Third Wave Feminism Essay

Women have been active since the beginning of the early 1800’s and struggle until today’s day, to fight for equality. There were two women movement waves. The first wave was focused on the equality of the women by working on voting rights. The second wave from 1963 to 1982 concentrated on social issues. As in “Collective Action for Social Change”, Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy stated in their book “women were tired of being second class citizens”. The civil rights movement spillover inspired women to create social movements by acting and building organizations focused on the issues that affected the women. The social issues were child care, domestic violence, contraception, and women’s health. One of the major topics that the feminists focused on was domestic violence that still exists in today’s day worldwide.

In the past and present women have had to endure sexism as a part of everyday life. This is unfair and unjust to the female species. In this paper I am going to be talking about some of the issues of sexism and how they affect women. Some of the issues I will be talking about are the white males club and how non-membership effects women. What are the benefits of having a membership to it. How women are kept in their place by society and by themselves. How has this unequal affected women through their lives and the business world. If women are being liberated or not. What types of problems women are experiencing. These are the issues we will be discussing in this paper. The first issue we will be discussing in this paper is the

As Third Wave feminism is currently unfolding before us, and its aims encompass a wide array of complex issues, it is often hard to describe what Third Wave feminism is. The feminist theories, mainly associated with First and Second Wave feminism attempt to describe the power imbalances that are found in society, and while doing so expose other oppressions, such as discrimination based on race or sexual orientation. As this essay attempts to place a clear definition to Third Wave feminism, feminists are concurrently trying to deconstruct old definitions and open it up for women to determine what feminism means to them. In other words, no clear definition on what is meant to be a feminist is sufficient, as the Third Wave is about

Towards the end of the twentieth century, feminist women in America faced an underlying conflict to find their purpose and true meaning in life. “Is this all?” was often a question whose answer was sought after by numerous women reaching deeper into their minds and souls to find what was missing from their life. The ideal second-wave feminist was defined as a women who puts all of her time into cleaning her home, loving her husband, and caring for her children, but such a belief caused these women to not only lose their identity within her family but society as well. The emotions that feminist women were feeling at this time was the internal conflict that caused for social steps to be taken in hopes of

Second Wave Feminism has a direct relation to art, as the movement and its creations were directly connected to the social problems of the times. As with most modern art, artists usually turn to creating works to express their problems with society, and this is what feminists did. As the suffragist movements with First Wave Feminism were a great success, and women did have the same legal rights as men, they still interpreted society has seeing them as the lesser gender. Thus, Second Wave Feminists attempted to protests the firm norms that society expected from them. Therefore, works that society say as vile or surprising, such as Yoko Ono’s protest in Japan, where she wore clothes with parts of her

On January 22nd of 1973 the Supreme Court ruled that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in the earlier months of pregnancy without legal restrictions (McBride, 2006). Consequently, this case was critically important in fueling women’s rights (Johnson, 2015). Feminism was quickly rising between the 1960s and 1970s; the feminist movement greatly contributed to the growing trend of divorce in the United States during the 1970’s (Nandez, 2014). There were several ways feminists encouraged divorce; their success in liberalizing divorce laws to provide options for unhappy or abused women was one way (Nandez, 2014). The feminist of the 1970s argued that marriage was a form of oppression; additionally, feminist argued that women deserved equal pay and access to high paying jobs (Brooke, 2011).

“You cannot be a humanist unless you are a feminist. You either advocate equality for all or you are a misanthrope” (Michael A. Sherlock). From women’s suffrage to abortion laws feminism has evolved with contemporary battles and a variety of approaches. The

Feminism is the fight for equality among the sexes. It can be dated back to the mid-19th century with women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The first wave feminist procured the right to vote for American women. The following second and third waves built upon what the founding feminists created. The second wave of feminism was set off by the disenchantment women across America were experiencing. This disenchantment was caused by the nuclear family, and the roles that the women in the 1950s were thrust into. The second wave is said to have lasted from the 1960s-1980s. Sometime after the 1980s, most likely the early to mid-1990s, third wave feminists began to rear their heads. The third wave build on the advancements made by the first and second waves. There has been controversy regarding the thought that the third wave is actually just an extension of the second. This paper will explore the second and third waves of feminism as well as their relationship between themselves.

