Weve Only Just Begun: Translating Third Wave Theory Into Third Wave Activism :: Free Essays Online

Weve Only Just Begun Translating ordinal motion Theory Into Third Wave ActivismAfter graduating from college in 1999 with a degree in Womens and Gender Studies, I was looking forward to beginning my new job as an miscarriage counselor at the local Planned Parenthood clinic. I envisioned working in a strong libber community committed to a womens right to control her reproduction. On my first day I was ordered to prepare the doctors scrubs and get his coffee while I observed him lambast women during the procedure for not using birth control. I was angry for having to accept and accommodate this man because he was the only doctor we could get to perform abortions (and check to Roe v. Wade, as I learned, abortions could only be done by doctors). I had examine reproductive rights and was excited and inspired by my Second Wave feminist professors praises of Roe v. Wade and womens health clinics, but my present reality was not living up to their romantic historical vision. I had also studied Second Wave feminist theories of power, economics, and sexuality and it was this knowledge that allowed me to understand that my so-called glamorous feminist work at Planned Parenthood was not, in fact, expressing feminist principles. I cultivated a desire to use these personal experiences break the silence in the feminist community about these discrepancies and challenge the impervious write up of Roe v. Wade and abortion providers. I sought to involve myself in organizations working to allow midwives to perform abortions, which would give women more options when it came to choosing a provider. That was also when I came to understand and be a part of third shake feminism.Feminisms first wave is usually seen as having begun with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1948 and ending with securing the right to right to vote in 1920 and the second wave categorizes the resurgence of womens activism beginning in the late 1960s and ending (or at least ebbing) with the defeat of the Eq ual Rights Amendment and the Reagan-Bush era. Third wave feminism purports to encompass the young women born in the 1960s and 70s who feel their personal experience of their history set them apart from older women. Barbara Findlen in the accession to Listen Up Voices from the Next Generation of Feminism states, I strongly believe that the experiences that led me to identify as a feminist were significantly several(predicate) from those that inspired the previous generation (xi).