According to Rebecca Walker, the event that jumpstarted the third wave of the women’s movement was the 1991 confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which Anita Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her. Walker wrote a 1992 article in Ms. magazine titled "Becoming the Third Wave," in which she expressed her anger and frustration over the Senate's dismissal of Hill's testimony and called for a new wave of feminist activism. This article is credited with coining the term "third wave feminism" and giving the emerging movement its initial momentum

. Walker described the hearings as a moment that challenged women's credibility and power, and she urged women, especially of her generation, to transform their outrage into political power. She emphasized the need for feminism to address intersectional issues of race, gender, and other systemic inequalities, marking a departure from earlier feminist waves