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1. GÖTTINGEN
GEORG-AUGUST UNIVERSITÄT
AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF FEMINIST THEORY AND
HISTORICAL CHANGING AND DEVELOPMENTS OF FEMINISM
The Changing Roles of Women’s Movement in Balkans Since The 1980s
Term Paper
by
Muhammed Burak Zembat
Matriculation Number: 21607780
Winter Semester, 2017
GÖTTINGEN
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2. Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 3
2. Theory of Feminism……………………………………………………………. 4
3. History of Feminism……………………………………………………………. 7
3.1. The First Wave Feminism…………………………….……………… 7
3.2. The Second Wave Feminism………………………………………… 9
3.3. The Third Wave Feminism…………………………………………. 10
3.4. The Fourth Wave Feminism………………………………………… 12
4. Conclusion……………………………………..………………………………… 13
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………… 14
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3. AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF FEMINIST THEORY AND
HISTORICAL CHANGING AND DEVELOPMENTS OF FEMINISM
Abstract
Women have been suffering since the beginning of the history because of patriarchal
order. Feminism is a clash of women against patriarchy. Suffering of women created the
concept of feminism as a gender based political and social movement. In public and
private sphere, women have been facing economic, political, cultural, legal,
administrative and social inequalities. This problem directly hits the order of the society.
So feminists struggle against every kind of gender based inequalities in everywhere of the
public and private life. The historical process of feminism has started since 18th century
and the movement has been growing and spreading for an indefinite number of successive
days of the movement. Meanwhile the headway of the women movement in history,
feminist ideology has not been stayed a fundamental, conservative theory. It has been
branched in the views of different political, social and economic ideologies and it has
became a complex sociological theory. As a result, today, we have different aproaches of
feminism to analyse the society by the methods of feminist theory. In this study, the concept
of the theory of feminism, the trends of the women movement, historical changings and
developments of feminism were analysed.
Key Concepts: “Feminism”, “The Women Movement”, “Theory of Feminism”, “History of
Feminism”
1.Introduction
The concept of feminism has undergone epistemological transformations in the 1960s, during which
the movement of women in the context of the liberation and emancipation of the patriarchal social
structure has become a daily phenomenon. After 1960, essentially three changes that took place in
the international conjuncture were influential on the feminist movement. The first of these; The
feminist movement has expanded to include young people at the universal or local level. This
enlargement brought the groups within feminist perception closer together and offered the
opportunity to recognize each other. Latter; Feminism has its own self-critical position, and it has
begun to deal with individual problems other than universal problems, and that gender, race,
ethnicity, language, With the emergence of attitudes feminism has also undergone a transformation
within itself. The third one; Feminist perception, paradoxical and dramatic processes in the societies
formed by feminist groups. These three main effects are; Feminism has become a complex,
problematic and complex situation. On the one hand, in general, feminism tries to explain a
perception approach and political position. On the other hand, it expresses a certain way of thinking,
a form of life.
The feminist development process such as global and local changes have led to feminist
development in different cultural norms, at different stages and at different times, due to the effects
on political, social and social aspects. However, it seems that feminism expresses certain forms of
identification and oppression of women at a certain social level, despite different sanctions against
international norms, different political structures and practices.
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4. The fundamental object of feminism is the feminine. The status of women in society, the roles of
women in and out of their homes, the oppression and exploitation of women, gender differences,
patriarchal society structure and male dominant power approaches and pressures are widely debated
issues. It is possible to say that the subject matter is being discussed as it is in the past, as the related
problems are continuing. When we look at it from this point of view, feminism has caused new
discourses, actions, perceptions and theoretical approaches to emerge in itself as a result of existing
debates about women, the fundamental object of feminism.
Feminism first emerged as a social movement on the local level, and later on it became a social and
political movement on the broader plane. However, feminism has brought a theoretical perspective
within the disciplines such as international relations, sociology, economics, philosophy, law and
politics. In this context, The concept of feminism has been tried to be explained by the intellectual
references of expert researchers in different disciplines and fields and the historical processes of
feminism have been examined. At the same time, different feminist approaches which are shaped by
different theories in international relations and which contain many branches are also examined.
