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The Women's Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism. Ed. by Leslie L. Heywood. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. 2 vols, acid free $199.95 (ISBN 0-313-33133-2).
The set might best be described as an encyclopedic and documentary history of third-wave feminism, 1991-2005. The first volume of this work is comprised of thematic essays formatted and arranged under conventional headings, each written by one or more contributors, and offering helpful bibliographies for further reading at the end of each entry The volume also contains a chronological history that begins with 1991 and traces the movement through 2005.
The three waves of feminism are (roughly): the turn-ofthe-century suffrage movement in the United States through the 1920s (first wave); a resurgence of political and academic focus on social inequity of the sexes through the 1960s and 1970s (second wave); and the recent, more global, more diverse inquiry of the social systems of sex and gender inequality (third wave). The term "third wave" is sometimes differentiated from "postfeminism," which is usually seen as critical of the second wave. Alternatively third-wave feminism is sometimes considered to be postfeminist because, although it continues the women's movement,...