Relevance of the History of the Feminist movement in 2025

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In another thread I made the point that the feminist movement has not changed its key/core goals from the days of it's inception. Basically equality with men. I thought that's a no brainer?

But I acknowledge it has evolved shifting from primarily focusing on suffrage and legal equality to addressing broader social, economic, and cultural issues, including intersectionality and the recognition of diverse gender identities.

First Wave (19th and early 20th centuries): Primarily focused on securing legal rights for women, especially the right to vote and property rights.

Second Wave (1960s-1980s): Expanded the focus to include reproductive rights, workplace equality, domestic violence, and challenging traditional gender roles.

Third Wave (1990s-present): Emphasized intersectionality, recognizing the diverse experiences of women based on race, class, sexuality, and other identities. It also challenged traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, and sought to redefine gender.

Fourth Wave (present): Leverages social media and digital activism to address issues like sexual harassment, violence, and online discrimination. It also recognizes and advocates for trans and non-binary identities.

I can see the intersectionality with traditional notions of masculinity has been labelled as "woke". I think its going to take some time for males (particularly traditional males) to come to terms with 3rd and 4th wave feminist goals.

Discourse is of importance for healthy discussion to learn about intersectionality. this is a Autism support site, and its important to acknowledge intersectionality that crosses neurodiversity, gander, race and other forms of identity.

Well had thought that movement , was still almost alive, but the rights of women ,in the USA maybe somewhat endangered, as some of the States are banning abortions. Even prosecueting those that maybe involved in
assisting a women in getting a abortion... So this is certainly not what I expected. (Just my 2 cents worth.)

Basically correct. I would say that the issue of sexual harassment was the driver of the third wave, the 1991 conformation hearings of Clarance Thomas was the spark. Riot grrrl punk rock that emerged from the American Northwest became a public symbol of this wave. At that time “What is sexual harassment” posters went up at work, Uncomfortable conversations became common at work and at home. For example males were shocked to find out that women did not and never did appreciate being “complimented” on their attire at work. Violence against women became an issue. The murder of Mia Zapata a member of the riot grrrl act ‘The Gits’ killed on her way home from a club became somewhat of a cause celeb.

The Fourth Wave emerged around the same time as Black Lives Matter. That is when the “woke” ideas related to Critical Race Theory, group privilege, and intersectionality became more central.

We create these dividing lines but there are always connections.

The term “sexual harassment” was coined in the 1970s. Even though it was a rarely used term the elements of the topic started entering public discussion. It was a minor element in workplace parity discussions. Women started complaining about the being wolf whistled. ‘All in the Family’ broadcast an episode that revolved around Gloria being groped when walking by a construction site. Another episode had a plot where Edith was raped(as typical of what rape was thought of at the time the rapist was a stranger).

During Clintons impeachment sexual harassment was shelved as protecting Clinton was prioritized. A few years later the ‘American Pie’ movie series was popular which harkened back to the pre third wave teen comedy genre where objectifying, spying on, harassing, and violating female classmates were laugh lines. Famously sexual harassment remerged with #MeToo which coincided with forth wave.

At some riot grrrl shows band members would ask audience members to discuss their experiences with sexual harassment and violence. These became a public controversy when male audience members were asked to leave. This was an attempt to set up a safe space before the term became well known. Perhaps consciously or unconsciously they borrowed the idea from the gay liberation movement which invented the concept a few years prior. Safe spaces is related to the “woke” idea that only those with lived experience have a right to opine about that experience.

Correction:
The concept of what we call today safe spaces predates the gay liberation movement. Alcoholic Anonymous comes to mind.

^^^ there's a trade off between supporting everyone's favourite "movement" and giving up inalienable female rights.

Praise Feminism!

the BLM movement did identify significant schism with the feminist movement which was never really invested in civil rights due to it being dominated by middle class white women since it's inception.

Black suffragettes were excluded from the movement because the presence of blacks would have cost the approval of southern states needed to ratify the constitutional amendment granting the right of women to vote.

Oh I think its a bit deeper than that. Both the feminist and LGBTI movements have piggy banked of civil rights but never really reciprocated allyship. Same with the Palestinian movement.

People tend to be passionate over single issues.