2. Theory of Feminism
Feminism is a theory which examines gender inequality, women’s social roles, experiences,
interests and chores on variety fields such as anthropology, sociology, communication,
psychoanalysis, politics, home economics, literature and philosophy. The basic definition of
feminism is that men and women should be equal politically, economically and socially.1
Feminism is such a widespread and complex theory, a lot feminists disagree on many things of the
theory but many scholars of feminist theory agree on five basic principles.2
• Working to increase equality: Feminists wants to be in more action to struggle against political,
economic and social inequalities in society to grow and increase the awareness of gender
equality.
• Expanding human choice: According to feminist both men and women should be free to
develop their human interest, wishes and talents. Thus they advocate the equal opportunity
principle for both genders.
• Eliminating gender stratification: Feminists oppose cultural and traditional norms and laws
which create gender inequality in social and economic areas.
• Ending sexual violence and promoting sexual freedom: Women have been suffering physical
pain since the beginning of the history. So feminists defend that women should control over their
sexuality without any permissions and threats of any men.
Patriarchy is a social order which is established and ruled by males. In patriarchy, males hold the
primary power and predominate and fully control the social life. For instance, father figure holds
the absolute authority over children and woman in a traditional family as a core of the family. So
this situation directly reflects the social order and shapes the order according to the principle of
male supremacy. Although the equal rights which are written on the law codes, in practice, society
is not equal because of the patriarchal order.3
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism
1
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-feminist-theory-definition-lesson-quiz.html
2
Lockard, Craig (2007). Societies, Networks, and Transitions: Volume 1. Cengage Learning. pp. 111–114.
3
ISBN 9780547047669
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5. Feminism, as a struggle of women movement against patriarchy, fights against every every kind of
gender inequality. However many feminists gaze out the different windows to find solutions for the
problems of society. Thus feminist ideology can make different forms of definitions. Each
definition of feminism depends on priorities and key concepts of the ideologies, history, culture and
beliefs.
• Radical Feminism: A perspective of feminism that calls for radical reordering of male
supremacist society and eliminating the gender inequality in all social and economic context.4
According to Sheila Jeffreys ‘‘Radical feminist theorists do not seek to make gender a bit more
flexible, but to eliminate it. They are gender abolitionists, and understand gender to provide the
framework and rationale for male dominance. In the radical feminist approach, masculinity is the
behaviour of the male ruling class and femininity is the behaviour of the subordinate class of
women. Thus gender can have no place in the egalitarian future that feminism aims to create.” 5
Radical feminists want to free both men and women from the rigid gender roles that society has
imposed upon them. It is this sex-gender system that has created oppression and radical
feminist's mission is to overthrow this system by any possible means. Sometimes radical
feminists believe that they must rage a war against men, patriarchy, and the gender system which
confines them to rigid social roles. They completely reject these roles, all aspects of patriarchy,
and in some cases, they reject men as well. The radical feminists have divided into two groups. 6
Radical-Libertarian Feminism: Radical-Libertarian feminists believe that femininity and
reproduction limit women's capacity to contribute to society. Women should essentially be
androgynous. Radical-Libertarian feminists like to violate sexual norms and believe that
women should control every aspect of their sexuality. They also advocate artificial means of
reproduction so that less time is devoted to pregnancy and more time is devoted to
worthwhile things. They are strong promoters of abortion, contraceptives and other forms
of birth control.
Radical-Cultural Feminism: Radical-Cultural feminist views are dramatically different
from Radical-Libertarian feminists views. The Radical-Cultural feminists believe that
women should encompass their femininity because it is better than masculinity. This type of
radical feminist sees sex as male dominated. They see a link between sex, female
subordination, porn, rape and abuse. These must be eliminated, according to Cultural-
Radical feminists. Yet another opposing view is that reproduction is the source of power for
women. They believe that men are jealous of women, and that they try to control
reproduction through means of technology.
