Third Wave Feminism In The 19th Century

First wave feminism started in the late 19th century and carried on until the early 20th century the main focus of the movement was to give women more of a voice in the world and to end suffrage and give women the right to vote. It was first recognized as a movement at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 were people like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth had a massive impact in the movement. Martha Rampton a professor of history and director of the Center for Gender Equity at Pacific University, writes about the four waves of feminism and what their main goal were and people who had a major effect on the period. When talking about the first wave of feminism she says “Victorian America saw women acting in very "un-ladylike" ways (public speaking, demonstrating, stints in jail), which challenged the "cult of domesticity."” The “cult of
domesticity” is talking about how woman of the time were expected to be house wives and make the home a better place to live and men were expected to provide for their wives and families and contribute to society. This takes place in Trifles because the women are to just gather things for Mrs. Wright. There were not expected to find anything of importance to the case, while the men looked through the important parts. This also applies to Minnie it would have been very un-lady like to speak out about her husband and the way he was treating her.
Feminism through the years has had an effect on every generation in a different way.
The first wave fighting to end suffrage giving women the right to vote. The second wave began in the 1960’s going into the 90’s. “In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights were dominant issues, and much of the movement's energy was focused on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex.” (Rampton). Third wave feminism began in the 90’s and has continued into more recent times focusing on the ideas of “universal womanhood”. It “empowered, eschewing victimization and defining feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, not as objects of a sexist patriarchy” (Rampton). Martha Rampton describes third wave feminists as women who do things like put on makeup and dress a certain way to please themselves not anyone else like men. Along with that women can look nice all the time and still be intelligent woman who know what they are talking about “it's possible to have a push-up bra and a brain at the same time.” (Rampton) .These types of problems are still quite relevant
today.