History of Feminism
Through history women have proven to be strong, powerful and have demonstrated the positive changes that could occur by fighting for their rights. Women were a gender which has been oppressed and silenced by society the past years and unfortunately still is. However, it never stopped them from fighting for justice and equality. Feminism is the belief in equal economic, political and social status for both sexes. It is the movement of the voices of thousands of women united to fight for the same cause. Feminism has evolved throughout history and caused women to raise their voices to create a change. There have been four stages of feminism and the positive changes they provided to society are numerous, improving the quality of life for women all over the world. But how did it start?
Feminism has covered a lot of history and historic movements which allows us to have the life we now have. According to (Grady) there are four waves of feminism which are the ones with more characteristic social movements that had a major effect on society. The first wave of feminism was from 1848–1920. However, the first wave of feminism did not include the first feminist philosopher women. This was considered the first wave because it was one of the first sustained political movements in order to achieve equality. This fight was in order to get a right to vote- a voice when they were elections. For 70 years they went on to protest, march or lecture. This movement of feminism in the Americas started with the Seneca Falls Convention with over 200 women fighting for their rights. After this tedious and harsh fight in 1920 the United States Congress granted women the right to vote. The problem here was that this right was that for black women the process of voting was much more complicated. They began their own organizations until they were able to vote in many countries by 1910. This was the first political movement which created this really positive change we can now see reflected in society.
The second wave of feminism gave a complete shift to the perspective society had about women. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan marked a beginning for the second wave of feminism starting during 1963 and ended during 1980(Grady). The book’s critiques about the sexist idea provided by society that women belong in the kitchen or as housewives, The ideas discussed in this book were not what made this movement revolutionary, it was the reach it had getting in the hands of housewives and 3 million people in three years. It made them realize that they did not deserve that and should fight for what they truly desired. So the fight began. Women all over the world starting to ask to have more freedom and distinct rights when it comes to their sexual life, abortions, birth control and domestic labor. During 1960–1970 governments promised to guarantee married and unmarried women the possibility of birth control and women reproductive freedom(Sally). Other main problems that The Feminine Mystique discusses about are marital rape, awarness of domestic violence and more independence of their daily life. They had more freedom and could work outside their houses as something more than a housewife if they wanted. While fighting for more reproductive freedom black women also marched to stop the forced sterilization for african american women and people with disabilities. Raising their voices made society nervous and afraid but they did not stop. Not until they got what they wanted. Another important protest was the Miss America which occurred during 1968. The main point in this protest was that they threw objects that could be a symbol of objectification for women like bras and playboy magazines. The positive impact of this second wave was that society changed their perspective about women and they had more freedom and a safer way of life. However, with this movement came the stereotypes and other negative thoughts society had about feminism. Conservative men and women during the 1980s saw feminists as unkempt women whose only worries were bras and other nonsense problems. They even said it was because of the loneliness of their life because no man would ever marry them. This second wave had its positive characteristics like women raising their voices to get more rights but at the same time some negative ones like the new ideology society had about feminism which would haunt this movement throughout the years.
The third wave mainly focused on the fight over stopping sexual harassment in work enviroments and to improve the number of women in many different type of jobs. During 1991 Anita Hill testified about being sexually harassed at work. She presented her case to the Senate Judiciary Committee and accused Clarence Thomas(Sally). Lamentably, Thomas did not pay for what he did and got out of that problem. Anita Hill’s accusation raised up other accusations from women to powerful men. The next year after there were some measures taken in this case. The participation of women in representative roles was much more. According to (Sally ) 24 women were in the house of representatives and three in the senate. This third wave also focused on responding to the conservative people that created that terrible stereotype of what a feminist looks like. This wave was very different from the others since it did not have a central goal to accomplish. However it did demonstrate impacts in society like more security in the workspace for women and also more participation in important government jobs.
The fourth wave of feminism can be seen reflected in the situations we are now seeing and how feminism is working and contributing for women’s daily life now. This fourth wave focuses on sexual harassment, body shaming, and other issues that women face now. One particular characteristic about this fourth wave is the influence social media has to let others know about the problems women are facing. Social media also informs many other women and helps them make the decision to also raise their voices if they want to. The first political movement from this wave was the Women’s March the day after Donald Trump got elected as president in 2017. This march was about some degrading comments he publicly said about women. More important, and with more social impact, was the #metoo movement that started around 2006. This movement was to assist the victims of sexual assaults and made women more united to fight the same situation making them fear when going out. This wave is still going and as technology has improved so does the spread of awareness and other femminist ideas through social media. But the main question that has emerged, especially this last year, is. What do people have against this new wave of feminism ? Why are not all women involved in these ideals? The idea of feminism is linked to mad, strong and powerful women fighting for their rights which unfortunately is something that our society punishes. Other negative thoughts about feminim are that they think that feminists want to take over the world and step over men which is not the purpose of feminism. Finally, many people believe that this would create a major shift to society and the roles in it (Kathy). With this wave is really important the way social media is used to inform and promote feminism. There are thousands of girls all over the world looking at these promotions form social media. If someone is deciding to talk about this they should have deep background research. I think this wave has been very empowered by the influence of social media and hope that women still fight for their rights until there is complete equality and security for all.
It has been really compelling to know about the story of feminism and how this long and tedious fight led to many solutions to problems women once faced. It can be demonstrated that through the waves women start to argue and demand solutions to different problems and gradually have more freedom. It is really overwhelming and surprising about how much they have accomplished and inspires women now to fight for what is needed for equality. However, researching about this made me think that many of the things women had to fight for were nonsense. Why would they have to fight for something that they should already have? I hope feminism could keep evolving and people inform others better about these movements. Complete equality would be achieved and this would be always remembered as an inspiring fight women created for a better life.
Works Cited:
Grady, Constance. “The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting over Them, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 20 Mar. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth.
Drucker, Sally Ann. “Betty Friedan: The Three Waves of Feminism — Ohio Humanities.” Www.ohiohumanities.org, 11 May 4AD, www.ohiohumanities.org/betty-friedan-the-three-waves-of-feminism/#:~:text=Second%2Dwave%20feminism%20of%20the.
Caprino, Kathy. “What Is Feminism, and Why Do So Many Women and Men Hate It?” Forbes, www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2017/03/08/what-is-feminism-and-why-do-so-many-women-and-men-hate-it/?sh=151cbdd77e8e.