• Liberal Feminism: This perspective of feminism can basically be defined as individualist form
of feminist theory. Liberal feminists argues that society holds the false belief that women are
intellectually and physically less capable than men because of the nature. This wrong belief
creates discrimination in academy, marketplace, political area, sportive activities, social life etc.
So liberal feminists believe that "female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal
constraints that blocks women’s entrance to and success in the so-called public world”. Liberal
7
feminists create and support acts of legislation that remove the barriers for women. They strive
Willis, Ellen (1984), "Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism", Social Text, 9/10: The 60's without
4
Apology: 91–118, JSTOR 466537
Jeffreys, Sheila (2013). Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism, Abingdon,
5
Oxon : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, ISBN13: 9781306707947
http://www.yorku.ca/mlc/sosc3990A/projects/radfem/radfem2.html
6
Heywood, Andrew (2012), Political Ideologies: An Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan; 5th edition edition,
7
ISBN-13: 978-0230367258
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6. for sexual equality via political and legal reform. These acts of legislation demand equal
8
opportunities and rights for women, including equal access to jobs and equal pay. Liberal
feminists believe that removing these barriers directly challenges the ideologies of patriarchy, as
well as liberates women. Critics of liberal feminism argue that its individualist assumptions make
it difficult to see the ways in which underlying social structures and values disadvantage women.
They argue that even if women are not dependent upon individual men, they are still dependent
upon a patriarchal state. These critics believe that institutional changes like the introduction of
women’s suffrages are insufficient to emancipate women. Also, it has been criticized for
9
ignoring race and class issues.10
• Socialist Feminism: Socialist feminist theory analyzes the connection between the oppression of
women and other oppression in society, such as racism and economic injustice. Socialist
feminists believe that there is a direct link between class struggle and gender inequality.11
Socialist feminism is a two-pronged theory that broadens Marxist feminism's argument for the
role of capitalism in the oppression of women and radical feminism's theory of the role of gender
and the patriarchy. Socialist feminists reject radical feminism's main claim that patriarchy is the
only or primary source of oppression of women. Socialist feminism draws upon many concepts
12
found in Marxism; such as a historical materials point of view, which means that they relate their
ideas to the material and historical conditions of people's lives. Socialist feminists thus consider
how the sexism and gendered division of labor of each historical era is determined by the
economic system of the time. Woman’s position within the family may help explain the problem
of developing working class consciousness. As with exchange relationships in general in
capitalism, underlying these seemingly equal exchange relationships are power
relationships. Various relationships, such as those between males and females, relationships in
the family, prostitution, surrogate mother hood, etc. may appear to express equality, but because
of the underlying unequal power relations conceal great inequalities. In contrast to ideals of
13
liberal feminism, which tend to focus on the individual woman, the socialist feminist theory
focuses on the broader context of social relations in the community and includes aspects of race,
ethnicity and other differences.
• Cultural Feminism: This perspective of feminist theory used to criticize the view that there is a
"female nature" or "female essence" or related attempts to revalidate attributes ascribed to
femaleness. Cultural feminists believe that there are fundamental, biological differences
14
between men and women, and that women should celebrate these differences. Women are
Tong, Rosemarie. 1989. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. Oxon, United Kingdom: Unwin
8
Human Ltd. Chapter 1
Bryson, Valerie. (1999), Feminist Debates: Issues of Theory and Political Practice (Basingstoke:
9
Macmillan) pp.14-15
Mills, S. (1998), "Postcolonial Feminist Theory" in S. Jackson and J. Jones eds., Contemporary Feminist
10
Theories (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) pp.98-112
Heywood, Andrew (2012), Political Ideologies: An Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan; 5th edition edition,
11
ISBN-13: 978-0230367258
Buchanan, Ian. "Socialist Feminism." A Dictionary of Critical Theory. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford
12
University Press. Web. 20 October 2011.
Eisenstein, Zillah. (1999), Constructing a Theory of Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism, Critical
13
Sociology, p.(196-201)
Alcoff, Linda. (1988) "Cultural Feminism Versus Post-Structuralism: the Identity Crisis in Feminist
14
Theory."
