Three Waves of Feminism

Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements, that

share a common goal to define, establish and achieve political, economic, personal, and

social equality of sexes. This includes seeking to establish educational and professional

opportunity for women that are equal to those for men. Although largely originating in the

West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed

to activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.

Women were limited to the domestic realm for the most of Western history, while

men were allowed to participate in public life. Women were forbidden the right to own

property, study, and participate in public life in mediaeval Europe. They were still forced to

cover their heads in public in France at the end of the nineteenth century, and a husband

could still sell his wife in sections of Germany. Women could not vote or hold elective office

in most of Europe and the United States until the early twentieth century. Women were not

allowed to conduct business without the presence of a male representative, whether it was

their father, brother, spouse, legal agent, or even their kid. Without their husbands' approval,

married women could not exercise control over their own children. Women also had limited

or no access to education and were excluded from the majority of occupations.

Feminism, on the other hand, has always existed in France in some form or another.

Christine de Pizan, a writer at the royal court, authored works on female autonomy and

education, including her most famous work, "The Book of the City of Ladies," in which she

accords female figures political power, dating back to the Middle Ages. Female-led salons, or

bureaux d'esprit, were established in the 16th century, allowing individuals who were

fortunate enough to participate in intellectual debates and access a cultural environment,

developing an emancipatory atmosphere.

French feminism dates back to the time French revolution with many movements for
the rights of women. The French Revolution, which began in 1789 and lasted until 1799, was

period of massive political change. The revolutionaries' major goal was to establish equality

before the law and destroy the privileges of the clergy and nobles, inspired by the

Enlightenment and the American revolution, and catalyzed by France's poor financial

situation, which worsened the population's living conditions. The Declaration of the Rights of

Man and Citizen in 1789 was a pivotal event in the revolution. The rights proclaimed in this

treaty, however, were only valid to so-called active citizens, which were French men over the

age of 25 who paid a specified amount of taxes. Women, enslaved people, foreigners, and

others were not considered. This infuriated the female populace, who had been major

participants in the revolution.

In 1792, Olympe de Gouges, an activist and playwright, wrote Declaration of the

Rights of Woman the Female citizen, in order to expose the failure of French Revolution in

ensuring sexual equality. And in 1793, the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women

drew attention to many crucial points about sexual and political equality. The feminist

movement with an abundant literary activity and a belief in sexual freedom, flourished in the

times of Socialist movements. The prohibition of divorce during Bourbon Restoration in

1816 led to 1848 Revolution mainly due to the efforts of the feminists to establish a

democratic and socialist republic. Rebelling against what was perceived as their “natural

callings” of domesticity and submission, women engaged in revolutionary organizations and

continued to fight for political and legal rights.

In France, as elsewhere, the history of feminism has been marked by highs and lows,

and by the successive dominance of movements as different as they have been controversial.

One way to look at it is as a series of large “waves”: four in total, if we include the current

internet-led movement. The second half of the nineteenth century is regarded as the start of

the French first wave of feminism. The Paris Commune of 1871 sparked radical female-led
action after previous events had spurred the birth of theoretical feminism. Women formed

unions and committees to campaign for issues such as wage equality, the right to divorce and

education, and the abolition of the legal and natural child distinction. They erected barricades

and participated in violent clashes. Louise Michel, a teacher who joined the National Guard,

and journalist André Léo, who helped poor women, are two notable people. And it wasn't

until the early twentieth century that the suffragette movement spread from the United

Kingdom to France, but all attempts, beginning with the first vote on the issue in 1914, were

fruitless until 1944. As a result, France was one of the last European countries to implement

female suffrage. And it was Nathalie Lemel, a militant anarchist and feminist who

participated in the Paris Commune of 1871, with Elizabeth Dmitrieff founded Women’s

Union for the Defense of Paris and Care of the Injured-on 11 April 1871 and they demanded

gender equality, right of divorce for women, right to secular and professional educational for

girls, suppression of distinction between married women and concubines, between

illegitimate and legitimate children and abolition of prostitute. And in 1909, Jeanne Elizabeth

Schmah, a French noblewoman and feminist founded the French Union of Women’s Suffrage

to fight for women’s right to vote in France. But not until the ordinance of 21 April, 1944 of

the French Committee of National liberation, after the Provisional Government of the French

Republic was confirmed, woman obtained the right to vote.

After a second wave of feminism gained traction in various nations in the 1960s, the

French feminist movement reached its pinnacle in May 1968, following a period of social

turmoil. Prior to this, forerunners such as Simone de Beauvoir, an existentialist philosopher

and activist who famously authored "The Second Sex" in 1949, prepared the way for French

women to gain greater personal and physiological autonomy. In 1965, married women were

allowed to work without their husband's permission, and in 1967, birth control became

lawful. After the 1968 uprisings, the Women's Liberation Movement was created in
conjunction with the American Women's Liberation and Student movements, and its

activities echoed the second wave feminist motto "the personal is political."

The important theorists include Simone De’ Beauvoir, a French philosopher and

feminist with the important work The Second Sex which expresses women’s injustice they

are facing and gender discrimination. Next is Julie Kristeva who has been regarded as the key

proponent of French feminism together with Simone de Beauvoir, Helene Cixous, and Luce

Irigaray. Around this time, literary theorist Hélène Cixousin coined the term écriture feminine

in her work The Laugh of Madusa, a frequently mentioned theory of French feminism. It

insisted on a deviation from masculine writing styles and a focus on female experiences,

thereby releasing an ineffable expression of a female narrative.

These French feminists reshaped the feminist thought by adding philosophical focus

to feminist theory, there works where less concerned with the political doctrines and

concerned more about the body. And in 1970s, the French feminists approached the feminism

with concept of ecriture feminism. It refers to a uniquely feminine style of writing

characterized by disruptions in the text, such as gaps, silences, puns, new images and so on. It

describes a kind of writing that is outside of the masculine economy of patriarchal discourse.

And another noteworthy phenomenon is the notion of French feminism, which in

English feminist theory refers to one branch of feminism that evolved during the 1970s-90s.

It is said to focus less on political principles, but rather emphasises on theories on the body.

And during the time period of what is considered the third wave of feminism, starting in the

1990s, several legal breakthroughs ensued. Workplace sexual harassment was subjected to

legal consequences in 1992 and marital rape was criminalised in 1994. Recent changes

include the removal of the title “Mademoiselle” in official documents in 2012, or a law

against street sexual harassment passed in 2018.