Last week we observed International Women’s Day, an annual celebration of womanhood and women’s rights. March 8 marks the date that women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia back in 1917, starting a national holiday that the United Nations adopted in 1975. The 2019 celebration embraced the motto “balance for better” in support of continuing progress for a gender balanced world. This emphasizes an important point of clarification about feminism that often gets confused.

The term “feminist” seems to be met with polarizing connotations. Many lambast modern feminists and accuse them of seeking out a society in which males are marginalized and treated unfairly. Others use the term “feminist” as a cloak for accusing others of inherent sexism on the grounds that they are a feminist and thus deemed an adequate judge of what is considered appropriate. It’s hard to find a hot topic femme-themed article that doesn’t have the comments section sprinkled with accusations of being a “feminazi” and when you ask men if they are feminists, a number of them will gawk. Hell, even some women are hesitant to align with this term. This is because many regard feminism as a dangerous wave of angry women seeking to overthrow the patriarchy and threaten male autonomy.

So let’s explore what feminism really is. Hint: there is no blanket answer, because feminism arrived in waves and there are different degrees of radicalization. The ideologies and philosophies that sculpt feminism have evolved and shifted over time, leading to the formation of separate waves of feminism that allow followers to champion women’s rights to varying degrees as they seek to improve upon previous waves. Of course these waves overlap in some areas of beliefs and time periods, to make understanding the differentiating factors of feminism factions all the messier. But let’s dive in!

The first wave of feminism can be dated back to the mid-19th century or early 20th century. It emerged largely in the United States and Britain and focused on women’s suffrage, with the right for women to vote being the forefront of the effort. The suffrage movement grew to envelope more areas, keeping the right to vote as the concentration of the group up until World War I commenced in 1914 and shifted priorities. The efforts of first wave feminism led to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which famously granted women the right to vote in the United States. The demarcation between first wave and second wave feminism is not clearly defined, though World War II and Civil Rights Movement participation by women led to the second wave of feminism emerging in the 60s and 70s.

With the right to vote firmly secured, the second wave of feminism shifted its focus away from politics to instead concentrate efforts on forging social and economic justice for women. While first wave feminism aimed for property rights, women’s suffrage, and political candidacy, second wave feminism addressed the inequalities between sexes, family, the workplace, legal matters, and reproductive rights. This social cause was enormously sculpted by the publications of “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir and “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedman. These books were both regarded as being highly influential in shaping second wave feminist ideologies.

With the shift in ideologies, second wave feminism led to the women’s rights movement splitting into two groups in the 60s. The two different factions included equal rights feminists and radical feminists. While equal rights feminists sought equality in the home and the workplace (a reflection this year’s “Balance for Better” motto for International Women’s Day), the radical feminists focused their reforms on radicalizing the perils of patriarchal society. The difference? While equal rights feminists could be seen fighting for anti-discrimination workplace laws, radical feminists set out to deconstruct gender roles in the wake of the feminist revolution. The former group tended to be older, primarily white women, while the latter was comprised of a more diverse mix, though whiteness still pervaded the group. The inherent differences of age, class, and race, as well as the irreconcilable differences in doctrine, led to the two factions of feminism being unable to reconcile their viewpoints and merge back into a singular unit.

The third wave of feminism arose in the mid-90s in a response to the perceived failures of second wave feminism, such as the failure for it to account for all women, regardless of race, class, and sexuality. The main influencers of third wave feminism include queer theory and postmodernism, leading to third wave feminists being more aware of their language usage and gender construct compliance. Through this newfound awareness arose the birth of the queer identify in feminism that existed outside of the cisgender, heterosexual norm. Acknowledging the failure of previous waves, third wave feminism aimed for intersectionality in order to be inclusive, since past waves of feminism failed to provide a queer, minority, or transgender voice.

Separating itself from third wave feminism is the merging fourth wave that is still finding its footing as it works to define itself from third wave feminism. Fourth wave feminism can be credited with making the feminist voice more public as feminist critique has spread through public discourse over the past decade into the present. It is largely defined under modern shifts, such as social media and smartphones, which have given fourth wave feminism a wider platform for movements such as body positivity, slutwalks, and sexual assault awareness. The aim of fourth wave feminism is to be vocal about perceived injustices in order to combat assault, sexual harassment, and persisting misogyny.

As you can see, feminism has been growing and redefining itself for the past century plus, building upon successes of the past and remodeling itself to make up for failures of previous movements. There are different degrees of radicalization and different beliefs held within the collective feminist movement. But fortunately there is now a place within in it for all who are interested in championing women’s rights. So the next time someone asks if you’re a feminist, ask yourself if you support equality of rights for all people. If you do, then the simple answer is “yes,” you are indeed a feminist. And that’s sometime to be proud of.