First and fourth Wave of Feminism

 

Introduction:

Feminism has not yet been clearly defined. Feminism is not a science or a philosophy. It has no dogma or doctrine. In common parlance, feminism is known as the movement "by women, by women and for women" to achieve women's rights. It is also known as 'women's liberation movement', 'women's lib etc.

The feminist movement has championed women's rights for centuries. The "wave" metaphor represents the various waves of feminism that began in 1968 when Martha Weinman Lear published an article in the New York Times titled "The Second Feminist Wave". Lear's article connected the suffrage movement in the 19th century to the women's movement during the 1960s. This new terminology quickly spread and became a popular way to define feminism[1] characterized by specific areas of focus. There are four waves of feminism, but in this article we will focus on the first wave of feminism.

First wave of feminism:

The first wave of feminism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emerging from 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 July 1848, when three hundred men and women rallied for women's equality.[2]

This convention started the women's suffrage movement, which aimed to give women the right to vote. It was started when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were denied a seat at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. This led to the formation of the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) in 1866.[3] The National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) was founded in early 1869. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) was formed later that year.

In 1916, the National Woman's Party (NWP) was formed by a young feminist, Alice Paul, by resigning from NAWSA and aimed to achieve suffrage by seeking a constitutional amendment instead of state amendments. Inspired by British militant suffragists, the party staged demonstrations outside the White House and continued its campaign throughout the world war.[4]

It was a time when politics and business were completely dominated by men. Women are the property of their husbands and fathers, seeing women as objects, not animals. The concept of marital rape was unheard of.

The first wave was associated with the abolitionist movement in the USA at the time. Both movements aimed at social reform and freedom from oppression. Suffrage, the right of women to vote in elections, became a goal of the movement with the formation of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866. In 1869, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.[5]

Second wave:  The second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s was marked by criticism violence in shaping the cultural identity of women freedom. ” It has an impact in every home, school and workplace, in all kinds of entertainment and entertainment, in every aspect of personal and social life. 17The new woman include everything from campaigning for an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to clinics, shelters for battered women, and publishing companies. Many of them are very important victory prevails in the workplace and in families where women speak of change the segregation of workers' sexuality, and the personal struggles to enter men's shelters, from construction sites and coal mines in law and engineering schools. The most important contribution of organization and theory was to raise awareness (CR), a type of formal conversation in which women link their personal information in large sex structures. With CR, women have improved understanding of many of them their "personal" problems, insecurity about appearance and intelligence, fatigue, physical and sexual abuse was not a personal flaw but a result of prejudice. These conversations groups, usually small, from all over the country among women of all ages and social backgrounds positions, and at the same time they supported and transformed. Eventually, this new or "second wave" movement became the largest and longest-running movement of all, a continuous route up to the twenty-first century.

Third wave: Feminists in the third wave after 1980 came to manifest themselves within history the context that traces their heritage from the second wave of the women's movement; However, while they have little respect for their ancestors they preserve the experience of women it is different at this time.20At the beginning of the third wave, the writers put themselves in their place against the expression of post-feminism and the second wave to seek a different position. According to them, this allows for more personal space and diversity. Finally, these the female characters in the third wave are described by what they were not. So, they say not a version of white feminism of the 1960s or late 1980s and early 1990s the power of Conservative more feminism, but rather, say that many cultures, international, class conscious feminism. They also emphasize the version of feminism i.e. which mainly involves sex that may not fall into a tight / straightforward relationship. This is talking the device makes them look like a different generation of women.

The Fourth Wave of Feminism:

The combination of technology and the physical world has changed the economic, social and political world, paving the way for new versions of feminism. Digital spaces can support the feminist activist movement by promoting integration and increasing access to collective action. It also helps connect local stories with global stories to highlight common structural inequalities (Sruti Jain, orfonline.org). Tools like blogging and social media have led to the democratization of the feminist movement by providing accessibility, fostering diversity, and inspiring leadership in a movement that has historically lacked these elements. Online or cyberfeminists use blogging and social media as a measure of political mobilization and community building. Social media enable the rapid spread of knowledge and information across borders, enabling transnational feminist networks.

The fourth wave of feminism is believed to have been introduced since 2010. It is mostly concerned with the challenges faced by women around the world; binary Gender system, Gender Wage Gap, issues of gender roles in the family, society and political sphere, domestic violence, everyday sexism, sexual assault and harassment etc. So-called modern feminists, whether male or female) have worked and raised their voices through the field of social media (SNS) such as; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogging, website and so on.

Some of the important and notable activities that feminists are engaged in today can be summarized as Women's March, Slut Walk, Pussy Hat Project, Gay Pride, the hastag #MeTooMovement and so on.

Conclusion:

As a result of the first wave of feminism, there were many writers who wrote for women's rights and justice, such as Olive Schreiner, Virginia Woolf, Vera Britain, Simone De Beauvoir, etc. Not only women, but also many men began to raise their voices for equal rights for women. The end of the first wave is often associated with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920), which granted women the right to vote. This was a major victory for the movement, which also included reforms in higher education, the workplace and professions, and health care.[6] The first wave of feminism paved the way for the second, which had a wider scope and spread the fight for equality to other parts of society. His white nature led to the extreme marginalization of black women in the feminist movement, an issue that resurfaced years later in the second wave. 

 

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[1] Feminism: The First Wave, https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/feminism-first-wave-0, accessed on 08-08-21.

[2]  Martha Rampton, Four Waves of Feminism, https://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/four-wabes-feminism. Accessed on 08-08-21.

[3] A Brief History of the First Wave of Feminism, https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/a-brief-history-of-the-first-wave-of-feminism-59d58e52af23, accessed on 08-08-2021.

[4] Tara Anand, A Brief Summary of the First Wave of Feminism, https://feminisminindia.com/2018/04/24/summary-first-wave-of-feminism/, accessed on 07-08-2021.

[5] Tara Anand, A Brief Summary of the First Wave of Feminism, https://feminisminindia.com/2018/04/24/summary-first-wave-of-feminism/, accessed on 08-08-2021.

[6]What is the Greatest achievement and contribution of the First Wave Feminism, https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-is-the-greatest-achievement-and-contribution-of-the-first-wave-feminism/, accessed on 09-08-2021.