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Third and Fourth Wave of Women's movements: Are They Twins?

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 Third and Fourth Wave of Women’s movements: Are They Twins?

Farinaz Basmechi

University of North Texas

January 2017

Abstract

The world has experienced three waves of women’s movement. Also, we are

in the fourth wave since 2012. The third wave started in the early 19s and continued

till starting the fourth wave. These two waves are happening in less than frothy

years. So, they probably have a lot in common. But how they become different which

could be categorized into two different waves? In the following proposal, we are

talking about the various aspects of these two waves. Then we find out parameters

related to feminist movements especially in the recent time in order to examine the

differences and similarities of these two waves by using text mining method.

Keywords: Women movement, Third wave, Fourth wave, Text-Mining.

Introduction

Women’s movement; which is referred to series of political and social

activities in order to change the women’s social, political, and cultural position in the

society, has started from early of nineteen century and continue till now. Women

movement divides into three main waves historically.

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 First-wave feminism occurred within the time period of the 19th and early 20th

century throughout the world. It focused on legal issues, basically on achieving

women's suffrage. Second wave Second-wave movement of women started in the

early 1960s in the United States and spread throughout the Western world and

more. Second-wave feminism expanded the debate to a wide range of subjects such

as sexuality, family, the workplace, abortion rights, and official legal inequalities.

Second-wave feminism also drew attention to domestic violence and marital

rape issues. The third wave of feminist has started around early in the 1990s.

Members of Generation X; people who born in the 1960s and 1970s when the

civilrights advances of the second wave were grounded in, started the third wave.

Thirdwave feminists focus on individualism and diversity and search for redefining

what it meant to be a feminist (Baumgardner and Richards, 2000: 77). According to

feminist scholar Elizabeth Evans, "[t]he confusion surrounding what constitutes third-

wave feminism is in some respects its defining feature." (Evans, 2015:49).

Fourth-wave women movement points out to a renewal of interest in feminism

which started around 2012 and is highly related to the use of social media. According

to feminist scholar Prudence Chamberlain, the focus of the fourth wave is justice for

women and opposition to sexual harassment and violence against women.

Its essence, she writes, is "incredulity that certain attitudes can still exist"

(Chamberlain, 2017: 115). Fourth-wave feminism is "defined by technology",

according to Kira Cochrane (2013), particularly the use of Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and blogs such as Feministing to challenge misogyny

immediately and further gender equality (Solomon, 2009).

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 Now, we are in the middle of the fourth wave. Although we somehow know

they have some characteristics in common or some in opposition, it seems important

to me to know what are the differences and similarities of the third and fourth wave of

feminist. In another word, I want to see how something like availability of social

media influences on the women’s movement in the fourth wave of feminism.

JeanPierre Vernet and Fabrizio Butera (2005,175) in their essay about women’s

rights and feminist Women mention the potential of feminist movements to achieve

real equality is blocked by social cryptomnesia, which describes feminists as

extremists who do not realize that women’s rights have already changed. In the

recent study, we try to draw a clear picture from the forth and third features of the

women’s movement in order to utilize the whole potential of feminist movement.

Review of Literature

Liss, O’Connor, Morosky, and Crawford (2001) in “what makes a feminist?

Predictors and correlated of feminist social identity in college Women” focus on

understanding main factors which could be self-identification as a feminist. Feminist

identification was measured both as a dichotomous and a continuous variable.

Measured dichotomously, feminist self-identification was predicted by not having

conservative beliefs and having a positive general evaluation of feminists. In

addition, self-identified feminists were more likely to believe in collective action; to

hold liberal, radical, and womanist ideologies; and to endorse items in the Synthesis

stage of identity development.

Munro (2013) in “Feminism: A Fourth Wave? “Try to examine the history of

feminism and looks at what contemporary developments might mean for feminist

politics.

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 Rampton states the third wave of feminism began in the mid-90 and was

informed by post-colonial and post-modern thinking. In this phase, many constructs

were destabilized, including the notions of "universal womanhood," body, gender,

sexuality, and heteronormativity. An aspect of third-wave feminism that mystified the

mothers of the earlier feminist movement was the read option by young feminists of

the very lip-stick, high-heels, and cleavage proudly exposed by low cut necklines that

the first two phases of the movement identified with male oppression. The emerging

fourth wavers are not just reincarnations of their second wave grandmothers; they

bring to the discussion important perspectives taught by third wave feminism

(Rampton, 2015: 1-4).

