essay on new waves of feminism and our culture

The New Waves of Feminism and Our Culture

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CSS 2019 Solved Essay | The New Waves of Feminism and Our Culture

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1-Introduction  

While the new waves of feminism, bolstered by the internet, have significantly encouraged freedom for women around the world, they have negatively impacted Pakistani culture, being accused of promoting Westernization, potentially hindering progress towards a more equitable society.

2-Understanding Feminism  

3-Understanding Pakistani Culture   

4-Current overview of the new wave of feminism in Pakistan   

5-How have the new waves of feminism negatively impacted Pakistani cultural norms?  

• Evidence : Digital activism in the form of Twitter hashtags like #MeToo and #Mera Jism Meri Marzi has called for Bodily autonomy and denounced the patriarchy.     
• Evidence : Concepts like bodily autonomy, sexual freedom, and LGBTQ rights are Western in essence, which is ruining the local family structure and cultural values. 
• Evidence: Facebook groups like Soul Sisters Pakistan and Women’s Collective Pakistan are accused of their immodest content and discourses, especially in the promotion of divorce and deluding women from heterosexual marriages.     
• Evidence: Aurat march in Pakistan is a staunch advocate for LGBTQ in public marches, inciting sentiments of the conservative sections in the society.  
• Evidence: The case of Meesha Shafi alleging her colleague Ali Zafar of sexual harassment was dismissed in 2020 by the Lahore High Court, facing wide criticism from the media and the public on her unreasonable use of the Aurat card.   
• Evidence: Many legitimate divorce cases, such as Fatima Sohail and Mohsin Abbas Haider, exemplified the promotion of divorce as a remedy to domestic abuses, had spiked the divorce rate by 30% in 2020-2021, according to the Tribune.  
• Evidence:  Maulana Fazlur Rehman has publicly opposed the Western concept of abortion rights, stating such practices as against Islamic values and cultural traditions and has called for the protection of the unborn as part of the moral and religious duty of society.

6-On what grounds do opponents argue that the new wave of feminism has strengthened the Pakistani culture in a positive way?

• Rebuttal: The new waves of feminism are not advocating for core issues of women stretching in the socio-economic and political domains; instead, its focus has narrowed down to personal autonomy, which operates against the local culture.   
• Rebuttal: Feminists have challenged the traditional institution of the family in favour of personal freedom and criticized the alliance of marriage by labelling it as oppressive, which contradicts social and cultural norms.  

6-How to mitigate the negative impacts?

• The new waves of feminism must not overlook the cultural constraints.
• Feminists must engage with religious scholars on sensitive issues before taking any course of action.
• Feminists must collaborate with men to prioritize female education and eradicate domestic violence.

7-Conclusion 

For centuries, women have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of subjugation and discrimination across various aspects of life. This resilience has led to the emergence of numerous feminist movements advocating for their rights. These movements have highlighted the injustices women endure in the socio-economic and political spheres, aiming to dismantle systemic barriers. However, the path towards achieving these goals can be complex, particularly in societies with deeply ingrained cultural norms. In Pakistan, the rise of new waves of feminism, with their emphasis on individual rights and dismantling patriarchal structures, has sparked a vital conversation about gender equality. Moreover, these waves of feminism have undoubtedly negatively impacted Pakistani cultural norms by challenging traditional gender roles, undermining family structures, and promoting individualism and Westernization over collectivism, which has led to social fragmentation and cultural dissonance. For instance, during the 2020 Aurat March, feminists confronted Pakistan’s longstanding patriarchal norms, advocating for bodily autonomy and openly discussing Western concepts such as LGBTQ rights in public forums and on social media. Therefore, the new waves of feminism in Pakistan are no more than a clash between Western and local cultures. 

Before moving towards the current overview, it is imperative to understand the term ‘Feminism’. It is a belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes in every stage of the society. The term “Feminism” was coined in 1837 by the French utopian philosopher and radical socialist Charles Fourier (1772-1837) to indicate “The illness of womanly qualities appearing in men.” Further, it is a broader term used for the cultural phenomena associated with women’s oppression by the patriarchy. It first originated in Europe and America, spreading to other parts of the world in the 20th century. Feminists at first started their resistance against the fundamental social, economic, and political inequalities, but over time, they evolved their objectives; likewise, in some countries, they worked against forced marriage, female infanticide, wearing veils in public atmosphere, and widow burning. This evolution in feminism with the elapsed of time is called ‘waves’.   

