Feminism is a discourse that includes various movements, theories and philosophies. These movements, theories and philosophies pay attention to gender differences, advocate women's equality and strive for women's rights and interests. Some people think that the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first wave was in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the second wave was in1960s and1970s, and the third wave continued from1990s to now. Feminist theory originated from these feminist movements. It is embodied in various disciplines, such as feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism.

Feminism has changed the dominant views of western society in a wide range of fields from culture to law. Feminist activists fight for women's legal rights (contract rights, property rights, voting rights); Women's right to physical integrity and autonomy, abortion and reproductive rights (including access to contraception and quality prenatal care); Protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape; Workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay for equal work; And oppose other forms of discrimination.

For most of its history, the leaders of most feminist movements and theories were mainly middle-class white women from Western Europe and North America. However, at least from Sojourner Truth's 185 1 speech to American feminists, women of other races put forward alternative feminism. With the collapse of American civil rights movement and European colonialism in parts of Africa, Caribbean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, this trend accelerated in the1960s. Since then, women in former European colonies and the third world have put forward "post-colonial" and "third world" feminism. Some postcolonial feminists, such as Chandra Talpa de Mohanty, criticized western feminism as ethnocentrism. Black feminists, such as angela davis and Alice Walker, hold this view.

Since1980s, feminists believe that feminism should study how women's unequal experiences are related to racism, homophobia, class discrimination and colonialism. In the late1980s and1990s, postmodern feminists believed that gender roles were socially constructed and it was impossible to summarize women's experiences in different cultures and histories.