In “Invisible feminists? Social media and young women’s political participation”

writer addresses one specific aspect of such change: it investigates how the

relatively new form of online activism affects the relationship between generations of

feminists, and asks whether the alleged disappearance of young feminists is at least

partly due to this shift from offline to online methods of feminist work (Schuster,

2013: 8)

Orr in “Charting the Currents of the Third Wave” mentions the term "third

wave" within contemporary feminism presents some initial difficulties in scholarly

investigation. Located in popular-press anthologies, zines, punk music, and

cyberspace, many third-wave discourses constitute themselves as a break with both

second wave and academic feminisms; a break problematic for both generations of

feminists. The emergence of third wave feminism offers academic feminists an

opportunity to rethink the context of knowledge production and the mediums through

which we disseminate (1997: 29).

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 Mendes( 2012: 554) argues that not only has there been an erasure of

feminist activism from these newspapers over time, but that discourses of feminism

have become both de-politicized and de-radicalized since the 1960s, and can now

largely be considered neoliberal in nature – a problematic construction for those

seeking collective social change. This study has identified in emphasizing women’s

‘gains, attitudes, and achievements’, the media further entrench the belief that

women have achieved complete freedom and equality, thereby making it culturally

acceptable to return to an age of ‘enlightened sexism’, where misogynistic, racist and

heterosexist views are perpetuated under the guise of irony (Douglas, 2010; Gill,

2007; McRobbie, 2009; Walter, 2010). So, as witnessed in this sample, the return of

beauty pageants is applauded; women are encouraged to conform to limited notions

of (white, middle-class) female beauty; consumption is seen as the quickest (and

most satisfying) route to empowerment; and being a sex object is ‘liberating’

(Mendes, 2012:565).

In the essay about “representing the third wave: mainstream print media

framing of a new feminist movement” Bronstein (2005) claims This study analyzes

the framing of third wave feminism to determine whether journalists are recycling

stock frames commonly used to portray the women’s movement of the 1970s. Using

textual and content analyses, the author draws from more than ten years ‘worth of

news stories to identify current framing patterns. The findings reveal that journalists

have jettisoned some of the more negative frames, but still tend to depict third wave

feminism in ways that distort its identity and purpose. The study reveals that the third

wave is defined by the second wave in ways that disparage second wave actors and

accomplishments, ultimately weakening feminism overall.

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 By considering the literature which is about the third and fourth wave of

feminism, we could see differences and similarities in both stages. We want to find

out what are the differences and similarities and in which part of the social life we

could categorize them?

Research Hypothesis

• Two Women’s movement (third and fourth) have some similarities with each

other.

• Two Women’s movement (third and fourth) have some differences with each

other.

Methodology

In approaching this issue it seems appropriate to use text mining as a method

in order to find out similarities and differences between third and fourth waves of

women movements. It quantitative method based on analyzing New York Times

newspaper to find out which aspect of social life are considered by each waves of

feminists which mentioned above.

Text mining, roughly identical to text analytics, is the process of extracting

high-quality information from text. High-quality information is typically derived via

devising of patterns and processes through means such as statistical pattern

learning. Text mining usually initiates the process of structuring the input text,

deriving patterns within the structured data, and at last evaluation and interpretation

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of the output. 'High quality' in text mining usually refers to some combination of

relevance, novelty, and interestingness. Text mining tasks is divided to text

categorization, text clustering, concept extraction, sentiment analysis, production of

granular taxonomies, document summarization, and entity relation modeling.

We pursue this goal by finding the main possible parameters which

concentrated in third and fourth feminist movements in order to search them in

between the scholars and text of New York Times newspapers of that time and

finally find out the similarities and differences between main subjects of these two

waves.

- Political

One of the most important signs of a women’s movement in England today is

the growth of feminist involvement in mainstream political organizations. This growth

is well documented (Lovenduski and Randall, 1993: Ch. 5). The most obvious is the

Labour Party, which introduced women-only short-lists for ‘winnable’ seats in 1990

(though these were later found illegal under sex discrimination law) and set up the

Women’s Unit, a special committee to influence policy, when it came to power in

1997 (Nash, 2002: 313). Some issue such as reproductive right could be categorized

under this class. Since it is one of the goal of feminism to control any women’s

fertility in order to free them from unwanted pregnancy. It is necessary in this term to

find out the laws and change them. Beside mandatory waiting periods,

parentalconsent laws, and spousal-consent laws are the laws which is not

acceptable by the feminist movement and we should find out in which wave of

feminism be focused more.

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 It seems, they also paid attention to workplace matters such as the glass

ceiling, unfair maternity-leave policies (Frank , 2003: 36) motherhood support for

single mothers by means of welfare and child care, respect for working mothers, and

the rights of mothers who decide to leave their careers to raise their children full-time

(Kathleen, 2010: 70)

- Cultural

Under this level of analysis we could find some parameter. First, education is

one of the important issues. In the realm of cultural production, there are also

activities that might or might not be taken as indicative of the continuing existence

and relevance of the women’s movement. Ideas have always been very important to

feminism, and there has undoubtedly been a growth in the production and

distribution of feminist ideas in education, not just in women’s studies but also across

arts and humanities degrees that now often include units on gender where feminist

theory is the dominant paradigm. Again, however, this is ambiguous as an indicator

of the continued existence of the women’s movement. On the one hand, it means

that a large proportion of students are exposed to questions about issues that have

direct relevance to their own lives; in this respect, academic feminism contributes to

something like consciousness-raising. On the other hand, this is taking place in the

hierarchical and assessment oriented context of education rather than in informal

groups. Furthermore, it is a commonly heard argument that feminist theory is now so

difficult and obscure that it contributes more to the elitism of university education

than it does to political education (Nash, 2002:314).