Furthermore, Pakistan, taking its cultural roots from the ancient Indus Valley civilization, is patriarchal in its form and nature. The basic family structure includes a male, usually the oldest among others, as the leader of the family, making important decisions and is responsible for the bread and butter of the members; the females subordinate to males are responsible for the chores of the household as well fulfilling the duties of wife and mother. The urban middle class and rural regions observe the practice of keeping women in seclusion (purdah) with a modest dress code covering the full body, which is mandatory for women in public places to ensure respect and dignity of women. Overall, conservative in nature, the culture of Pakistan is further influenced by strict religious principles, segregating it from Western or other cultures.   

In the contemporary era, the new waves of feminism are about the modern feminist movements that aim to empower women globally, especially using the internet and digital activism. In 2012, a tragic event sparked the beginning of the 4th wave of feminism, and in Pakistan, it gained attention in 2018 with the ‘Aurat March’. This movement faced opposition from conservative groups. However, social media has been crucial in spreading feminist ideas and connecting like-minded people. A research article called ‘Social Media and Perception of Feminism’ supports using digital activism as an effective tool. Further, many Twitter campaigns have also helped women in Pakistan share their experiences of harassment anonymously. Nowadays, feminist ideas are also spread through literature, art, music, and films, shedding light on cultural issues.

In the first place, feminism in Pakistan is questioning male chauvinism, which defies the deep-rooted patriarchal culture. Indeed, feminists strive for equality of both genders, disregarding the man’s control over women’s choices in what to wear or who to marry as an exploitation of women’s physical self. Consequently, women in the recent waves of feminism have denounced the superiority claimed by men over them and asked for self-control over their bodies, refusing patriarchy to be the dictator in their life choices. For instance, through digital activism in the form of Twitter hashtags #MeToo and #Mera Jism Meri Marzi, women protested the exploitation. They claimed bodily autonomy against man’s control, expressing their apathy towards the century-old system of patriarchy. Similarly, the placards hoisted in Aurat in March 2020 rejected the patriarchal and gendered division of labour. Thus, the new waves of feminism are more against male dominance than the actual issues of women in Pakistan. 

Similarly, the 4th wave of feminism and globalization is shrinking the boundaries between Western and local cultures. One of the critical features of the 4th wave of feminism is the utilization of the internet and social media in the communication and propagation of ideologies. However, the doctrine that feminists cultivate in the minds of youth is incompatible with local culture. To end this, feminist movements in Pakistan are at times alleged to engage in cultural imperialism by promoting Western values under the guise of women’s empowerment. In fact, concepts like bodily autonomy, sexual freedom, and LGBTQ rights are Western, which is ruining the local family structure and cultural values in Pakistan. Thus, to address the genuine issues of women in socio-economic spheres, feminists must focus on the intricacies of local culture instead of imposing foreign culture. 

Moreover, the conservative section of society is critiquing the new waves of feminism as a tool to promote vulgarity in disguise of women’s empowerment. It is evident that feminism in the 21st century has narrowed down the concept of women’s empowerment to personal liberty with the exemption of all social, moral or cultural modesty. While exposing the heinous crimes committed against women and demanding justice for the victims of rape, domestic violence, and marital abuse, feminists often exclude themselves from their cultural modesty and are accused of crossing the line from seeking justice to engaging in vulgarity. In Pakistan, for instance, facebook groups like Soul Sisters Pakistan and Women’s Collective Pakistan meant to help victims of domestic violence and marital abuse, are accused of their immodest content and discourses, especially in the promotion of divorce and in deluding women from heterosexual marriages. Quite so, the participants openly share marriage intimacies with the public, which must have been limited to one’s bedroom. Therefore, new waves of feminism with the use of the internet have provided uncensored access to the promotion and advertisement of vulgar content against the cultural norms of Pakistan.  

Furthermore, the new waves of feminism in Pakistan are extending beyond women’s empowerment to the rights of the socially constructed concept of LGBTQ. The West meticulously orchestrates these social concepts of genders to impose on local cultures under the veil of women empowerment. Specifically, in Pakistani culture, advocating for the rights of third gender is viewed with a critical eye, let alone introducing the Westernized concepts of LGBTQ. Meanwhile, the Aurat March in 2020 openly manifested their support in favour of LGBTQ, inciting sentiments of the conservative sections of society. Furthermore, coordinated propaganda for the acceptance of LGBTQ rights through electronic media and social media was arranged at length at that time. However, civil society promptly opposed such alteration to social and cultural norms and pressured the feminist circles to withdraw from such demands. Therefore, new waves of feminism in Pakistan have lost their focus from women’s empowerment to the Western agenda of cultural imperialism.  

