement’s tenants find the term
“feminism” sticking in their craws and worry that it is hard to get their
message out with a label that raises hackles for a broader audience. Yet the
word is winning the day. The generation now coming of age sees that we face
serious problems because of the way society genders and is gendered, and
we need a strong “in-your-face” word to combat those problems. Feminism
no longer just refers to the struggles of women; it is a clarion call for gender
equity.
The emerging fourth wavers are not just reincarnations of their second wave
grandmothers; they bring to the discussion important perspectives taught by
third wave feminism. They speak in terms of intersectionality whereby
women’s suppression can only fully be understood in a context of the
marginalization of other groups and genders—feminism is part of a larger
consciousness of oppression along with racism, ageism, classism, abelism,
and sexual orientation (no “ism” to go with that). Among the third wave’s
bequests is the importance of inclusion, an acceptance of the sexualized
human body as non-threatening, and the role the internet can play in gender-
bending and leveling hierarchies. Part of the reason a fourth wave can emerge
is because these millennials’ articulation of themselves as “feminists” is their
own: not a hand-me-down from grandma. The beauty of the fourth wave is
that there is a place in it for all –together. The academic and theoretical
apparatus is extensive and well honed in the academy, ready to support a new
broad-based activism in the home, in the workplace, and in the streets.
At this point we are still not sure how feminism will mutate. Will the fourth
wave fully materialize and in what direction? There have always been many
feminisms in the movement, not just one ideology, and there have always
been tensions, points and counter-points. The political, social and intellectual
feminist movements have always been chaotic, multivalenced, and
disconcerting; and let's hope they continue to be so; it's a sign that they are
thriving.