The third wave of Feminism started up about a decade after the second wave died out, so around the early 1990’s. The purpose of the third wave, which was said to be coming off of the second wave’s “failures” and “lost achievements”, branching off and focusing more on identity as women and the media/social portrayal of women. And while the first and second wave of feminism movement consisted of mostly white middle class, cis-gendered women, the third wave brought in more diversity, women of color that had the same ideals. Since gaining many legal rights and laws during the first and second wave movements, women now wanted to move on to more personal and self issues; moving away from the law but more towards the image of women and self. Examples of this would be portrayal of women in media: trying to change it and create a less degrading image/space, raising the voices of women in the world, gaining more reproductive rights: having the accessibility to contraception and abortion and the sensitive topic of rape and the controversy surrounding it. The third wave was also about the empowerment of young women in the light of media’s degrading portrayal of women, taking the derogatory terms thrown at you and holding your head up and “taking it back” as author Inga Muscio wrote “I posit that we’re free to seize a word that was kidnapped and co-opted in a pain-filled, distant, past, with a ransom that cost our grandmother’s freedom, children, traditions, pride, and land.”

 

The trigger of this empowerment-filled movement, picking up from the foundation laid out by the second wave feminists, was the case of Anita Hill and writer Rebecca Walker who spoke out on this court case. In 1991, Anita Hill accused her boss Clarence Thomas of the U.S Supreme Court of sexual harassment, he denied the claims. Many controversies came out of this and many women Anita throughout the court experiences and hearings but the result was mind-blowing and created many angry women in politics and other public positions/figures. After many debates, the U.S Senate voted 52-48, in favour of Clarence Thomas. This sparked the fire inside of many women nationally and internationally, one of those women being Rebecca Walker. Who in 1992, published an article with the title “Becoming the Third Wave” in which she wrote “I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.” Many people believe that this is what got the third wave movement going and striving.

 

Rebecca was also the co-founder of the non-profit organization Third Wave Foundation, whose goal is to motivate young women to take charge, take more leadership roles and get involved in activism. Rebecca Walker has also received many awards for her writing on feminism and other topics included in the third wave e.g abortion. She has received the Women of Distinction Award from the American Association of University Women and the “Feminist of the Year” award from the Feminist Majority Foundation and many other awards.

 

The year of 1992 was a great year for women, being dubbed the “Year of the Women”. Why? Because in 1992, women rose to have more political power, four women were elected to the U.S Senate, joining the two other women already there. Then a year later another woman won a special election and was brought in, bringing the number to seven. Another figure that has said to have started the third movement and empower women was the underground feminist movement that began in the 1990’s; Riot grrrl. The Riot grrrl movement consisted of bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, The Third Sex, and many so forth. These bands touched on topics/issues, like rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, patriarchy and female empowerment; the topics that the third wave feminism focused on to resolve. Riot grrrl bands sang the portrayal of women by men, getting the issue out there for women to hear. They also expressed these issues using are, World Wide Web, and later on held meetings and support groups for women.

 

The 1990’s also included many law changes in U.S and around the world. In 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act became the law in the U.S, the debut of Take Our Daughter to Work Day happened also; the purpose to show young girls a broad spectrum of career choices. In 1994, the taking back of the derogatory term “bitch” with the boost from the single “All women are Bitches” by Canadian band Fifth Column. In the U.S the Gender Equality in Education Act became law to stop gender discrimination in the classroom and The Violence Against Women Act, for women who face domestic abuse and other violence.

 

The United Kingdom in 1994 made marital rape illegal as part of the Criminal Justice Act. Beijing, China hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace which was named and organized by the United Nations, in 1996.

 

Moving forward to the 2000’s, feminism became even more visible and easier to gain knowledge about with social media/technology starting to rise. One of the first acts that happened in this start of the new century, was in 2001 and happened in the UK. The Isle of Man passed it’s first sex discrimination bill. 3 years later in 2004, the U.S held the March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C. The movement was a breath-taking scene, about 1 million activists/feminists and supporters walked in Washington’s National Mall, protesting the ban on late term abortion. Many women demonstrating the denied access to a reproductive right and supporting reproductive and personal rights as women.The ban was signed my President Bush when he was in power, the Bush administration also made the emergency contraception (“morning after pill”) only accessible by prescription. Another denied reproductive right. Though the protests were strong and filled with a mountain of support, Bush still went on to serve a second term and the ban has still not been lifted as of today 2017.

 

Around the world though, the UK had the Gender Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2006 come into effect in 2007 and in 2008 The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act also came into effect. Also in 2008, Norway enforced that all company boards must be at least 40% made up of women.

 

The end of the Third Wave is not a definite answer but it was said, the Fourth Wave started in the modern/present day 2010 decade, so in conclusion, 2008 marks the end of another wave and the start of a new one.