Certainly one of the most misunderstood schools of thought, feminism remains a dirty word to many men and women, all across the globe. Thought to be more of a man-bashing fest of sorts than the fight for balance and civility in society that supporters believe it to be, most of the fear of feminism seems to rest on ignorance and misinterpretations.

The History of Feminism

Feminism is most often divided into three waves which are commonly known as “the waves of feminism”. The first wave went from 1776-1900s and focused majorly on woman’s suffrage, or woman’s right to vote. The second wave began in the 1960s and went until some time in the 80s. This wave dealt with getting more women to pursue higher education and enter the workforce. The third wave, (modern feminism), began in the 1990s and is still in action today. This wave deals with the remaining gender biases, i.e. gender gaps in terms of income, issues such as child care and maternity/paternity leave, domestic violence, and much more.

More about Modern Feminism

Another important feature of the third, and most modern, wave of feminism is that it addresses the concerns of minorities, poor and working class women, women in the developing world, young women, and lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women unlike the previous wave which focused majorly on middle class, American, white women. In essence, modern feminism is seeking to counteract the damage they believe has been done by living in a world in which the interests and ideals of upper class white men take priority over all others.

Criticism of Modern Feminism

While many men and women fight daily to push the agenda of third wave feminism, many, even those who wholeheartedly supported the second wave, believe the third wave to be unnecessary, or even damaging to previous feminist efforts. This is perhaps due to the fact that in an effort to assert their freedom, many women have taken to being scantily clad, overly promiscuous, and over-sexualized which many women (and men) believe to be a step in the wrong direction.

What’s more is that many believe that Roe v. Wade is being derogated; with soaring abortion rates, it seems the right to choose may be getting manipulated and exploited in order to justify being sorry over being safe.

Overall

Modern feminism means many different things to many different people. Though there seems to still be longstanding issues that are contributing to the oppression of women (i.e. income disparities between men and women) that need to be dealt with, many also believe that it is a movement that will ultimately cause chaos in society and possibly even cause the demise of the family unit as we know it. Whatever the case may be, it does not seem that we’ve seen our last bra engulfed in flames.