Feminism Unfinished !: A Thematic Analysis

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Dorothy Cobble, Linda Gordon, and Astrid Henry further explain this idea in their book Feminism Unfinished! by explaining that the earlier generations of feminists focused on identifying the political and social inequalities they dealt with. Whereas the third wave of feminists sought out to address these inequalities. In further explanation, these authors stated, “While connected to earlier movements to advance gender equality and social justice, this new feminism was not a mass-based movement for social chance like its 1970s predecessor... nor was it tied to concrete political and policy goals [referring to the first wave movement]…”
Third wave feminists focus less on mass political action, and more on individual societal changes and perceptions. Third wave feminists identify with many different generations of women and they believe that the female gender includes the masses – that one female does not represent all. Because of this mass inclusion of stances and people, the severity of this movement seems to get lost when referring to main ideas, goals, or stances. Though mass inclusion is a vital component to have – this factor seems to “water down” the importance of issues these women (or men) are aiming to achieve. This mass inclusion that seems to be an underlying theme of the feminist movement leads into the next idea that third wave feminists believe that the female identity is universal. Many third wave feminists, such as Rebecca Walker, aim to enhance feminism by allowing it to be “multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-issue, pan sexual orientation, with people and issues from all socio-economic backgrounds represented.” Third wave feminists desired to include emerging activists who have been left out in previous years. During the initial Women’s Movement of the 1960s, many African American women saw the idea of feminism as a “white thing” and after 1990, these same women were determined to challenge that idea and welcome feminism into the multi-cultural realm. Third wave feminists wanted to include many diverse populations and defend many different political issues. They wanted to push their activism past the “females fighting for females” stereotype which was placed upon the previous generations. For this reason, the most notable form of inclusion in the third wave platform was LGBT inclusion – meaning feminist ideas expanded into the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender realm. The post- 1990s era of feminists included all sexual orientations and genders. This is compared to the 1960s (second wave movement) – where lesbians felt unwelcome joining the women’s liberation movement. Allowing homosexuals and heterosexuals into the feminist movement encouraged further diversity to spread among the movement. That being one
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Covering a broad range of platforms created a difficulty determining what third wave feminists were specifically fighting for. Though multi-culturalism and inclusion are both vital to feminism – seeing that political, social, and economic equality are the common factors in each issue – this sense of “mass inclusion” weakened the credibility and seriousness of third wave feminist views. Though the platform is too broad to pin down, third wave feminists have an accepted idea of who represents their wave. These women recognize that all women are diverse and not one single female represents the entire female population. Where mass inclusion confuses the main idea of the feminist platform – it unifies the groups which partake in that

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