Exploring the second wave of feminism in transnational and intersectional perspective
Literature review on the subject
Historiography on the subject of the second wave of feminism has evolved throughout the years. Indeed, the historians first explored those movements within the boundaries of nation-states, focusing mostly on western countries including two important figures : the United-States and France. Although some transatlantic connections were already highlighted in those studies, the main focus was on national contexts.
Studies of the second wave of feminism, specifically because of this idea of having different waves in which women were fighting for different rights, were also built in comparison to feminist movements of the first wave (mid 19th century-early 20th century). Indeed, the second wave is assimilated to a shift in demands in terms of rights. The main idea was that the private was political, gender violence which women faced in private were the result of systemic violence and discrimination and should also represent a concern for the state. Demands were much larger than during the first wave, which focused on legal rights and mostly the right to vote, and included issues of workplace equality, male violence, reproductive rights, and sexual liberation. Thus, historiography on the second wave of feminism initially focused on the demands of feminists in comparison to previous periods, the mode of actions and the evolution of the movement within national context.
A shift then occurred with the emergence of “Third world feminism” which led scholars to de-center the study of the second feminist wave from the US and European perspectives and also aimed at highlighting how issues of imperialism and other forms of discrimination could relate to the movement. Still, such studies focused also mainly on national and local contexts. Then, the emergence of transnational history allowed for a reconsideration of the subject in transnational perspective, with some authors such as Molony and Nelson trying to rethink the spatialization and temporalization of the movement but also focusing more on highlighting transnational connections and circulations.
Final project
I wish to further explore the subject of the second wave of feminism in a transnational perspective for my final project. My main goal is to explore how ideas circulated and how such circulation or most importantly the absence of circulation were shaped by national and local contexts. In this final project I will explore the second wave of feminism in a long perspective and will try to expand its geographical boundaries by de-centering my study from the western countries, not only by studying interactions between western countries and non-western countries but also studying interactions between non-western countries. I also wish to explore feminist mobilisations during the second wave through its interactions with other movements and how some struggles converged or not. Some feminist movements of the period, though struggling for the rights of women, also constructed themselves through the exclusion of other women or at least their erasure, and participated in the reproduction of other forms of oppression.
In their book, Molony and Nelson mention the important connection between transnational perspectives on the second wave and intersectional analysis which I wish to mobilize too. My final goal in this project is to highlight the diversity of experiences of women of the movement, show perhaps that there were differents movements rather than a singular, how those movements were shaped by national or international contexts as well as transnational connections, but also highlight connections with other struggles whether those took the form of solidarity between different movements or rather the reproduction of other forms of discrimination through feminist fights of the period.
I will be looking at primary sources such as feminist journals, papers of international conferences and exchanges between feminist actors, in order to analyze how feminist actors circulated and how some ideas were represented and received.
Finally, because this topic is so vast, my project will most likely take the form of a project proposal rather than an essay, highlighting ideas to look further into.