The following is a paper I wrote for a class called Global Social Change….I chose to write about feminist movement after taking Gender & Sexuality with Tracy.

 

The global feminist movement has grown and seen many transformations through its life of over one hundred years. Three, arguably four waves of feminism have graced the world protesting for women’s rights in terms of equality, legal rights, body health rights, and employment. Feminism has become transnational with the help of technology, allowing for networking capabilities, and the emergence of a number of groups and leaders. Although there have been adaptations to subjects the movement is fighting for from the suffrage movement to employment rights, the overall theme of equality, and more recently all gender equality has remained over the years. Moghadam (2005) describes transnational feminist networks as structures that unite women from three or more countries around a common agenda, such as women’s rights. This transnational feminist movement has helped feed into the larger human rights picture.

 

Transnational movements have three distinguishing characteristics that help define how they are developed, their goals and how they proceed with achieving them. The first being all transnational movements are segmentary, or they are composed of various segments, meaning a number of groups, organizations or coalitions make up the movement. This is seen in the hundreds of feminist groups worldwide, from Women in Development, Code Pink, and Canadian Women’s Foundation. Although there are such a number of groups, they are not competing against one another; they all have similar demands and are all advocates for change. A second characteristic is they are polycentric, meaning more than one centre or leader. Having a variety of leaders of a movement can be beneficial in a sense that different ideas and strengths can be put towards a cause. All of these activist groups and organizations have their own leaders, but the feminist movement has leaders in people like Emma Watson, Hilary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai or Sheryl Sandberg, women who continually advocate for women’s rights. Lastly, the third characteristic is all transnational movements are reticulate. This means they resemble a net, or a network, with groups connecting with each other in a variety of ways. We see this in the fact that groups work together to achieve goals.

 

The evolution of the feminist movement has taken form in three waves, first second and the third wave respectively. While these three waves all advocated for women’s rights and issues, each extension fought and brought awareness to different aspects of the overall gender equality fight. Spanning from the early 20th century to today the battle to gain equality has seemingly been a never-ending one. The first wave of feminist movement took action towards legal rights, specifically the women’s suffrage movement, or also known as the women’s right to vote. In 1902 the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Legal Citizenship was founded by American suffragists at a meeting in Washington and was attended by women of eleven countries (IAW, 2017). This movement was world wide in the sense women in a number of countries began to raise awareness and advocate for the right to vote in elections, however, women were united only within their states, this was not a global fight, this was apparent during times of the First World War. Shelia Rowbotham (1992) explains that the when the war broke out there was a question whether feminists had national or international loyalty. Although gaining the right to vote was a massive step forward for women, it did not unite women fully. The issue was that not all women were granted the right to vote, for example African American women in the United States, Aboriginal women in Australia, among others did not gain this right until much later (Cobble et al, 2014).

 

Sarah M. Evans (2003) suggests that second wave feminism was established sometime in the late 1960’s after young feminists were inspired by the civil rights and student movement’s years earlier. This era again saw groups within nation-state borders advocate for women’s rights, this time in regards to employment, family or kin, and government. In the 1980’s there was a shift towards breaking down borders and creating international feminism. Valentine M. Moghadam describes three critical developments that helped enable this shift. First being the transition from Keynesian to neoliberal economics, meaning cheap labour was required. Moghadam (1999) explains the “feminization of labor and employment”. The increase of women in the work force also meant a deterioration of working conditions, including wages. Secondly, the decline of the welfare state in the industrialized countries, and the developmental state of the periphery countries (Moghadam, 2013). This meant that although women were entering the work force, there was not a redistribution of domestic responsibilities, including childcare. Due to the privatization of industries, jobs that traditionally offered security and benefits no longer did. Women were disproportionately involved in forms of labor used to maximize profits, meaning temporary or part time casual work (Moghadam, 1999). Lastly, the third development was the emergence of fundamentalist movements. Cobble (2014) outlines a variety of movements that spawned during the second wave, from feminist environmental groups, anti war groups, and largely groups advocating for bodily health. A march in protest of violence against young women called “Take Back the Night” in 1975 in Philadelphia proceeded to spread across the world to Brussels the following year and at a time when ideas weren’t spread instantaneously with the help of the Internet. The division of the North and South was becoming less and less apparent, and the growth of the feminist movement to becoming transnational was on the horizon.

 

Third wave feminist movements began to break international borders, likely with the help of technology and the Internet. The Internet has made feminist ideals incredibly easy to access, and available to a wide range of cultures and ages. Technology has helped equalize feminism, in the sense that you don’t have to be wealthy, or able-bodied, to either travel to conferences or stand in a picket line, women can participate online (Cobble, 2014). This has helped mobilize, and connect women and women’s groups all over the world, allowing for the reticulate formation discussed earlier, creating a technological network between women. Not only has the Internet helped connect groups, but also has enabled movements to grow exponentially, assisting in the recruitment of participants for marches and protests. The mobilization of the feminist movement during the third wave helped bring awareness and create numerous groups dedicated to peace, human rights and security around the world. The UN Security Council issued a ground-breaking resolution in March of 2000, vowing to include women in peace keeping negotiations including appointing representatives and ensuring protection from women and girls in terms of human rights and gender-based violence (Moghadam, 2013).

 

The theme of equality has been consistent throughout the history of the feminist movement. The subtexts, however, have had alterations in forms of employment to legal to health and reproductive rights, always fighting for egalitarianism. The waves of feminism have spanned over one hundred years and have seen a rise in many activist groups and leaders. Advocating for this egalitarianism has, in turn, become a part of another social movement, one of fighting for human rights, and issues of neoliberalism (Moghadam, 2013). Although in present day we have seen tremendous advances towards gender equality, there is still a ways to go in a number of countries around the world.

 

 

References

Cobble, D. S, Gordon, L., & Henry, A. (2014). Femininsm Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements. New York, United States: Liveright Publishing.

 

Evans, S. M. (2003). Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century’s End. New York, United States: Free Press.

 

International Alliance of Women. (2017). Retrieved from : http://womenalliance.org/what-is-iaw.

 

Moghadam, V.M. (1999). Gender and globalization: Female labor and women’s mobilization. Journal of World-Systems Research, 5, (2).

 

Moghadam, V.M(2005). Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks. Maryland, United States: Johns Hopkins Publishers.

 

Moghadam, V.M. (2013). Globalization & Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Social Justice Movement. Maryland, United States: Rowman& Littlefield Publishers

 

Rowbotham, S. (1992). Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action. New York, United States: Routledge.