The Feminist Reveal examines the systems shaping women’s lives, offering accessible, research-grounded analysis across history, politics, and pop culture.
Begin Here
New to The Feminist Reveal? Begin with The Foundations Series, where we explore the four waves of feminism and historical forces that define the world women navigate today.
The First Wave of Feminism
“The first wave didn’t emerge because all women were intentionally developing activist ideologies or advocating for feminist policies. It emerged because the law treated women as dependents rather than citizens, and the consequences were unavoidable.”
Terms That Matter
- Feminism — A social and political framework that examines how gendered systems of power operate in society, and advocates for structural, legal, and cultural changes that advance women’s equality.
- Misogyny — Explicit prejudice or hostile behavior against women that operates through social norms, cultural practices, and institutions (such as laws, workplaces, schools, healthcare, government, and the media).
- Sexism — Encompasses the beliefs, structures, or practices that assume one sex or gender is superior to another, resulting in unequal treatment or expectations. Unlike misogyny, which specifically targets women through hostility or punishment, sexism is broader. It includes everyday assumptions and patterns that place men as the default and women as the lesser,
- Social Construction — An idea, category, or practice that society creates and reinforces through shared norms, behaviors, and institutions. In feminist analysis, social constructs explain how the laws and expectations surrounding sexuality, race, power, and gender-based assumptions become viewed as “common sense.”
- Intersectionality — Developed by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectionality explains how overlapping systems of power (including racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and ableism) shape people’s lived experiences. Intersectionality demonstrates that a person is not impacted by race, gender, or class in isolation. Rather, their identities intersect with structures such as education, employment, law, and healthcare, producing outcomes that cannot be understood by gender or race alone.
- Hegemony — Developed by theorist Antonio Gramsci, hegemony explains the process by which a dominant group maintains power through cultural norms, values, and assumptions that the general public views as natural or inevitable.
- Patriarchy — A social system in which men hold disproportionate power and authority over political, economic, and cultural institutions. By positioning men as the default leaders and women as subordinate or secondary, a patriarchal system shapes family structures, workplaces, laws, and social expectations. Patriarchy does not refer to individual men, but to an unequal distribution of power on the basis of gender.
Terms That Matter
Featured Essays
Lessons from Sumana Roy’s How I Became a Tree
Excerpt
The Media’s Orchestrated Attack on Britney Spears
Excerpt
Facts You Likely Weren’t Taught
1
The Politics of Witch Hunts (c. 1893)
In 1893, feminist writer and activist Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) argued that European witch hunts were not driven by superstition, but by political hunger to control women’s knowledge, power, and autonomy. In Woman, Church, and State, Gage discussed how midwives, healers, and independent women were targeted because they held authority outside of male institutions. Her analysis is now recognized as one of the earliest interpretations of witch persecution as gendered political violence.
Supported by: National Women’s History Museum — Matilda Joslyn Gage
2
The Bodyguard (c. 1913-1914)
Edith Margaret Garrud (1872-1971), one of the first European women to master jujutsu, used her training to teach a secret group of suffragettes how to protect Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), a major leader in the fight for women’s voting rights. Pankhurst was repeatedly targeted for arrest under government policies meant to silence the movement. In response, the Bodyguard used jujutsu techniques and hidden armor to shield Pankhurst during protests.
Supported by: BBC — ‘Suffrajutsu’: How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts
3
The Myth of “Bra Burning” (c. 1968)
The idea that feminists burned bras at the 1968 Miss America protest is false. Protestors threw symbolic items such as bras, girdles, makeup, and magazines into a “freedom trash can,” but nothing was burned. In an effort to dismiss the movement, mainstream media popularized the phrase “bra burners” to reduce feminist ideals and mock women’s activism.
Supported by: Smithsonian Magazine — How the Myth of Feminist Bra Burning Spread
4
The End of Marital Rape Exemptions (c. 1993)
Rooted in 17th-century jurist Matthew Hale’s (1609-1676) belief that marriage granted husbands permanent sexual access to their wives, the U.S. followed marital rape exemption laws for centuries. States slowly repealed these exemptions throughout the 1970s and 1980s, marking 1993 as the first time marital rape was criminalized in all 50 states.
Supported by: Marital Rape: History, Research, and Practice (1993 legal review)
The Feminist Reveal 