Four Waves of Feminism: A Blessing for Global Humanity

Abstract

This paper tries to analyze the development of waves of feminism. In the human civilization, “Feminism” is considered as a mass movement, which has commenced by women of all groups to remove all forms of feminist oppressions by men that are prevailing in a patriarchal society. The world has already experienced four waves of feminism that act against women’s abuse and oppression. The first wave of feminism arises in the United States and Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and concerns with the achieving voting right, equal opportunities, and other legal rights of women. Second wave of feminism has initiated by both white and non-white women of Western countries as well as in developing countries, starts in the 1960s and ends in the 1990s. It works for equal education and employment opportunities, maternity leave, birth control and abortion rights, etc.; and fights against domestic violence issues, marital rape issues, sexual harassment and rape, etc. Third wave of feminism presents a dynamic critique to the previous feminist political trends, and extents from the 1990s to 2000s. In this movement, women find themselves as strong and rebellious, and working women in various occupations are not subjected to a sexist patriarchy. Fourth wave feminism starts around 2012, which offers a new feminism that depends on online social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. After the development of waves of feminism, various laws have been established in many countries of the world to support the participation of women in all activities of the society. This study takes attempts to discuss aspects of four waves of feminism elaborately.