Media is one another important issue. Kielbowicz and Scherer (1986) claim

that the modern mass media have become central to the life and death of social

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movements. This is a focus which mentions most of the social movement in the

recent time are depend on the coverage of mass media. Additionally, in the

“women’s movement and the media: constructing a public identity” Zoonen mentions

the women’s movement has always had an extremely tense relationship with mass

media, and with news media in particular. The importance of media coverage for

public recognition of support and support for a range of feminist issues seems

undeniable (Zoonen: 1992: 453). Carden (1974) concludes that the fast expansion of

the women’s movement in the 70s was partly caused by the explosion of media

coverage of feminism.

Internet could be one of the newest fundamental subject in the realm of

feminism and plays a vital role in the trend of women movement. Many

commentators argue that the internet itself has enabled a shift from ‘third-wave’ to

‘fourth-wave’ feminism. What is certain is that the internet has created a ‘call-out’

culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. 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 (Munro,

2013:22-3). Contemporary feminism is characterized by its diversity of purpose, but

the reliance on the internet is a constant. As the contemporary feminist movement

becomes both more visible and more fragmented, there has been a resurgence of

interest in earlier waves of feminism. The internet has created a culture in which

sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged (Munro, 2013: 23)

Another subject could be important in terms of cultural issue is freedom of

choice for the women all over the world. Which mentions to the plurality and the

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subject of race, age, and other pluralistic factors. In the four wave, feminists speak in

terms of intersectionality whereby women’s suppression can only fully be understood

in a context of the marginalization of other groups and genders—feminism is part of

a larger consciousness of oppression along with racism, ageism, classism, abelism,

and sexual orientation (no “ism” to go with that). Among the third wave’s bequests is

the importance of inclusion, an acceptance of the sexualized human body as

nonthreatening, and the role the internet can play in gender-bending and leveling

hierarchies. Part of the reason a fourth wave can emerge is because these

millennials’ articulation of themselves as “feminists” is their own: not a hand-medown

from grandma. The beauty of the fourth wave is that there is a place in it for all –

together. The academic and theoretical apparatus is extensive and well-honed in the

academy, ready to support a new broad-based activism in the home, in the

workplace, and in the streets (Rampton, 2015: 1-4).

Also, since the mid-1990s, however, a third wave of feminism has developed

that seeks to reunite the ideals of gender equality and sexual freedom. Inclusive,

pluralistic, and non-judgmental, third wave feminism respects the right of women to

decide for themselves how to negotiate the often contradictory desires for both

gender equality and sexual pleasure. While this approach is sometimes caricatured

as uncritically endorsing whatever a woman chooses to do as feminist, this essay

argues that third-wave feminism actually exhibits not a thoughtless endorsement of

"choice," but rather a deep respect for pluralism and self-determination (Snyder-Hall,

2010: 255).

The subject of violence against women including domestic violence, rape, and

sexual harassment also could be central issues. Besides, reclaiming derogatory

10
terms is one of the important issues which could be helpful to try to find out between

texts of New York Times writings in order to find out similarities and differences of

these two waves.

The following is the list of parameters of important subjects in the two last

waves of women movements:

Political aspects:

• involvement in mainstream political organizations

• reproductive right

• support for single mothers

• unfair maternity-leave policies

• glass ceiling

• respect for working mothers

• welfare and child care

• rights of mothers who decide to leave their careers to raise their children

fulltime

Cultural aspects:

• education

• Role of Media : mass media

• Role of Internet

• freedom of choice

• gender equality and sexual freedom

• violence against women (domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment)

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Significance and Conclusion

This study seems necessary to me, since it helps us to predict the trend of social and

specially women’s movements. We could perceive which elements, parameters, and

factors becoming more important and which parts of theses movement become

faded through passing time or changing the situation and laws. This would be helpful

because we can use new amenities in order to utilize them in the appropriate way

which could be more effective and less time consuming in order to reach a goal in

the movement’s trend. Although some have argued that the Third Wave lacks a

single goal or identity which unites the movement (Henry, 2004; Redfern and Aune,

2010). We believe that the two recent waves of feminist’s movement are perusing

some values and goals and by this way we could be aware of such identical

characteristics.

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