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7. inherently more kind and gentle. Because of these differences, if women ruled the world there
would be no more war and it would be a better place. Essentially, a women's way is the right and
better way for everyone. Linda Alcoff said “Man has said that woman can be defined, delineated,
captured, understood, explained, and diagnosed to a level of determination never accorded to
man himself, who is conceived as a rational animal with free will.” Cultural feminists are usually
non-political, instead focusing on individual change and influencing or transforming society
through this individual change. They usually advocate separate female counter-cultures as a way
to change society but not completely disconnect.
• Ecofeminism: According to ecofeminists, patriarchy is harmful to women, as well as the
environment. There is a link between a male's desire to dominate unruly women and wilderness.
Men feel as though they must tame and conquer both in order to have complete power.
Ecofeminists say that it is this desire that destroys both women and the Earth. This theory of
feminism seeks to eradicate all forms of social injustice, not just injustice against women and the
environment.15
3. History of Feminism
The concept of feminism was first used by Charles Fourier in 18th century. Fourier argued that
social development can be possible with giving more rights and freedom to women. Also he
16
argued that all sexual expressions should be enjoyed as long as people are not abused, and that
"affirming one's difference" can actually enhance social integration. And he emphasised tradition
marriage could potentially hurt women’s rights as human beings. 17
The first approaches of feminism showed up among the works by Marie Le Jars de Gourney,
Christine Pizan, Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft and Hedwig Dohm in 17th, 18th and at
the beginning of 19th centuries.
Firstly, society believed that human rights are male rights because of patriarchal order. The identity
of women is not accepted. However, in 1793, French political activist Olympe de Gouges protested
that situation and suggested to adapt “the declaration of human rights’’ for women as equal as men.
In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice
of male authority and the notion of male–female inequality. But she was executed by guillotine
during the Reign of Terror for attacking the regime of the revolutionary government and for her
close relation with the Girondist. After her struggle the women’s movement gained acceleration.
18
And the scholars of the theory of feminist examines the history of feminism as four divided waves.
3.1. The First Wave Feminism
After the French Revolution women movement have become more of an issue. One of the main
idea of bourgeoise revolution was “equality” and women wanted to have equal rights. So the
Warren, Karen J. (2000). Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It
15
Matters. Lanham, Maryland: Roman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 9780847692996
Goldstein, Leslie F. (1982). "Early Feminist Themes in French Utopian Socialism: The St.-Simonians and
16
Fourier", Journal of the History of Ideas, vol.43, No. 1
Fourier, Charles (1967). Le Nouveau Monde amoureux. Paris: Éditions Anthropos. pp. 389, 391, 429, 458,
17
459, 462, and 463. written 1816–18
Mousset, Sophie (2007). Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges.
18
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) & London (U.K.): Transaction Publishers. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7658-0345-0.
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8. principle of awareness of gender equality is like a milestone of feminism. After the mid of 19th
century women started to found feminist associations and they became an organised movement.
Jeremy Bentham can be define as one of the first women movement thinker that he said it was the
placing of women in a legally inferior position that made him choose the career of a reformist at the
age of eleven. Bentham spoke for complete equality between sexes including the rights to vote and
to participate in government. He opposed the asymmetrical sexual moral standards between men
and women. Also Marquis de Condorcet advocated for women’s suffrage in the new government in
1790 with De l'admission des femmes au droit de cité (For the Admission to the Rights of
Citizenship For Women) and an article for Journal de la Société de 1789.
The women movement have defended the rights of equal salaries, enrolling colleges and suffrage.
Women’s suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. In 1893, the government of New
Zealand accorded women suffrage as a constitutional right for the first time in history. It was
followed by Australia in 1902, Finland (first country that recognised women suffrage in Europe) in
1906, Norway in 1913, Uruguay (first country that recognised women suffrage in Latin America) in
1917, USSR (after the revolution) in 1917, Myanmar in 1922, Ecuador in 1929, Sierra Leon in
1930, Spain in 1931, Turkey in 1934 (women could vote in 1930 municipal elections), Cuba in
1934.19
In USA, women movement was born inside of the movement of anti-slavery. The seed for the first
Woman's Rights Convention in the United States in Seneca Falls, New York was planted in 1840,
when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.
