1. Feminist Criticism (phase 1)
Devin Henfield and Ben Forbes

2. Timeline Late 1700s to Early 1900s- First Wave Feminism
Feminist critics recognize male writers’ “demeaning treatment of women.” Includes books like Thinking About Women by Mary Ellman, Sexual Politics by Kate Millet, and The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer.
Early 1960s to Late 1980s- Second Wave Feminism
Gynocriticism appears. Gynocriticism includes female writers and their place in “literary history”, the examination of the treatment of female characters, and all of the literature written by women.

3. Timeline (cont) Early 1990s to Present Day- Third Wave Feminism
Response to all of the negative backlash that arose because of Second Wave Feminism. “Universal Womanhood” is introduced. Includes writers like Alice Walker.

4. Founder Mary Wollstonecraft
Wollstonecraft’s publication of Vindication of the Rights of Women 1792 is what is believed to have started First Wave Feminism back in the late 1700s. The First Wave was then ended with the ratification of the 20th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

5. Authors Mary Wollstonecraft Simone de Beauvoir Elaine Showalter
Mary Ellman
Germaine Greer
Kate Millet

6. Beliefs
Women are oppressed economically, politically, socially, and psychologically.
Women are only defined by their differences from men.
Western Civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology.
Biology determines sex but society determines gender. .

7. Resources https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/11/
content/feminist-approaches-literature