“For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men,” world acclaimed talk show host Oprah Winfrey said at the 75th Golden Globes Awards on Jan. 8, “but their time is up. Their time is up.”

In the 1840s, Susan B. Anthony fought among millions of women to gain the rights to vote. A century later in the 1960s, attention was brought to domestic violence and reproductive rights. In the 1990s, a new wave of feminism rose, but does it really stand on its own?

This new wave, known as third-wave feminism, picks up where second-wave feminism leaves off. Second-wave feminism, which began after World War II, addressed issues such as a woman’s expectations during work, sexuality and family life.

“Second-wave feminism is more about in the home while third-wave is more about the workplace because now we’re seeing more abuse and sexual assault,” Coppell High School sophomore Aditi Patel said.“This is more like ‘let’s speak out to that side of society’.”

Yet, there is not enough of a difference for third-wave feminism to stand on its own. It simply emphasizes the key issues that were introduced during the second wave.

According to The Washington Post, 48 percent of women think that third-wave feminism focuses on the changes that are necessary like wage gap. The others either have no opinion or believe it doesn’t.

“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves,” said Caribbean-American writer and activist Audre Lorde.“We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.”  

A rise in sexual assault cases has brought a significant amount of attention to the idea of feminism itself. For example, the Women’s March that began last year and is primarily publicized in Washington D.C. unites men, women and children alike in this ongoing fight for equality.

This wave also gave birth to extremists who take the definition of feminism “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” and twist it to make it seem as though women are superior to men.

Feminism is about equality. Women have gone for centuries upon centuries with men dominating them and they finally have a chance to prove this patriarch image wrong. However, that doesn’t give them the right to dominate men – because at that point, they would be hypocrites.

In the end, women worldwide are raising their voices to fight for equality and it is something that has brought the genders together regardless of the waves. Feminism is feminism and women have come a long way since gaining the right to vote.

“The progress we’ve made in the past 100 years, and yes, even in the past eight years, has made life significantly better for my daughters than it was for my grandmothers. And I say that not just as President, but also as a feminist,” former president Barack Obama said.

Follow Anika @anikaarutla