• Feminist = a political position
• Female = a matter of biology
• Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

First wave of Feminism

In the past men were regarded greater at creating literally pieces and writings then woman were. Virginia Woolf stating that simply if women were not stereotyped and given equal opportunities to men originally, then more literacy pieces would have been made. These opportunities being not regarded as worse or beneath men and given the correct education and same rights as men.

Mary Wollstonecraft: was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. She was one of the first advocate for woman’s rights and created a piece in 1792 named “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects” which is about as the name states, a moral and vindication of women’s rights.

Second wave of Feminism

‘the feminist literary criticism of today is the product of the women’s movement of the 1960’s’(Barry 2017:123)

• Feminist critical thought became much more prominent and pronounced during the counter cultural movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

• The Obscene Publications Act (1959) – which led to the Chatterly trial.
• A feminist group during this wave was the suffragettes who argued for voting rights for women.
• In 1913 a woman under the name Emily Wilding Davison took it upon herself to break into the track of a horse race and being trampled/hit by King George V’s horse “Anmer” to make a point and publicise the suffragettes movement. This was a show of how far these women were willing to go for their movement.

Third wave of Feminism

The Third Wave of feminism was greatly focused on reproductive rights for women.

Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, led by Naomi Wolf. Challenging and re-contextualising some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period. The third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.

Born in the 1960s and 1970s as members of Generation X and grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, third-wave feminists embraced individualism in women and diversity and sought to redefine what it meant to be a feminist.

The third wave is traced to the emergence of the riot grrrl feminist punk subculture in Olympia, Washington, in the early 1990s

According to Barker and Jane (2016) 3rd wave has the following recognisable characteristics:

• an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
• individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
• fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
• cyberactivism
• the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
• sex positivity

‘a product of the unresolved feminist sex wars – the conflict between the women’s movement and the sexual revolution‘ .Ariel Levy (2006:74)

An idea of 3rd wave in modern times is the body positivity and sex positivity in feminism, women want to be able to show off their bodies without it having to be a big deal. This is reinforced by things like the ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign.

• Feminist = a political position
• Female = a matter of biology
• Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

First wave of feminism:

Mary Wollstonecraft (1792): One of the the first advocates of woman’s rights. She authored the book “A vindication of woman’s rights” in 1792 which was a book based on the political and moral subjects of woman’s rights.

Second wave of feminism:

The British Suffragettes started to make statements and bringing attention to their points and ideas after being ignored late in the 1860s. In 1913 a woman under the name Emily Wilding Davison took it upon herself to break into the track of a horse race and being trampled/hit by King George V’s horse “Anmer” to make a point and publicise the suffragettes movement. As well as this the suffragettes supporter, “Miss Nell” chained herself to the railing of Buckingham palace to make a point about woman requiring a vote.

As well as this the suffragists movement was also making statements and bringing attention to their movement by non-violent, non-aggressive and non-dangerous rallies and public speeches.

Third wave of feminism:

The third wave started with the generation gap of the 1960-70s where they re-stated and challenged the normal ideas of feminists and sexism. While they also fought for woman of different races, ethnicity and class to be treated better due to the fact that they were being split up and unfairly treated. This is called being “intersectional” and it is the idea of having overlapping, intersecting oppressions, like being black, lower class, gay and a female would be a intersectional feminist and your opinion also matters, not just middle class white females.

Naomi Wolf coined the phrase “Third wave of Feminism” in the 1990s and claimed that the third wave was about the younger generation carrying on feminism, growing out of old habits and traditions and making their own mistakes, raising their own leaders and making their own ideas of what need to be changed in the world about woman getting treated differently.

Lastly it seems to be that feminism doesn’t want to be only about the pay gap, or what men think, its about the gender as a whole, who you are, how you are profiled, how you are seen, it needs to be worked on and that’s why feminism exists.

Laura Mulvey – The male gaze where the heterosexual male fines satisfaction to women being treated as a sexual object

Jean Kilbourne –  How females are presented in adverts, idea of abuse, institutional behavior stems from sexualised female adverts and it was seen as acceptable

Toril Moi – The differences between female, feminist and feminine.

There are 3 waves of feminism:

1st wave of feminism: Women’s suffrage committee, international council of women, British suffragettes.

2nd wave of feminism: 60s civil rights movement, women’s equal rights

3rd wave of feminism: individualism and diversity 

Virginia Woolf (Jan 25, 1882 – Mar 28, 1941)

Virginia Woolf is called the foremother of the feminist movement. She is called foremother because there are many reasons for it. The first and foremost reason of this is because she has to face all the circumstances in her own life. She used to live in a society where there is no room for girl’s education.