Additionally, the unreasonable spike in using Aurat Card to level some baseless allegations of harassment against their political or professional rivals has vandalized the respect and dignity of men that is promised by the country’s culture to both genders. Feminist, on the one hand, empowers women through gender equality, but at the same time, accept women as the weaker gender and ask for privileged treatment over the opposite. However, to gain selfish objectives, women sometimes exploit this special treatment and use it as a weapon to drag their rivals into derogatory claims of sexual harassment. A prime example of this is the case of singer Meesha Shafi, who alleged her colleague Ali Zafar of sexual harassment in 2018. Failure to substantiate the case was dismissed in 2020 by Lahore High Court. She faced wide criticism from the media and the public for her unreasonable use of the Aurat card to achieve some wicked desires. Thus, the new waves of feminism have encouraged women to weaponize the Aurat cards to seek sympathy, draw undue attention to their issues, or gain favour in social and professional settings. 

Similarly, feminists are promoting divorce as a remedy to all the ills of women. They are undermining the institution of family and the ideals of family cohesion, patience and compromise detailed in our culture. Struggling marriages with chances of betterment are provoked to take extreme measures of divorce that have not only spiked the rate of divorce but have also caused unrepairable damage to the genuine cases of violence and sexual abuse. To quote an example, many divorce cases, such as Fatima Sohail and Mohsin Abbas Haider (2020), exemplified the promotion of divorce as the only remedy to domestic abuses and led to a spike in the divorce rate by 30% in 2020-2021 says Tribune. Today, this situation is direr, and in pursuit of personal freedom, both genders are suffering from loneliness and family cohesion. Hence, the institution of marriage, a distinguished feature of the Eastern family system and Pakistani culture, is undermined by Western agendas of feminism.  

Moving further, feminists in Pakistan who advocate for the Western concept of abortion rights face criticism from civil society as their stance is perceived to be against religious beliefs and local cultural values. In Pakistan, people argue that a fetus is a person from the moment of conception. Abortion is, therefore, morally equivalent to murder, and the inherent right to life of the fetus supersedes the woman’s right to bodily autonomy. The leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), a major religious and political party in Pakistan, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has publicly opposed the Western concept of abortion rights, stating such practices are against Islamic values and cultural traditions and has called for the protection of the unborn as part of the moral and religious duty of society. Many in civil society consider abortion rights as against the sanctity of motherhood and thus must not be demanded in the streets.

On the other hand, intellectuals argue that the new waves of feminism in Pakistan have highlighted the domestic violence of women, inequality, and disparity in education, which has sensitized the public and brought a positive change to the local culture. In fact, legislation like Zainab Alert, Anti-Rape legislation, and the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act were passed in Parliament because of the pressure exerted by feminist movements. However, it is also a fact that the new waves of feminism are not advocating for core issues of women stretching in the socio-economic and political domains. Instead, its focus has narrowed to personal autonomy, which operates against the local culture. Their objectives are of Western origin. Their home countries have already closed the gap of gender equality. Still Pakistan has yet to achieve the targets set by the 2nd and 3rd wave of feminism, let alone the new demands of contemporary feminism. For example, the new waves of feminism in the country are advocating for bodily autonomy instead of accomplishing the primary demand of gender equality, which is before the exercise and sustenance of bodily autonomy. Again, feminists in Pakistan are in a hurry to secure rights ahead of their demands. In a nutshell, feminism in the past might have succeeded in ensuring women’s rights, but the present waves of feminism are not aligned with the time’s or culture’s requirements.  

Similarly, feminism has spread awareness among the public to respect women’s dignity and personal freedom, reinforcing the ideals of local culture with the contemporary needs of society. Today, women can voice their concerns and exercise their choice in decisions on socio-economic matters. Similarly, her dignity, irrespective of her social or religious standing, is protected by legal frameworks envisioned in the constitution through their longing for political efforts. However, women may have had personal freedom, but their scepticism against men’s oppression has disturbed the sacred relations of marriage and family. Today, Feminists have challenged the traditional institution of the family in favour of personal freedom and criticized the alliance of marriage by labelling it as oppressive, which contradicts social and cultural norms. In Aurat March 2020, controversial slogans like “Apna Khana Khud Garam Karo” depicted an attack on the institution of marriage and clearly illustrated the choices feminists made under the garb of personal freedom. Therefore, the new waves of Feminism may have brought some positive change, but the negative impacts on Indigenous cannot be denied.  

However, the new waves of feminism must not overlook the cultural constraints. A direct opposition to social and cultural norms would bear no success. Understanding and respecting deep-rooted cultural and religious values would result in more inclusive and constructive solutions for the oppressed gender. Likewise, in Pakistan, the perception of feminism as a Western agenda can effectively be countered by aligning the arguments with social norms. By incorporating cultural sensitivities, the movement can be advertised as a part of the community’s fabric rather than an external imposition, thus fostering acceptance and driving meaningful change.

