Knowra Third-wave feminism Third-wave feminism A feminist movement that emerged in the 1990s, emphasizing diversity, individual agency, and challenges to earlier assumptions about gender and identity.
Second-wave feminism : A feminist movement, strongest from the 1960s through the 1980s, that campaigned against gender inequality in law, work, family, and culture. Third-wave feminists inherited its gains while questioning assumptions they saw as universal.
Intersectionality : A framework for analyzing how overlapping social identities and systems of power shape distinct experiences of inequality. It supplied a central way to discuss differences among women without treating them as exceptions.
Kimberlé Crenshaw : An American legal scholar who coined the term intersectionality in 1989 to analyze overlapping forms of discrimination. Her framework became indispensable to the movement’s account of race and gender together.
SlutWalk : A protest movement launched in 2011 against victim-blaming and the policing of women’s sexuality. It carried third-wave themes of sexual agency and resistance to respectability politics into street protest.
Fourth-wave feminism : A feminist movement commonly associated with digital activism and renewed attention to sexual harassment and violence. Its online organizing and visibility distinguish it from third-wave movement cultures.
Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas hearings : The 1991 Senate confirmation hearings in which Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The hearings galvanized young feminists and exposed limits in public responses to sexual harassment.
Poststructural feminism : Feminist thought influenced by poststructuralism, examining how language and power shape gender and identity. Its skepticism toward fixed categories informed third-wave challenges to universal definitions of womanhood.
Judith Butler : An American philosopher whose work examines gender, identity, language, and power. Her account of gender performativity shaped debates about whether identity categories are stable.
Feminist zines : Independently produced, small-circulation publications used to share writing, art, and political ideas. Zines let young feminists circulate personal testimony and organizing outside established media.
Postfeminism : A cultural outlook suggesting that feminism’s goals have been achieved or that feminist politics are no longer necessary. Third-wave writers challenged its claim that individual choice had made collective feminism obsolete.
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