In 1851, Stanton met temperance worker Susan B. Anthony, and shortly the two would be joined in
the long struggle to secure the vote for women in the U.S. In 1868 Anthony encouraged working
women from the printing and sewing trades in New York, who were excluded from men's trade
unions, to form Workingwomen's Associations. As a delegate to the National Labor Congress in
1868, Anthony persuaded the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay
for equal work.
The first national suffrage organizations were established in 1869 when two competing
organizations were formed, one led by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton and Cady Stanton and
the other by Lucy Stone. After years of rivalry, they merged in 1890 as the National American
20
Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) with Anthony as its leading force. In 1916 Alice Paul
formed the National Women’s Party (NWP), a militant group focused on the passage of a national
suffrage amendment. Over 200 NWP supporters, the Silent Sentinels, were arrested in 1917 while
picketing the White House, some of whom went on hunger strike and endured forced feeding after
being sent to prison. Under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt, the two-million-member
NAWSA also made a national suffrage amendment its top priority. After a hard-fought series of
votes in the U.S. Congress and in state legislatures, the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the
U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920.21
After the First World War, women movement gained more acceleration in UK. In 1918, a coalition
government passed the Representation of the People Act of 1918, enfranchising all men, as well as
all women over the age of 30 who met minimum property qualifications. In 1928, the Conservative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage
19
Susan B. Anthony, "Fifty Years of Work for Woman," Independent, 52 (February 15, 1900), pp. 414–17.
20
Quoted in Sherr, Lynn (1995), Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words, p.134. New York:
Random House. ISBN 0-8129-2430-4
Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn (2000). "History of Woman Suffrage" in Encyclopedia of Women's History in
21
America, second edition, p.115-116. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-4100-8
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9. government passed the Representation of the People Act (Equal Franchise) giving the vote to all
women over the age of 21 on equal terms with men.22
In 1930, South Africa gave voting right to European and Asian women in the country. However all
women in the country could not vote till 1994 elections.
Following 20 years after the Second World War; France (1944), Italy (1946), Romania (1946),
Yugoslavia (1945), China (1947) and some other countries recognised women’s suffrage and the
number of the countries that recognises women’s suffrage reached more than 100.
Moreover, first recognised women’s suffrage in Greece in 1952, in Somalia in 1956, in Iran in 1963,
in Switzerland in 1971, in Liechtenstein in 1976, in Iraq in 1980, in UAE in 2006 (limited for both
men and women), in Saudi Arabia in 2015 (only in municipal elections).23
The most important results of first wave feminism that resisting patriarchal society and starting to
grow awareness of the women movement as sexual revolution in society. First wave feminists layed
first roots of feminist movement. After them feminists were starting to demand more political,
economic, social and constitutional rights in public and private areas.
3.2. The Second Wave Feminism
After first wave feminism, the women movement developed another struggle axis. Because of the
results of the first and second world wars, the world entered a new era and at beginning of it, the
people were suffered by economic, social and cultural problems. These problems created new
diversities and new discriminations. Thus the problems were started to examined through feminist
eye.
In 1960’s, the birth control technology were rapidly developed but a lot of women could not easily
reach the outcomes of that new technology. The women organisations proceeded to overcome the
difficulties of reaching new medicine technologies and struggled against conservative governments
and their oppressive laws. Actually in many states women and men seemed equal on the law but
second wave feminist believed that in practise women and men are different so they need different
priorities because of nature. However, in patriarchy, the norms were using not biological
perspective, the norms just represented male supremacist order.
