CSS Gender Studies Feminist Movements Syllabus

Feminist Movements syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Feminist Movements in CSS Gender Studies, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Feminist Movements in the West

   3 topics

   • First Wave Feminism
   • Second Wave Feminism
   • Third Wave Feminism
2. 2

   Global and National Movements

   2 topics

   • United Nations Conferences on Women
   • Feminist Movements in Pakistan

Feminist Movements flashcards for CSS Gender Studies

21 of 52 cards from the Feminist Movements deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is feminism?

   A range of social, political, and economic movements and ideologies aimed at defining and establishing equal rights and opportunities for women and challenging gender-based discrimination and patriarchy.

2. What are the three commonly recognized 'waves' of Western feminism?

   First Wave (19th–early 20th century, suffrage and legal rights), Second Wave (1960s–1980s, social and workplace equality), and Third Wave (1990s onward, diversity, intersectionality, and individuality).

3. What was the central goal of First Wave Feminism?

   Securing women's legal rights, primarily the right to vote (suffrage), along with property rights, education access, and marriage/contract rights.

4. Which 1848 event is considered the formal start of the First Wave women's rights movement in the US?

   The Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

5. What document was produced at the Seneca Falls Convention (1848)?

   The Declaration of Sentiments, which declared that 'all men and women are created equal' and demanded equal rights including suffrage.

6. Who wrote 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792), an early foundational feminist text?

   Mary Wollstonecraft, who argued women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so due to lack of education.

7. In what year did women gain the right to vote in the United States and through which amendment?

   1920, through the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution.

8. Which country was the first to grant women the right to vote in national elections (1893)?

   New Zealand.

9. What term describes British First-Wave activists who used militant tactics for women's suffrage, led by Emmeline Pankhurst?

   Suffragettes (members of the WSPU, Women's Social and Political Union).

10. What distinguished 'suffragists' from 'suffragettes'?

    Suffragists used peaceful, constitutional methods (petitions, lobbying), while suffragettes adopted militant, direct-action tactics.

11. What was the central focus of Second Wave Feminism?

    Broadening the agenda beyond suffrage to issues of sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, legal inequalities, and de facto (social) inequalities.

12. Which 1963 book by Betty Friedan helped spark Second Wave Feminism in the US?

    'The Feminine Mystique,' which named 'the problem that has no name'—the dissatisfaction of housewives confined to domestic roles.

13. What organization did Betty Friedan co-found in 1966 to advance women's equality?

    NOW, the National Organization for Women.

14. Who wrote 'The Second Sex' (1949), with the famous line 'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman'?

    Simone de Beauvoir.

15. What slogan captured the Second Wave idea linking private life to politics?

    'The personal is political.'

16. What slogan captured the Second Wave idea linking women's private experiences to political structures?

    'The personal is political.'

17. What 1973 US Supreme Court case, a key Second Wave victory, legalized abortion nationally?

    Roe v. Wade.

18. What is the central focus of Third Wave Feminism (1990s onward)?

    Embracing diversity, individuality, intersectionality, sexual freedom, and challenging definitions of gender and femininity; reclaiming words and choice.

19. Who coined the term 'intersectionality' in 1989, central to Third Wave thought?

    Kimberlé Crenshaw, describing how race, gender, class, and other identities overlap to create compounded discrimination.

20. What 1991 event is often credited with catalyzing the start of Third Wave Feminism in the US?

    The Anita Hill testimony during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, highlighting sexual harassment.

21. Who is credited with coining the phrase 'Third Wave' feminism in a 1992 essay?

    Rebecca Walker (daughter of Alice Walker), in her essay 'Becoming the Third Wave.'

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