The Beauty Myth

One of the recurrent themes in The Beauty Myth is the relationship between the first, second, and third waves of feminism in the West. Wolf uses a comparative framework to document the types of rights that were obtained during each movement. Her goal as one of the leaders of the third wave is to underscore the challenges still facing women in the late 20th century.

The first wave of feminism was a loose movement in the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century. Early feminists focused on basic legal rights and protections under the law, such as property ownership and women’s right to vote. The term “feminism” is usually attributed to the French, 19th-century socialist thinker, Charles Fourier. He was critical of what he perceived as the marital oppression of women.

Women’s suffrage expanded in the mid-19th century with certain countries like Australia and the UK granting women the right to vote in local elections. This movement was paralleled by greater access to post-secondary education for women in parts of the West. By the 1920s, several countries granted voting rights to women; in the US, this right came from the 19th Amendment of 1920.