In “The Second Sex”, Simon de Beauvoir argued that existence precedes essence; hence one is not
born a woman, but becomes one. Also she argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand
women or their problems and not to help them, and that this stereotyping was always done in
societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy. She wrote that a
similar kind of oppression by hierarchy also happened in other categories of identity, such as race,
class and religion, but she claimed that it was nowhere more true than with gender in which men
stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy. Key concepts of
24
the 1970s feminist movement related directly to the ideas concerning gender as a social construct
presented in de Beauvoir's “The Second Sex". Despite her contributions to the feminist movement,
especially the French Women's Liberation Movement, and her beliefs in women's economic
http://classroom.synonym.com/act-gave-women-right-vote-britain-5469.html
22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage
23
Beauvoir, Simone (1997), ""Introduction" to The Second Sex", in Nicholson, Linda, The second wave: a
24
reader in feminist theory, New York: Routledge, pp. 11–18, ISBN 9780415917612.
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10. independence and equal education, de Beauvoir was initially reluctant to call herself a feminist.25
But, after observing the resurgence of the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, de
Beauvoir stated she no longer believed a socialist revolution to be sufficient enough to bring about
women's liberation.
After being removed from the workforce, by either personal or social pressures, many women in the
post-war America returned to the home or were placed into female only jobs in the service sector.
After the publication of Betty Friedan's “The Feminine Mystique” in 1963, many women connected
to the feeling of isolation and dissatisfaction that the book detailed. The book itself, however, was
not a call to action, but rather a plea for self-realization and conscious raising among middle-class
women throughout America. Friedan argued that women are as capable as men for any type of work
or any career path against arguments to the contrary by the mass media, educators and
psychologists. 26
In the era of second wave feminism, the struggle of the women movement was not just among a
specific women organisation, it happened among all kind of feminist organisations. The main actor
of this struggle was, of course, women and every women came from different social stratums,
political ideologies, cultures etc. This situation gave women more awareness to analyse society with
many different perspectives. So, women acted as a whole body which became a part by different
processors. The outcome of the situation is the idea of “the sisterhood”. It means a relationship
between sisters or an association of women linked by a common interest. In the basis of the
27
sisterhood, it depends on the approach of women solidarity which based on shared conditions,
experiences or concerns. Women, who come from the different side of society and have different
world views, face social, political and economic inequalities, sexual harassments and gender based
violence because of their gender. According to this case, for second second wave feminists, the
world view must be on the second plan, women must be aware of women solidarity first.
Also, some second wave feminists believed that feminist approach could change the shape of the
society and they demanded reform and comprehensive claims according to feminist theory.
In this period, feminists continued their struggles in science, culture, literature, media private life
and political fields. In the course of these struggles, many organizations, publications and actions
have taken place. The most basic goal of the struggles was to remove the patriarchal structures from
every field. There were a number of separatists or perceptions based on different intellectual
foundations in feminist struggles, feminist ideals and women of different world views. In other
words, in this period, the involvement of different ideologues and women with different perceptions
within the feminist movement brought with it their own discussions.
3.3. The Third Wave Feminism
Third wave feminism was born to react against the second wave feminists’ practises and
perceptions. The biggest aim of third wave feminists was to survive the ideology in the hands of
white, upper and middle class women and spread the ideology over every stratum of society. Third
wave feminists emphasised that women movement must have analysed as universal issue, not only
Roberts, Mary Louise. "Beauvoir, Simone de." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History.
25
Oxford University Press, 2008. link.
Rosen, Ruth (2000). The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. New
26
York: The Penguin Group. p. 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisterhood
27
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11. an interest of white women. They took care of more micro politics such as gender based violence,
sexual insult, sexuality, strengthten of women.
The third wave feminism handled the subject of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationalism,
politics, economics and so on and they tried to theorize these facts with a feminist view.
The related concept of intersectionality was introduced in 1989, a few years before the third wave
began, but it was during this wave that the concept was embraced. Rebecca Walker coined the term
"Third Wave" to highlight the focus on queer and non-white women.
