Starting with a brief history of feminist waves and ending with intersectionality, this session asked whose liberation the feminist movement has historically centred. We traced the four waves of feminism, introduced Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framework for understanding how race, class, and gender overlap, and discussed where contemporary movements like trad wives and TERFs sit within — or against — feminist thought. The session closed with the uncomfortable question of whether “feminism” as a term still serves its original purpose.
Materials
Main
- A short lecture on the history of feminism — four waves in 15 minutes (YouTube · 15 min)
- Kimberlé Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality (TED Talk)
- Kimberlé Crenshaw's KU Leuven honorary doctorate speech (YouTube)
- Financial Times article on the gender voting gap (article · FT · attached)
- Paper section 5 on feminism, pages 5–7 (paper · attached)
Supplementary
- Vulnera podcast on feminism (Dutch) (Spotify)
- Trad wives documentary (Dutch) (YouTube)
Session structure
- What does feminism mean to you?
- Your own definition before the historical one (Charles Fourier, 1837)
- What biases do you bring to the term?
- A brief history — the four waves
- What each wave achieved and who it left behind
- Why the fourth wave matters: digital activism, intersectionality, global reach
- Intersectional feminism
- Crenshaw's framework and what it means in practice
- Who has been excluded from previous feminist waves, and why?
- Trad wives and TERFs — where do they sit within feminist thought?
- Open questions
- Is "girl boss" feminism a product of third-wave thinking?
- Is "feminism" still the right term, or has it been co-opted?
- How does the gender voting gap challenge assumptions about solidarity?
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