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The Feminist Questioning and Envisioning Process

created by:

Aliya Khalidi & Seema Gokhale

Waves of Feminist Questioning/Envisioning in the US

First Wave Feminism took place in the period of time between the mid-nineteenth and the early twentieth century when women focused mainly on obtaining legal entitlements, particularly the right to vote. The leaders of this movement were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who transitioned from campaigning for the abolition of slavery to fighting for the right to vote and right of a woman to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

Two key victories of the first-wave feminists include:

• The Seneca Falls Declaration
• 19th Amendment

One criticism of this era of women's organizing was that minority women were not included in the declarations. In fact, according to Caraway, many of the members of First Wave feminism were prejudiced and did not believe that any blacks, regardless of whether they were men or women, should have the right to vote [2].

First wave feminist movements in the United States ignored the plight of women of color such as Sojourner Truth whose "Ain't I a Woman" speech strikes at the heart of the double burden which black women carry because of both their sex and their race.

" The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night--she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question--'Is this all?' "

-- Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Second Wave Feminism began during the early 1960s, and ended in the 1980s. What differentiates Second Wave Feminism from the First Wave Feminism are the issues of focus and strategies used to achieve feminist objectives. First Wave Feminism dealt equality under the law and questioned the legal status of women in relation to men. Second Wave Feminism was concerned with inequalities and injustices that cannot always be legally rectified. For example, Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, started the conversation for women across the United States about "the problem that has no name." This problem manifested itself through white, middle class housewives expressing their wish to do more than simply look after their children and husbands. Later in the second wave, women envisioned an end discrimination and oppression, and moved to eliminate it.

• Second Wave Feminism included and at one point broke off into a groups , including one that specifically identifying as lesbians. The Radicalesbians wrote the Woman Identified Woman Manifesto that declared their views on lesbianism by defining it and putting the identity into a cultural context.
• The Berkeley/Oakland Women’s Union Statement (1970): proposed a socialist/humanistic approach to the women's movement, suggesting that various minority group, men, and women come together to espouse women's rights. According to them, the goal should be the upliftment of humanity, not just women.
• The Redstockings Manifesto (1969): Represented the radical, more militant strand of feminism. Like Black Power Activists, members were doubtful of society's willingness to grant women equal rights, and used public demonstrations such as bra-burning, etc.
• 51 Percent Minority (1970): These activists fought for equal opportunity in the labor force and asserted discrimination against women in the workplace had caused the majority gender group to be extremely under-represented in the labor force, especially among professionals.
• National Organization for Women (NOW) : The charter of this national organization was to serve as a "watchdog" agency for women of all races.
• On January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 50 states, a huge success for second wave feminists.

Third Wave
Questioning/Envisioning
(early 1990s-present)

march for women's rights, www.now.org/history/slideshows/march2004/

These modern-day feminists tend to focus on the issues that women face inside the home, rather than a political message. The issue of domestic violence is of great concern to them.  The political message however, is not altogether removed from the third wave.  There is also an emphasis on ensuring that many of the advancements that women made in the second wave of feminism are not obliterated in backlashes against it.  For example, third wave feminists are concerned with ensuring that women have the reproductive rights that they fought for and received through Roe v. Wade and all successive legislation [3]. 

Third wave feminism expands beyond the experiences of white upper middle class women, and often takes on a global nature and addresses all issues that limit and oppress women.  For example, because women of color must often deal with racism, racism is included as an oppression that feminists must fight against.  Globally women are also fighting practices such as female genital mutilation, from which women face serious health consequences.

Women are also trying to reclaim derogatory terms such as “bitch” and “slut" [3].

Examples of third wave feminism:

• Bridge Poem - reveals how women grapple with multiple oppressions, both as women and as racial minorities.
• Combahee River Collective - a statement by a black feminist

Feminism has continually been reinterpreted throughout American history. As times change, the feminist movement within the US has changed too. While the first wave of feminism in the mid-nineteenth century was a suffragist movement that sought absolute rights for women, the second wave was concerned with issues of equality, seeking to end discrimination and oppression. The third wave feminists sought greater inclusiveness in the struggle, uniting across race, class, and gender lines. Over the course of US feminism, there appears to be a trend emerging of groups combining oppressed by race, class, and gender to unite in order to envision a better world for everyone