First-Wave Feminism - the first wave of feminism started in the 1800s and lasted until the 1900s. It focused on women gaining legal rights. Most famously the right to vote, but also rights to education, money, property, and divorce. The first wave of feminism did important work but is not without its criticisms. There was no intersectionality, and people did not think critically about gender. Non-white women were not seen as the same as white women and were denied womanhood in their eyes. Their dehumanization of others led white first-wave feminists to fight only for themselves to gain rights. Additionally, they saw the difference in the roles between men and women to be biological rather than societal, which held them back in certain ways. The work they did was important though. It sparked change and laid the groundwork for future movements to come.

Second-Wave Feminism - This wave started in the 1960s and went into the 1980s. It continued the work done during first-wave feminism, such as legal protections for women, while also bringing more focus to domestic violence, women's right to find work, and reproductive rights. This era also lacked intersectionality and mostly left non-white women behind. There were important non-white activists though, such as Alice Walker and Angela Davis, and LGBT women who have mostly been left behind by the cultural narrative. Non-white and LGBT second-wave feminists laid important groundwork for discussions of intersectionality later on. Second-Wave feminism was important because of its fight for legal protections in school and the workplace from sexual harassment and inequality. It brought about Title IX, which protected against sex-based discrimination.