wave (feminism)

Robin Morgan (in Sisterhood Is Forever) says that "wave" terminology (first wave feminism, second wave feminism, third wave feminism) is accurate "only if we define feminism narrowly: polite organizing done in the U.S. by primarily white, middle-class women, for a limited number of equal rights (however important) attainable under the social, economic, and political status quo. And 'wave' terminology makes no sense internationally. There were twelfth-century harem revolts in what is now Turkey; Christine de Pisan penned her furious feminist tracts in 13th-century France; all-female armies fought for women's rights in China during the 1780s White Lotus Rebellion, the 1851 Taiping Rebellion, and the 1899 Boxer Rebellion; Gandhi acknowledged that he copied his nonviolent resistance tactics from the Indian women's rights movement; Argentina's Feminist Party was founded as early as 1918—you get the point. 'Wave' oversimplification makes no sense domestically, either. Beverly Guy-Sheftall's essay [in Sisterhood Is Forever] on black feminism is a superb example of the buried history of activism by U.S. women of color, from colonial times through slavery, westward expansion, and immigration, to the present.... Actually, today's Women's Movement is more like 'the ten thousandth wave.'" Avoid categorizations unless put in some meaningful context. See also feminism, feminisms.