Adding more to it, feminists must engage with religious scholars on sensitive issues before taking any course of action. By collaborating with progressive scholars, feminists can gain authoritative voices that support women’s rights within an Islamic framework. The anti-Islamic and pro-western allegations can also be countered by presenting feminist ideals that are compatible with Islamic teachings. This approach can help to mitigate resistance from conservative factions and build broader support for feminist initiatives.

Finally, feminists must collaborate with men to prioritize female education and eradicate domestic violence. Working in alliance with men would challenge the traditional gender roles more effectively, closing the gap towards a more equitable society. Further, joint initiatives can focus on raising awareness about the importance of educating girls, highlighting its benefits for families and the broader community. Additionally, instead of taking divorce as the ultimate solution to domestic violence, a collaborative effort in understanding the sensitivities of the institution of marriage and a combined initiative to spread awareness in combating domestic violence can be developed. Such a progressive approach would help promote healthier and non-violent conflict resolution.

In conclusion, despite highlighting crucial issues like domestic violence and educational disparity, the new waves of feminism in Pakistan risk and alienate the public by clashing with deeply ingrained cultural norms. Their emphasis on Western concepts like LGBTQ rights and individual autonomy, often conveyed through social media activism, is perceived as cultural imperialism. A more effective approach would prioritize core issues like education and economic opportunities while remaining sensitive to cultural values. Likewise, collaboration with religious scholars and men can foster broader support and create context-specific solutions. Ultimately, Pakistani feminism must find a way to empower women while respecting the cultural fabric of the society it seeks to improve.

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New feminist activism, waves, and generations

Publication year: 2021.

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Over the last decade, young women have taken the lead in a new wave of feminist and democratic protests in a wide range of countries, North and South. These movements raise a range of political and analytic questions:

• To what extent is it useful to identify the recent wave of activism in terms of a new generation of activists?
• How different are these new feminist movements to earlier forms, and what differences and continuities divide and unite the generations?
• How useful is the idea of feminist “waves” as a way of periodizing the history of feminism?

These questions are explored first through examining the characteristics common to past and contemporary feminisms and dissecting the issues associated with periodizing feminism in terms of “waves”.

In the second part of the paper, the focus is on understanding the most recent wave of feminist activism by considering its antecedents and main characteristics.

Part three presents three case studies of movements in the Global South; the cases of Brazil, India, and Malawi illustrate some of the ideas, campaigns, and organizational forms of “new feminists”. They focus on three prominent themes in feminist activism:

• Campaigns to defend democratic rights (Brazil);
• Gender-based violence (India); and
• Sexual and identity rights (Malawi).

This paper is part of the  “UN Women discussion paper series” .

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UN Women impact stories: Women in leadership

Democratic backsliding and the backlash against women’s rights: Understanding the current challenges for feminist politics

UN Women submission on electoral participation and sexual orientation and gender identity: To the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

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WAVES OF FEMINISM

2020, The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication

This entry outlines the waves of feminism to explain the modern history of the women's liberation movement and how it has been shaped by women's interactions with the media (and vice versa). The media context allows for a more situated analysis of "female troubles" as it unveils the role of media forms for shaping women's cultural circumstances. The entry explains the development of the feminist movement, focusing on the chronological evolution of the movement's assumptions. It describes the main events and activists of the women's liberation front, distinguishing between the targets and tools of individual waves. The relationship between the media and feminism has been of crucial importance for the progression of contemporary communication and its structures. The reinvention of one through another by means of mutual criticism and stimulation has helped reframe the social functions of the sexes as well as open the media for uses beyond their original design.