In 1991, Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas, a man nominated to theUnited States Supreme Court,
of sexual harassment. Thomas denied the accusations and, after extensive debate, the United States
Senate voted 52–48 in favor of Thomas. In 1992, Rebecca Walker published an article in response
28
to the Anita Hill case, in order to express her offense at what she saw as the silencing of women by
men who commit acts of sexual harassment and other forms of oppression, and who use their
privilege to escape justice for such injustices, stating, "I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the
third wave”.29
Third-wave feminists have broadened their goals, focusing on ideas like queer theory, and
abolishing gender role expectations and stereotypes.
Queer theory builds both upon feminist challenges to the idea that gender is part of the essential self
and upon gay/lesbian studies' close examination of the socially constructed nature of sexual acts and
identities. Queer theory "focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire.” In addition, it is
30
important to understand that Queer Theory is not predominantly about analyzing the binary of the
homosexual and heterosexual. There is an abundance of identities in which Queer Theory not only
recognizes but also breaks down in relation to other contributing factors like race, class, religion,
etc. Queer theory explores and contests the categorisation of gender and sexuality. As Alice Echols
describes it: “Queer theory calls into question the conditions by which binary oppositions (male/
female, heterosexual/homosexual) are produced”31
Third feminists wanted to deal with the problems of women at the individual level, rather than all
the more general women's problems. In other words, they tended to politicize individually on the
issues of women. They saw the woman as both a gender role and an identity. The second wave
feminist perception basically considered absolute equality, while the third wave feminist perception
believed that the differences were valuable and important.
In the 1990s, They began to examine the issues of opposition politics, culture, identity, race,
ethnicity etc. Many women who are involved in feminism have begun to be feminist, a credential
that puts the differences in the foreground. This constituted another point separated from the second
wave feminists. The second wave feminism did not take part in the struggle of women, such as race,
identity, sexual orientation, class distinction, ethnic and cultural structure, and struggled in a unified
unity. According to them, these differences did not prevent women from seeing the same oppression
and oppression. They were expressing the necessity of lifting gender roles from the very beginning,
and that women and men were opposed to being glorified. However, the third wave feminism
tended to exist by manifesting differences, by being expressed. From an individual point of view,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Hill
28
Rebecca, Walker (January 1992). "Becoming the Third Wave" (PDF). Ms. New York: Liberty Media for
29
Women: 39–41. ISSN 0047-8318. OCLC 194419734.
Jagose, Annamarie (1996). Queer theory an introduction (Reprint. ed.). New York: New York Univ. Press.
30
ISBN 978-0814742341.
Echols, Alice. 2002. Shaky Ground: The Sixties and Its Aftershocks. New York: Columbia University
31
Press. p. 132
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12. every woman believed that there were different oppression and oppression problems and that it was
necessary to see these problems, find common points and do politics.
In this period, feminists tried not only to criticize the present situation of women against men but
also to develop alternative women's perspectives on issues such as war, security, economic
development, underdevelopment, environmental problems, social equality, respect for social groups,
As a natural consequence of this, the feminists themselves were causing divisions in the intellectual
and practical plane.
Third wave feminists criticized basically the patriarchal social order. But they did not achieved a
common approach that allows any solution to the existing problems. Therefore feminist groups have
attempted to reveal their thoughts differently, exploiting different theories.
3.4. The Fourth Wave Feminism
The fourth wave feminism is directly linked by the recent developments of liberal progressive order.
Fourth wave feminists examines the changing society by new liberal approaches.
In 2005, Pythia Peay first argued for the root of the fourth wave of feminism, combining justice
with religious spirituality. However, this spiritual component is not present in most other
32
definitions for the term, which tend instead to focus on technological components.
Jennifer Baumgardner; who is a writer, film producer and political activist and also lecturer whose
work explores abortion, sex, bisexuality, rape, single parenthood, and women’s power; identifies the
fourth wave feminism as starting in 2008 and continuing into the present day. 33
Fourth-wave feminism is often associated with online feminism, especially using Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and other forms of social media to discuss, uplift, and activate gender
equality and social justice .This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave,
with its focus on micro-politics and challenging sexism and misogyny insofar as they appear in
everyday rhetoric, advertising, film, television and literature, the media, and so on.This online
feminism aspect of the fourth wave has impacted how companies market to women so that they are
not "called out" for sexism in their marketing strategies.
