Feminism

Feminism is an umbrella term for theories, philosophies, and movements that aim to defend women’s interests and rights and promote their social, political, and economic equality to men. Its development can be generalized as three waves, each with a distinctive concentration. The first wave of feminism surged between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries against the backdrop of urban industrialism and liberal politics. The goal was to create equal opportunities for women with a particular stress on suffrage. The second wave emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of antiwar and civil rights movements, encompassing a wider range of issues among which sexuality, family, and reproduction were its central concerns. The third extends from the 1990s to the present, characterizing the incorporation of such variables as class, race, and ethnicity into discourses that challenge the dominant white feminism and reject male-constructed binary oppositions.

The early 1990s saw the...