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Current Perspectives in Feminist Media Studies is a compilation of nineteen thought-provoking articles addressing four important issues outlined by the editors (p.2). The book is divided into six themespolitical economy, new media (ICTs, cyber cultures and digital media policies), media identities, sexuality and sexualization, post-feminism, and the need for methodological rigor for feminist researchwith each theme dedicated to a cross-section of media and current thinking in feminist research. As the editors have rightly pointed out in their introduction, until recently, feminist scholarship has been dominated by views and thoughts emerging from-mostly white, and the First world‖ (p. 1). Salam Al-Mahadin endeavors to re-position Arab feminist studies, arguing that the Western portrayal of women in feminist research is based on a-phallocentric approach of women's perceived lack of a ‗phallus'‖ (p.8). She contrasts this to the Arab world in which woman is a-territory that constructs that symptom called ‗man' (Jacques Lacan, 1975/1982)‖. She tended to explain this by quoting the aversion the West has at the burqa of women by stating that-the discomfort Richard Dawkins experiences in gazing at a burqa (a full-bin-liner thing) clad woman goes beyond the boasted humane feeling of ‗oppression' unleashed on woman in Islam‖. She says that his (Dawkins) male jouissance or pleasure somehow has been denied to him (p.9).She argues that in the Arab world,-the woman is the word and she is self-signifying‖ as, according to her, it is only due to woman's paramount importance as the ultimate signifier in Arab societies that Western media have hijacked the Arab/Muslim women as an ambassador to the Other (p. 8 and p.9). Similar arguments echo in the critique offered by Angela McRobbie who highlights the patriarchal tendencies underlying the French government's latest regulations against covering of the face by an African Muslim girl with a headscarf in a school. She argues that the male pleasure in gazing at an uncovered face of a woman manifests from behind the regulation in the name of secularization (p. 94). Gargi Bhattacharyya moves this argument further by stating that-despite proliferation of media outlets, representations of women in media remained more formulaic, objectifying and, increasingly, hypersexualized with no connection to any lived sexuality‖ (p. 13). She draws distinction between-an analysis of media that can be usefully understood as ‗feminist', and an analysis of media studies that is carried out by people who just happened to be feminists‖ (p. 13). Bhattacharyya insists that feminist research into gender portrayal must move into hitherto unexplored regions including: Imagining Bodies in the World, Economics and Security. Mary Beltran carefully evaluates gaps in feminist scholarship and, taking her own career experiences as a case study, she underscores the importance of feminist research on-intersections of race and class with gender oppression‖ (p. 19). Andrea L Press argues that the gains of feminism during the 1970s have been neutralized by the postfeminists leading to an ‗anti-feminism' (p. 100). She calls for more ethnographic studies involving young men and women. Katharine Sarikakis frames her chapter by explaining feminism as life politics and about changing lives and politics. She argues that feminist media studies, as a dominant paradigm of feminist intervention, pays attention to women's positions vis a vis mediated and cultural spaces across the domains of production and consumption, across technologies and geographies, practices and values. This leads to two dimensions of media contentone offering space for representations of women and the other the construction of femininities and the ways in which women make sense of cultural and media texts and create their own meanings (p.110). Continuing the debate of lacking scholarship in certain parts of the planet, Tanja Bosch in chapter five argues that-little has changed from the times of the publication of first paper on African feminist research by Aida-Opuku-Mensah. .. in the first issue of Feminist Media Studies‖ (p. 24). She focuses on narrating the lack of feminist research on Black Feminist media studies especially involving the lived experiences of African-American women in a context of low economic and social opportunities (p. 25). Her arguments bring to the fore the significance of studies that construct the category of Latina involving Black women of Latin-American origin and the perceived-whiteness‖ of much feminist studies.

International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 2013

W e now ask our readers to join us in an exploration of the history of feminism or, rather, feminisms: How have they evolved in time and space? How have they framed feminist communication scholarship in terms of what we see as a significant interplay between theory and politics? And how have they raised questions of gender, power, and communication? We shall focus our journey on the modern feminist waves from the 19th to the 21st century and underscore continuities as well as disruptions. Our starting point is what most feminist scholars consider the " first wave. " First-wave feminism arose in the context of industrial society and liberal politics but is connected to both the liberal women's rights movement and early socialist feminism in the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States and Europe. Concerned with access and equal opportunities for women, the first wave continued to influence feminism in both Western and Eastern societies throughout the 20th century. We then move on to the second wave of feminism, which emerged in the 1960s to 1970s in postwar Western welfare societies, when other " oppressed " groups such as Blacks and homosexuals were being defined and the New Left was on the rise. Second-wave feminism is closely linked to the radical voices of women's empowerment and differential rights and, during the 1980s to 1990s, also to a crucial differentiation of second-wave feminism itself, initiated by women of color and third-world women. We end our discussion with the third feminist wave, from the mid-1990s onward, springing from the 1

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New Feminist Activism, Waves and Generations

]. (United Nations Women Discussion Paper 40). United Nations: New York, NY, USA.

Over the last decade, young women have taken the lead in a new wave of feminist and democratic protests in a wide range of countries, North and South. These movements raise a range of political and analytic questions: To what extent is it useful to identify the recent wave of activism in terms of a new generation of activists? How different are these new feminist movements to earlier forms, and what differences and continuities divide and unite the generations? How useful is the idea of feminist ‘waves’ as a way of periodizing the history of feminism? These questions are explored first through examining the characteristics common to past and contemporary feminisms and dissecting the issues associated with periodizing feminism in terms of ‘waves’. In the second part of the paper, the focus is on understanding the most recent wave of feminist activism by considering its antecedents and main characteristics. Part three presents three case studies of movements in the Global South: The cases of Brazil, India and Malawi illustrate some of the ideas, campaigns and organizational forms of ‘new feminists’. They focus on three prominent themes in feminist activism: campaigns to defend democratic rights (Brazil), gender-based violence (India) and sexual and identity rights (Malawi). The analysis of the emergent fourth wave illustrates the importance of history and context, politics, resources and opportunities. Four distinguishing features of the ‘new feminism’ stand out from our research: First, we find that today, more than ever, feminist activism is global and that the countries of the South contain some of the most dynamic movements; second, feminist activism is highly dependent on new communications technology, which accelerates the temporality of communication and allows for extensive organizational power and reach. Third, this wave of feminism is characterized by more defensive campaigns, as women’s rights have come under increasing threat from conservative forces. Fourth, issues of intersectionality, i.e., a strong commitment to diversity, radical inclusion and anti-racism, are all more prominent in these recent movements than in previous times.

