How It All Got Started
Have you ever heard tell of feminism's "waves"? If not, why not settle into your nice comfy chair and let us fill you in.
First up: first wave. When people nowadays refer to "first-wave" feminism, they generally mean the period of public activism and writing that runs from the late-19th century until the mid-20th. It was during that time that international women's suffrage movements agitated for women's right to vote, and to be recognized as full persons under the law. When Davie B goes off about Suffragette City, you can bet your red boots he's referring to this era. Somehow or other.
"Second wave" feminism is generally associated with the period from 1960s through the late '80s or early '90s. But here's where things get tricky. The whole notion of feminism's "waves" was actually invented by the second wavers themselves, who wanted to give their activism a bit of oomph by tying it into a much longer history.
And although the split between feminism's first and second waves has been pretty well settled, no one seems to be able to tell when the second wave ends. Maybe it's still going! Maybe we're into the third wave now! Or the fourth! Or maybe feminism is over and done with. Which means now we're into the post-feminism stage!
Long story short: it's hard for feminists to agree on feminism's chronology, and the same goes for feminist theory. Does it begin with the writings of first wavers like Virginia Woolf? What about writers who straddle the fence between the first and second waves, like Simone de Beauvoir?
Honestly, we can't point to a single moment as the birth of feminist theory: women have been thinking and writing about this stuff for centuries. So, to be kind to our gentle readers, we Shmoopers and Shmoopettes are going to break this down a little more simply. Since "feminist theory" is just one small part of the enormous majestic creature called capital-F Feminism, we're going to pick it up in the middle of the 20th century.
This was when "theory" was becoming a hot topic in universities throughout North America and Europe, and it's these hotties who got the waves slapping the beach in a way that makes sandcastles get built a bit differently all the way up to today.