     In the aftermath of World War II, the lives of the women have changed dramatically. Women spoke their minds out and wanted to be heard. World War II brought them a new outlook on how they should live their lives. It encouraged women organize social movements such as boycotts and public marches pushing for their human rights and protect them against discrimination. Alongside, they formed their own organization representing them against the federal government like the NOW or National Organization for Women. Through the years, women have been struggling to fight for equal rights and unfortunately still exist even at the present in some areas. Yes, women’s status was not like what they used to back then, where their

Feminism by definition means the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social and economic equality to men. But many a time’s people restrict the boundary of these forgetting the very important element of diversity of women living in different places and in varied situations.

This paper will be presenting a position paper focusing on the debate whether we are living in a post-feminist period in which gender is no longer a major barrier to equity. The paper will utilise feminism theory through use of article to create an argument to support this debate. It will also incorporate some compelling case justifying the researcher’s position.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, in what is considered the “Second Wave of Feminism’, the fight for Women's Equality was seen by most as a secondary concern to racial equality. This led the Women's Movement to combine the fight for racial equality with gender equality, seeking to bring a more diverse group of women together to achieve the goals of the movement. Whether this approach led to accomplishing these goals is questionable. The Women's Movement struggled due to the very diversity it sought to capitalize on, as evidenced by its lack of consistent objectives, continued division among its members, and the varying approaches to obtaining equality.

3: The first obvious difference between 2nd and 3rd wave feminism is time: 2nd wave occurred mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, while 3rd wave is generally considered to take place in the 1990s and later. Additionally, 3rd wave focuses more on the individual experience and possible intersectionality, as opposed to 2nd wave, which focused more on women receiving legal rights. Chapter 1 of Women’s Studies discusses the advances the 2nd wave movement brought about, particularly in the cases of Roe v. Wade, adding Gender and Women’s Studies to a number of colleges and universities, the Equal Pay Act in 1963, Title VII, as well as a commission to enforce these anti-discriminatory laws (Shaw and Lee, 7). While this did make a difference in the lives of many women, legal change without societal change (as those who enforce the legal system are still socialized in our culture) can be unproductive.

The history and events surrounding feminism and the women's rights movement occurs in waves. Women’s awareness of their plight as second class citizens began with first-wave feminism (1). Second-wave feminism was characterised by the fight for women’s rights to their bodies. The movement was concerned with reproductive rights and legislation concerning abortion (2). It began in the late 20th century and was not localised like first-wave feminism. Due to the advent of modernisation, the movement involved international organisations like Amnesty

Throughout history all kinds of women across the globe have been viewed as objects and in some instances viewed as less human and men are viewed as the dominant subject. We are all part of creating the social difference between men and women weather we know it or not. Sexism is what promotes male privilege and refers to hierarchically ordered gender stereotyping and it can be seen everywhere. Each day more and more are expressing enculturation, which is the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group by a person. We can see this though the arrogant eye, which is all the different ways men exploit women in a male dominated culture. Standpoint theory is a feminist theoretical perspective that argues that knowledge stems from social position. Third wave feminism is a feminist group that focuses on the issues of race, racism, and the experiences of the nonwhite women in today's culture. In our culture today we see cultural racism so often that we may not even pick up on it because it is some common. I’ve personally seen this and I remember one day in the mall I was walking around and noticed that almost every ad had no person of color on them, I was stunned, out of the hundreds of ads on the walls the only ones that did were footlocker and other athletic stores, that is a perfect example of cultural racism. Another thing i’ve noticed when driving back home is that racial advantage is absolutely real, racial advantage is one race having better