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Palo Alto High School's Social Activism Publication

Feminism Evolved: How Feminism has developed over a century

Modern Suffragettes : Gunn Students parade as the suffragettes for Vote-A-Palooza (Feb. 22) Photo by Karlene Salas.

Introduction

Since childhood, we have been conditioned to adhere to oppressive gender roles.  Phrases such as “boys will be boys” and “that’s not very ladylike” have been used to portray the place of young girls in society. The feminism movement, since it’s conception, stood to give women a better place in society. One hundred years ago, women in America took their first national vote thanks to the activism of the suffragettes. Now, a century later, where does feminism stand on a social and political level? Where will it end up in the future? 

A hundred years ago, there were only a few things more scandalous than a flapper. With their hair cut short, cigarettes dangling off their painted lips, their knee-length dresses daringly showing off their ankles, flappers were a symbol of female rebellion and consumerism.

Although they were a figure of female empowerment and a rebellion against the stiff traditions of the Victorian Age, their actions led to even more resentment and hatred toward women.

“The boys today must be protected from the young girl vamp,” a mother said in a New York Times article from 1922.

Women were expected to fit into the stereotype of the perfect housewife, hindering them from the right to vote , the right to their own body , and the freedom to think and decide for themselves which are rights that are seen as common today. In just a hundred years, we have conquered many obstacles that hindered female advancement. So the question commonly asked is: Do we still need feminism at this day and age?

The short answer? Yes. But in order to truly dive into it, let’s go back to the 1970s when Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex, the Equal Rights Amendment seemed like the answer to many feminists’ troubles. However, being short of only three states, it was never ratified.

During the 70s, most people believed that women were unsuited for politics and their participation in the labor force was unnecessary. The idea of gender equality was not only foreign but also absurd. Traditional gender roles had authority over societal rules. However, in just 40 years, we have gone from merely a quarter of the population believing that gender equality is important both at home and at work to two thirds, according to a survey conducted by General Social Survey.

The idea of feminism is a broad one, spanning many different themes and issues. However, a common theme with feminism is an agreement to fight against prejudice and inequity.

“Feminism from my view is a movement to end gender inequality and related inequalities. People experience inequality very differently from one another,” -Alison Crossley

“Feminism from my view is a movement to end gender inequality and related inequalities. People experience inequality very differently from one another,” said Alison Crossley, gender studies professor and author of “Finding Feminism: Millennial Activists and the Unfinished Gender Revolution.” 

Women’s participation in American politics has skyrocketed since the suffragettes. In just this past decade alone, we have had our first female presidential primary candidate in 2016. In 2018, an historic number of 103 women were elected for the House of Representatives, as reported by the New York Times And now in 2020, the New York Times endorsed two female candidates, both who have since dropped out. The first female vote was cast in 1920 and changed the history of democracy forever. Now 100 years later, democracy and feminism are still ever-changing. 

However, it is a major misconception that all women were allowed to vote in 1920 when in actuality only white and black women were given that right. It wasn’t until 1952 that women of all races could vote, and not until 1965 that racial discrimination in voting became illegal. 

Despite significant legal reforms, discrimination in the polls did not disappear; it just became more discreet. It manifests itself in the form of voter suppression, which specifically targets marginalized groups, especially women of color, as reported by NPR during the 2018 Congressional Election.This forceful under representation in politics makes it easier for conservatives to pass laws on issues such as abortion and equal pay without the consent of the people it affects the most, and diminishing the chance for accurate representation when passing legislation.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states, require some form of Voter ID to cast a ballot in national elections. This has been used as some of the most effective voter suppression of marginalized minority groups. In the United States, roughly 90 percent of married women have assumed the last name of their husbands, according to the National Organization of Women, meaning that these women will have different names on their birth certificates and ID cards. In some states, this warrants the ability to turn women away at the polling stations, making women a target of voter suppression. 