Kira Cochrane, author of “All the Rebel Women: The Rise of the Fourth Wave of Feminism”, defines
fourth-wave feminism as a movement that is connected through technology. Because social
networks among 16-30 years of young generation are so popular and they like using and sharing
their ideas which define themselves more than their identity cards or parents or friends or anything
else. For instance, Tumblr allows several axes of the digital and the political to converge that users
can explore and experiment with their identities, and try out different modes of self-expression and
Tumblr allows for community building and for the sharing of feminist, political knowledge and a
collection of this shared knowledge into an open feminist archive. 34
However there is a problem that the fourth wave feminism based on social networks but many
women are not represented there because researches say usage ratio of social networks, also
internet, in developing and undeveloped countries are highly lower than developed countries
especially English native speaker ones. For there to be a social network based feminist revolution,
Peay, Pythia (March–April 2005). "Feminism's fourth wave". Utne Reader (128). pp. 59–60.
32
http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/baumgardner2011.html
33
https://www.academia.edu/11430421/Tumblr_Feminism_Third-
34
Wave_Subjectivities_in_Practice_MA_Thesis_2013_?auto=download
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13. one first needs an internet connection. Although neither technology nor feminism are new to the
world, the efficient and fervent use of them in unison is a defining factor of the fourth wave.35
Jennifer Simpkins, who is an author in the Huffington Post, argues that the fourth wave feminism
has created a hostile, Mean Girls, which is an American teen comedy movie, -like atmosphere
where women are more likely to tear each other down. "I've actually never once been belittled and
attacked by a man for believing in the cause of feminism" she states, "but women are just about
lining up to take a whack at the shoddy piñata of my personal tastes and opinions.36
Though the fourth wave of feminism often draws comparisons to the third wave feminism, as with
the past waves of feminism and their successors, fourth-wave feminism stands "on the shoulders" of
the past wave. The addition of more advanced technology along with broader ideas of equal rights
set the newest wave apart from the former.
Besides online feminism, the fourth wave has been associated with the increased focus on
intersectionality, including the repudiation of trans-exclusionary radical feminism and a focus on
solidarity with other social justice movements.
4. Conclusion
The development process of feminist consciousness or feminist approach has begun to achieve the
socio-economic independence of women in social and economic spheres. These socio-economic
independences are generally parallel to industrialization and modernization processes. In other
words, with the social and economic changes and modernization and industrialization processes,
women did not tend to gain their independence in social and economic life it would not come up
with alternative life forms to patriarchal sovereignty and a feminist approach, or consciousness,
would not be developed.
They have sought to find ways in which feminist theory based on a large number of approaches can
reduce misery, misperceptions of situations that women must deal with, gender discrimination in the
fields of politics, social, economic, legal, administrative or private and public areas.
Because of the different approaches which feminist theory holds, it has produced feminist
phenomena that exhibit a very different tendency within itself, and each feminist phenomenon has
differences according to the sources of perspectives, constraints on women, oppression and forces
exposed to obstacles. For instance, liberal feminists strives to have equality of men and women in
the social and economic spheres, equal rights to men, and equal rights to men. On the other hand,
radical feminist phenomenon argues that patriarchal structures restrict women's freedom that
women are subject to oppression and violence. Therefore patriarchal structures must be abolished.
Similarly, according to the socialist and Marxist feminists, the theory emphasizes that, because of
the interdependent relations of capitalist and patriarchal structures, women can not be liberated at
all and that a fundamental transformation must take place. The postmodern feminist phenomenon is
in the search for solutions to women's problems in social life, more specifically by rejecting a
general and universal gender category. As a result, when we look at international relations, rather
than complementary features of different feminist approaches, they show different theoretical and
viewpoints.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:647457/FULLTEXT01.pdf
35
Simpkins, Jennifer. ""You can't sit with us!" - how fourth-wave feminism became 'mean girls'". The
36
Huffington Post. UK. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
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