Waves of Feminism: The 4 Waves of the Feminist Movement

Since feminism has such broad goals of empowerment and inclusivity, it’s become common to classify sequential national women’s movements as “waves”—distinct periods in which activists addressed different feminist concerns. Each of feminism’s four main waves both built on and deconstructed the work of the previous movements.

While some goals have remained the same throughout the history of feminism—addressing inequalities between the sexes, empowering women, and so on—others have arisen to meet the specific needs of a given era. For instance, voting rights took the forefront in the nineteenth century, whereas reproductive rights and more holistic women’s liberation causes took center stage in the twentieth century.

Scholars break down feminism into four main waves from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries:

1. 1. The first wave of feminism: The first women’s movement to take to the streets in the United States corresponded to first-wave feminism’s philosophy as a whole: Women deserve all the same basic rights as men. It unofficially began with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York and culminated when the Nineteenth Amendment secured voting rights for women. Borrowing from the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, nineteenth-century suffragettes like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony fought for these basic equal rights. Despite initially partnering with abolitionists like Sojourner Truth, the interests of white feminists began to diverge from those of Black women throughout this first wave.
   
2. 2. The second wave of feminism: “The personal is political” became a common refrain during this period. The words exemplify how second-wave feminism foregrounded individual expression for women—demands for contraception, anger about domestic violence, protests for abortion rights, and the discarding of bras as symbols of oppression characterized this period. As Betty Friedan’s feminist classic The Feminine Mystique (1963) found its way into many bookshelves, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, activists lobbied successfully for an Equal Rights Amendment (1972), and the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision (1973). Although the second wave of feminism coincided with the Civil Rights Movement, Black women and other women of color still struggled against marginalization in relation to white women’s demands for equality with white men.
3. 3. The third wave of feminism: Beginning in earnest around the 1990s, the third wave of feminism attempted to rectify some of the racism and classism inherent in previous feminist movements and activism. Black Americans like Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw and Rebecca Walker, as well as other third-wave feminists, helped develop the concepts of intersectionality and identity politics to lay the groundwork for greater inclusivity within feminism for marginalized groups. The riot grrrl movement arose simultaneously, echoing these intersectional demands while creating a burgeoning punk rock scene and rejecting some second-wave feminists’ attempts to decry traditional expressions of femininity in fashion.
4. 4. The fourth wave of feminism: The fourth-wave feminism is still defining itself. It continues third-wave feminism’s efforts against the marginalization of women of color. It also places a great emphasis on including trans women in feminism’s efforts, fighting for people’s right to define their gender alongside the historic goal of gender equality. Alongside these more inclusive and intersectional calls for social justice, fourth-wave feminism also gave birth to the #MeToo movement and other campaigns calling for the end of sexual harassment and violence against women.

Feminism is an intersectional movement with a focus on issues that touch every part of our lives, including reproductive rights, workplace culture, and caregiving. Gain access to exclusive videos on feminism with the MasterClass Annual Membership and get a crash course from leaders Gloria Steinem, Amanda Nguyen, Tina Tchen, and adrienne maree brown.