Feminism: Who Knows the Next Wave?

By Agnes Oyedokun

Gender equality and feminism are one of the most discussed concepts today. This is mostly because social media and technology have made it easy for people to share their thoughts and opinions on the subjects and these opinions are easily accessible.

Essentially, feminism is the acknowledgment of women as human beings and the fact that they deserve the same social, economic, and political rights and opportunities as men. It is also geared toward making the world a safe and fair place for women to live.

A short definition that captures feminism is offered by Su, an Australian woman who defined feminists as “women who don’t want to be treated like shit” when she was interviewed for Kathy Bail’s 1996 anthology, DIY Feminism.

Other definitions and concepts of feminism have also sprung up as the years progressed. Each woman’s reality and experiences play a large role in these definitions. There are also many women in the different waves of feminism who are prominent for their contributions to the cause.

The first wave of feminism which began in the late 19th century was centered on the goal to win full citizenship for women in the United States and granting them suffrage rights. It is often tied to the first formal women’s rights convention that was held in 1848.

Today, there is usually a vehement disagreement among people around the world whenever the issue of equality or feminism is raised.

These people can be separated into different categories such as:

• People who do not support the idea of equal rights and opportunities for men and women

• People who think we are already in a system of equality for men and women.

• People who think we have not attained the level of equality for men and women and are still fighting for it.

• People who believe in equality but are greatly troubled by the word, “feminism”.

While taking the list of the different audiences, we might as well check the different waves of feminism.

The first wave took place in the late 19th century and it was the real first political movement in the Western world. The goal of this was to pave way for women to enjoy the right to vote and be voted for and also to benefit from opportunities. 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. After about 70 years of the first-wavers marching, lecturing, protesting, and facing arrest, ridicule, and violence as they fought tooth and nail for the right to vote. As Susan B. Anthony’s biographer Ida Husted Harper would put it, after suffrage years of feminist activism, Congress finally passed the 19th amendment in 1920 and gave women the vote. This was almost 30 years after New Zealand became the first country where women could vote.

The second wave of feminism began with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which came out in 1963 and continued into the 90s. In this new wave, 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. 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. Many women in this wave expressed their sexuality freely in their dressing and acts and the almost unspoken rule was that a woman should choose how to live her life.

Third-wave feminism started in the mid-90s. The phrase “third-wave feminism” was coined in 1992 by Rebecca Walker, a 23-year-old Black bisexual woman. In this era, there was the re-adoption of lipstick, heels, and cleavage proudly exposed by low-cut necklines that the first two waves identified with male oppression. The third-wavers proudly identified themselves as girls and that is another of the main differences between the second wave and the third wave. Second-wavers fought to be called women rather than girls but the third-wavers liked being girls, embraced it, and made the word both empowering and threatening. Most third-wavers refuse to identify as “feminists” and reject the word that they find limiting and exclusionary and third-wave feminism breaks boundaries.

The fourth wave of feminism seems to be a mixture of the second and third waves. The ‘MeToo movement and a resurgence of attacks on women’s rights have made some people believe we are living in a new wave. Although the third wave is about the acceptance of sexuality, Gen-Z’s feminism is not a hand-me-down from grandma. Most fourth-wavers are trying to make the world a better place for Trans women and others to live in. They tend to want to make people understand that women are being oppressed in terms of race, age, class, and sexual orientation. The fourth wave is very complex and it complements and clashes.

“Maybe the fourth wave is online,” said feminist Jessica Valenti in 2009, and that’s come to be one of the major ideas of fourth-wave feminism. Online is where activists meet and plan their activism, and it’s where feminist discourse and debate take place. Sometimes fourth-wave activism can even take place on the internet (the “#MeToo” tweets), and sometimes it takes place on the streets (the Women’s March), but it’s conceived and propagated online.

While the next wave is still unknown to many, personal and direct experiences and exposure to information are part of the factors that will always determine what would form people’s opinions and where they stand when it comes to feminism.