Hello to all of you !
Since tomorrow is International Women's Day, I thought I'd make a brief recap of the modern history of feminism.
First, a short definition. Feminism, not as everyone thinks, is the aim of political, ideological and social movements to achieve equality of genres on all levels (political, social, economic, and personal).
Feminism in our history is divided in four waves, starting from the end of the 19th century to today. Before that, there were really important authors that advocated for women's rights, such as Olympe de Gouges or even Plato before that. However, the role of women in society was mainly reduced to their domestic function, with a "feminine ideal" of housewives, with no legal identity.
The first wave of feminism truly started in the 19th century, and focused mainly on absolute rights, such as suffrage. In 1848, the first Women's Right Convention was held in New-York, and a declaration of independence for women was drafted.
The first country in the world to get vote for ALL women was New-Zealand in 1893, followed by Australia in 1902, with the right to vote for white women only (it was only in 1962 that aboriginal women and men got the vote). Later on, the major part of countries followed, with, for example, Britain in 1918 and France in 1944.
At the end of World War Two, nevertheless, raised a strong anti-feminist movement, and the idea that women belonged at home.
The second wave, from the 60's to the late 80's was a cultural and political revolution for women. Embodied by personalities such as Simone de Beauvoir, Gloria Steinem, or Betty Friedan that reflected on "women's liberation", and crucial aspects of the emancipation of women, such as sex, chosen motherhood, politics and male dominance, equal pay and financial independence,..
“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female — whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.” Simone de Beauvoir
However, equality was not close to be reached, even with the multiple emerging feminist movements. In Australia for example, still in the 80's you had to ask your husband to get a passport if you were a woman.
The third wave of feminism, that started in the 90's, encouraged the subjectivity of feminism, drifting away from the second-wave vision, based mainly on the image of white women from the upper-classes. Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the theory of intersectionality, which is based on the convergence of discriminations, thinking feminism in relation to anti-racism. She takes the example that afro americans girls are 6 times more likely to get suspended than white girls, saying that it is "a race and a gender problem, it's not just a race problem, it's not just a gender problem".
Today, the fourth wave of feminism is focusing on human equality and female empowerment, mainly expressed through social media.
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