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An exploration of first-wave to fourth-wave protest media
“The greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded.”
In June 1873, Susan B. Anthony was convicted of voting illegally after casting her ballot in the presidential election for being a woman. Four years after her death in 1906, the 19th amendment was signed into law: “the right to vote shall not be denied on account of sex.” Anthony served as a catalyst of the first wave of feminism focused on women’s suffrage and political equality.
In 2018, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Despite her testimony, Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Dr. Ford’s testimony and subsequent treatment by senators and the media sparked national conversations about the treatment of sexual assault survivors in the legal system. It further demonstrated the systemic trend of discouragement that women face when advocating for their own safety. More broadly, it shows that while women’s rights have been furthered to a large extent, feminism in the US continues to fight for gender equality and the dismantling of systemic sexism.
Today, we are living through the fourth wave of feminism. Starting in the 2010s, the…
