Chances are, you’ve heard of the different waves of feminism. The first wave was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s known for its focus on women’s suffrage. In a WS 102 lecture here at Boston University, Professor O’Brien Hallstein wrote that the second wave consisted of, “1960s and 1970s feminisms that asked for and accomplished educational, legal, and social changes.” The third wave started in the 1990s and focused on intersectionality. Some scholars think a fourth wave is emerging and others think we are still in the third. Here is an in-depth article explaining each wave and the argument over whether there are three or four.
Photo credit: Dallas Morning News
However, the argument shouldn’t be which wave we are in but instead, whether the wave metaphor is even appropriate or not. One of the issues with the wave metaphor is that it indicates that feminism comes and goes, like a wave. This implies that feminism doesn’t continuously actively exist. Part of this idea comes from a middle-to-upper class, white representation of feminism. There are many other feminisms that have gotten much less attention.
Feminism isn’t just a fad, and people don’t stop being feminists. People continue to fight for equal rights even when it’s not regularly in the news. Just because there are moments that it’s not at the forefront of politics doesn’t mean that feminism has disappeared.
The wave metaphor also pits the different feminist waves against each other. In Professor O’Brien Hallstein’s lecture, she explains this by saying the waves, “simultaneously identified with the previous wave and dis-identified with the previous wave for their ‘reason’ for re-emerging.” When a new feminist movement begins, the people who join respect and are inspired by the people from the previous movement. However, they also feel that they’re more progressive than the previous movement and therefore, a little better than them.
For example, with the #MeToo movement and the Aziz Ansari case, the argument mainly focuses on second wave feminist views versus third/fourth wave feminist views. Both sides are criticizing each other. Second wave feminists are attacking third/fourth wave feminists for giving up a woman’s sense of agency in these situations, like in this article. Third/fourth wave feminists call out second wave feminists for letting men get away with too much, like in this article.
This divide also weakens the power of feminism. Women supporting women get things accomplished, not women fighting women. A diversity of opinions leads to more ideas. If women accept different opinions, they can have respectful conversations and potentially come up with better ideas to achieve equality.
All people who consider themselves feminists do not have the same opinions. While it is important to recognize different backgrounds and viewpoints, that shouldn’t cause rivalry between groups. Instead, feminism, which is continuous, should allow for and welcome a variety of opinions. The women’s movement should be about love, support, and equality, not competition.
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