A recent example of lack of representation, in 2019, Alabama’s Human Life Protection Act was signed into law by 25 white male politicians, restricting abortions under almost any circumstance, including rape and incest, making it the strictest abortion ban in recent history. Regardless of the majority of the state’s population being pro-life, according to the data recorded by Pew Forum ,  this bill is a complete disregard for a woman’s right to her own bodily autonomy, especially since no woman representative had political say in the matter. 

Fortunately, the League of Women’s Voters, a century old organization dedicated to helping women and others have a larger part of the political process, have taken actions across the nation to fight against voter suppression. According to the website , the League “actively opposes discriminatory voter photo ID laws, fights against attacks against the voter registration process, and holds lawmakers accountable when they try to institute last-minute Election Day barriers” through methods of “advocacy,  grassroots organizing, legal action and public education.”

“ I think just having women at the table, even if they’re not in my political party, is important. “ Terry Godfrey

If we truly want to be a feminist nation, it is imperative to have women of diverse backgrounds, who hold varying viewpoints represented in politics. “It doesn’t matter what my political affiliation is,” said Terry Godfrey, President of Palo Alto branch of the League. “It’s important to have a diversity of thought … and so I think just having women at the table, even if they’re not in my political party, is important.”

For feminism truly evolve, the movement must emphasize more than just sexual discrimination but discrimination unique to race, gender, class and sexual orientation. It is clear that the fight for inclusivity in the feminist movement is far from over, as feminsim is continues to be seen as a white woman’s movement. Many, such as Prof. Crossley, are hopeful that feminism will move in that direction. 

“Feminism is going to continue to be very vibrant, exciting, relevant, energetic, energising–and I think that it will become very coalitional.” Crossley says. “In many ways feminism has already been coalitional and intersectional for sure, but I think that those parts of feminism will become even stronger.”  

This progress can already be seen with what has happened with the Women’s March. In 2019, three of its board members stepped down due to accusations of anti-semitism, and faced critisism to not being inclusive enough. In response, Women’s March created a bigger, more diverse board, sparking feminists to give the organization a second chance, as reported by NPR. 

However, the future of feminism also lies in how we will view feminism’s history.

“There is a tendency to look for one particular mode of doing feminism or one particular person who can be the spokesperson. And, sometimes that means that we rush to define it so quickly that we then shut out people who might be able to be included in the movement who haven’t been.”  Crossley said.

 In order to move forward, we must re-examine what we see as feminism, who were pushed aside and who we champion as feminist icons. 

 For example, International Women’s Day (March 8) is widely celebrated, but the origin of the day is rarely discussed. Vice credits the origin of the day to a Jewish socialist named Theresa Malkiel in 1909. Despite inventing the day, her name is not even mentioned on the official International Women’s Day website.

On the other side of the coin, is Susan B. Anthony, who is arguably one of America’s most famous feminist. She was a suffragette, and a racist who was against Black Suffrage, as reported by the ACLU . Part of how feminism can become more inclusive is by accurately acknowledging its history. Not only so that we can focus more on feminists who were marginalized, but think critically of who we see as heroes and not repeat their mistakes.  

Another way we can do this is by rethinking the “wave” structure.  

“What happens [with the wave framework] is that we have this period of time where no feminism is happening.” said Crossley.

“And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, this gigantic surge of feminists and feminism emerges for a defined period of time, and then all of a sudden it’s dead and all the feminists disappear. And then again, something will happen. And all the feminists reappear.” 

“What I think is important to acknowledge is that feminism never disappears. Those people who are active at the peak of a movement, they do not just disappear. They continue with their communities and their networks, etcetera.”

“What I think is important to acknowledge is that feminism never disappears.” Alison Crossley

Essentially, the view of feminists in “waves” is largely inaccurate, and keeping that mindset alive is only diminishing the work of past feminists, driving wedges between older and newer feminists and even contributing to the erasure of prominent feminists of marginalized groups.

One person’s feminism cannot be seen as an all encompassing definition. The only constant? The strive for equality. 

Written by: Josie Andersen, Karlene Salas, and Michaela Seah

Art by Michaela Seah

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Maxine Molyneux, Adrija Day, Malu A.C. Gatto, and Holly Rowden

New Feminist Activism, Waves and Generations UN Women Discussion Paper, 2021

Reviewed by Sarah Frankie Summers

Feminism has historically been conceptualized or at least narrativized in waves, with each wave of the movement ushering in fresh intentions for broader inclusion and greater equity. The authors of this discussion paper begin with questioning the usefulness and accuracy of this waves metaphor, for the feminist movement has never been a finite phenomenon in all places at all times. The waves metaphor has also been charged with obscuring the role of African American women in the suffrage movement. The contextual and changing nature of feminism around the globe, Molyneux argues, is better exemplified by the concept of ‘generations,’ while her use of ‘timescapes’ seeks to emphasize the temporal and spatial dimensions of the human experience. To avoid implications of singular, homogeneous movements, the authors conclude that the plurality of struggles against gender-based oppression can best be articulated as ‘feminisms.’ Without negating their differences, feminist streams through time have all struggled for redistributive justice, recognition, and political inclusion. Molyneux points out that “a wave signifies fluidity and motion and is made up of multiple currents, each with its own momentum” and notes that the waves metaphor thus still offers a helpful visualization for feminisms and their overlapping movements.

