History of Feminist Movements (3rd Wave)

Intro to Women studies

Intersectionality

Defined as the interconnected nature if social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage

Combahee River Collective (1974-1980) 

Black feminist socialist organization who argued that feminist movements and the civil rights movement excluded black women 

Focus on issues related to sterilization, sexual assault, labor and workplace rights 

Anita Hill (1991):

Justice Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings  

Accused of being anti-black for having accusation of sexual harassment

Sexual Harassment in the workplace

Promoting more women to positions of power (female CEO’s) 

Gender as Performance Butler (1990)

Gender Performance: something inscribed in daily practices and rituals that are based in part on cultural norms of femininity and masculinity

We are socialized into our particular gender 

Riot Grrrl movement 

Working against the work of the second wave by embracing high femininity 

Women dressing and wearing makeup for themselves  

Silencing femininity = misogynistic 

Effective feminism recognizes other dangers and pleasures of patriarchy that create beauty standards

Don’t punish those who engage in or buy into the system

Eating disorders, patriarchy promotes thinnest    

Chicana Feminism (Intersectional feminism) 

An ideology based on the rejection of the traditional “household” role of a Mexican-American woman. Challenges the stereotypes of women across the lines of gender, ethnicity, class, race, and sexuality.   

A voice from the south (1892)—Anna Julia cooper Haywood

In the text, she emphasis women's experiences and black people’s experiences, the consideration of the unique lives of black women 

Considered the mother of black feminism