third-wave feminism

(noun)

Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study, whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but are often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present. The movement arose as a response to the perceived failures of and backlash against initiatives and movements created by Second-Wave feminism during the 1960s to 1980s, and the realization that women are of "many colors, ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds. "

Related Terms

Examples of third-wave feminism in the following topics:

  • Gender and Social Movements

    • Second Wave Feminism has existed continuously since then, and continues to coexist with what some people call Third Wave Feminism.
    • Finally, the third-wave of feminism began in the early 1990s.
    • Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave's "essentialist " definitions of femininity , which (according to them) over-emphasized the experiences of upper middle class white women.
    • A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave's ideology.
    • Third wave feminists often focus on "micropolitics," and challenged the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females.

  • The Feminist Perspective

    • At the turn of the century, the first wave of feminism focused on official, political inequalities and fought for women's suffrage.
    • Currently, a third wave of feminism is criticizing the fact that the first two waves of feminism were dominated by white women from advanced capitalist societies.
    • The relationship between feminism and race was largely overlooked until the second wave of feminists produced literature on the topic of black feminism.
    • This topic has received much more attention from third wave scholars and activists.
    • First-wave feminists fought for basic citizenship rights, such as the right to vote, while third wave feminists are concerned with more complex social movements, like post-structuralism.

  • The Feminist Perspective

    • Feminism is a broad term that is the result of several historical social movements attempting to gain equal economic, political, and social rights for women.
    • First-wave feminism focused mainly on legal equality, such as voting, education, employment, marriage laws, and the plight of intelligent, white, middle-class women.
    • Second-wave feminism went a step further by seeking equality in family, employment, reproductive rights, and sexuality.
    • Although there was great improvements with perceptions and representations of women that extended globally, the movement was not unified and several different forms of feminism began to emerge: black feminism, lesbian feminism, liberal feminism, and social feminism.

  • The Feminist Perspective

    • The first and second waves of the feminist movement were primarily driven by white women, who did not adequately represent the feminist movement as a whole.
    • Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse.
    • Radical feminism, in particular, evaluates the role of the patriarchy in perpetuating male dominance.
    • Feminism focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on the assertion of male supremacy.
    • The first and second waves of the feminist movement were primarily driven by white women, who did not adequately represent the feminist movement as a whole.

  • Behavior and Environmental Influences on Health

    • Of the two thirds of the North American population who consume alcohol, 10% are alcoholics and 6% consume more than half of all alcohol.
    • Another illustration of this is the finding that feminists are less likely to consider "ultra-thin" the ideal body image than non-feminists, indicating the culture and philosophy of feminism countermands the effects of popular media.