This document was composed as a background paper for the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and the 64th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Background papers are commissioned by the Research and Data section of the UN Women group. A summary in English, followed by translations in French and Spanish, poses the other questions guiding the research detailed in the paper: is the new wave of activism a distinct generation from the movements that came before, and if so, what are its distinguishing characteristics, and what unites it to previous generations of feminist activism?

“Feminism is used in this paper as an overarching generic term for a diverse body of ideas and activism that share some common principles and perspectives and that aim to end the harms women suffer as a result of the social distribution of power in favour of men.” This footnoted definition of feminism provides a useful foothold for the position the authors ultimately take: the current iterations of feminism are situated within a wave of new activism by young people around the world. Four key features are identified to demarcate a ‘new feminism’—its global nature; its reliance on and empowerment by communications technology; its defensive stance; and its commitment to intersectionality.One of the most useful tools this document offers is a brief and approximate history of feminisms. The first timescape explored starts between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was largely centered around issues of suffrage. This generation also took on the fight for equal rights within the family, equal pay, access to higher education and professions, and workers’ rights. Some anarcho-feminists at this time began calling for the end of capitalism. The second wave, starting roughly in the late 1960s, early 1970s, sought autonomy. Consciousness-raising meetings focused on issues of prejudice, discrimination, abortions, and patriarchy. The movement emphasized sisterhood, although it had not confronted or resolved unequal power dynamics within it. Third wave feminism, in the 1980s and 1990s, emphasized policy-related activism, witnessed the strengthening feminist movements and rights advocacy in the Global South, and engendered the establishment of Women Studies as a discipline. The fourth wave, approximately starting with the new millennium, has pushed for “radical inclusion,” with intersectionality and use of technology at its core. This wave has identified the deepening gap between the expectations and accomplishments of feminist movements past as well as

the existential insecurity faced by new generations and the detachment from democracy.

The roots of the four key features of the fourth wave previously mentioned can be seen in the earlier waves, underscoring the difficulty or futility of differentiating between the waves to an extent. Over time, feminisms and some feminist principles have been absorbed by formal government, severing the grassroots connections that the movements relied on to understand gender issues faced by women “down here”—as opposed to women “up there” in the government. The case studies illustrate further difficulties with distinguishing between waves and the need to avoid overgeneralizing; however, the case studies also illuminate conflicts between generations of feminists which underscore the impact of real differences in values and approaches between the generations that shape new movements. 

The first case study explores the history of feminisms in Brazil, offering narratives and statistics that underscore the relationships between feminist generations and political progress and the fight to maintain that progress. The case study serves to demonstrate the experience of a generational lull as well as the defensive position new feminists have had to take. In this section, two Brazilian feminists offer potent perspectives on these changes. Sueli Carneiro noted, “Some 20 years ago, old feminists asked: ‘where are the girls, where are the girls? What happened? They didn’t show up.’ Now, I ask: ‘there are so many of you, where were you hiding that we didn’t see you?’ And they say: ‘we were growing up’.” And Cecília Sardenberg put it this way: “Back then, we fought to gain rights; now, we fight against them being taken away.” 

Efforts to eliminate violence against women (VAW) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in India are detailed in the second case study, showing how recent legal reform movements have been led by a new generation of feminists, whose strategies for building awareness of VAW and SGBV have not always supported by older generations of feminists. New feminists in India have come up against the challenge of a lack of implementation for the legal changes fought for by earlier feminist movements. The third case study about the radical inclusion efforts of the new feminists in Malawi offers an example of the generational divides where older feminists’ essentialist definition of women conflicts with the more expansive position of younger intersectional LBGTQI+ feminists. This case study also highlights the importance of regionally-specific approaches in fourth wave feminist scholarship.

The three case studies show both the importance of framing feminist struggles in the context of rights as well as the use of social media for advancing the movements. In a gesture of reflexivity, this UN Women publication considers its own positionality in the new feminist movement, recognizing that ownership and authority belong to a new generation which exists outside international agencies for human rights. This new generation, this fourth wave, situates intersectional feminisms locally and is concerned with advancing and preserving women’s rights, which encompass issues of gender, race, sexuality, and environmental justice. This compact, accessible text is an invaluable tool for all who seek to understand some of the many nuances of the global feminist movement through history.