Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began around 2012 and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women, the use of internet tools, and intersectionality. According to Rosemary Clark-Parsons, digital platforms have allowed feminist movements to become more connected and visible, allowing activists to reach a global audience and act on it in real time. The fourth wave seeks greater gender equality by focusing on gendered norms and the marginalization of women in society. These online tools open up the doors for empowerment for all women by giving opportunities for diverse voices, particularly those from marginalized communities to contribute to a wide range of people pushing for a more inclusive movement.

Fourth-wave feminism focuses on sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual violence, the objectification of women, and sexism in the workplace. Internet activism is a key feature of the fourth wave, used to amplify awareness of these issues. Fourth-wave feminism broadens its focus to other groups, including the LGBTQ+ community and people of color, and advocates for their increased societal participation and power. It also advocates for equal incomes regardless of sex and challenges traditional gender roles for men and women, which it believes are oppressive. The movement further argues against sexual assault, objectification, harassment, and gender-based violence.

Some have identified the movement as a reaction to post-feminism, which argues that women and men have already reached equality. It also brought back some second-wave feminism ideas into discourse, with Martha Rampton writing that the movement criticises "sexual abuse, rape, violence against women, unequal pay, slut-shaming, the pressure on women to conform to a single and unrealistic body-type", and advocates for "gains in female representation in politics and business".

Some feminists argue that in the 1980s conservative figures like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan challenged gains feminists had made up to that point. At the same time, feminists in North America, Latin America, and Europe had succeeded in some of their goals, including the creation of state-run institutions that explicitly promoted women's rights, or feminist involvement in government; however, these institutions also weakened feminist movements by letting the state take over implementation of feminist goals.

European and Latin American third-wave feminism began in the 1990s, as lipstick feminism and consumerist feminism started to come to an end and as feminist activists were rejecting queer theory espoused by American academics. Fourth-wave feminism developed slowly, globally via the media and the Internet. The wave emerged from a new generation of women who had largely not been informed about previous waves through their education at high school, institutions and university. Knowledge about feminism was gained informally and it developed a virtual academy where feminists learned that "the personal is political"; it did not emerge from structured feminist learning. Fourth-wave feminism, like other waves before it, in this period was not about the existence of a single ideology, entity, or collective. It was about drawing together in collective groups to work together towards a common goal of ending violence against women in order to free them for the options to take the paths they desire; it was about mutual commitment and support to other women.

The movement in Spain traces its roots to the murder of Ana Orantes; on 17 December 1997, she was burned to death by her husband in her house in Granada for speaking publicly on Canal Sur about how he abused her. Early fourth-wave Spanish feminism used television and newspapers as the primary social network. Orantes' death brought domestic violence against women to national attention, and resulted in RTVE changing its policies on how the station reported on gender-based violence. Similar conversations took place at other television networks and media organizations across the country. Jokes about domestic violence were no longer accepted on Spanish TV. Journalists from El Mundo, El País and infoLibre were among Spain's first participants in the fourth-wave, using their positions in the media to talk about a number of issues, mostly centered around sexist violence and its portrayal in the media. They later went on to talk about Spain's gender parity pay problems and promoted taking activism to virtual spaces.

The beginnings of this movement in this period took place in Latin America and Poland. Some of this global desire to act, particularly in a Polish context, came out of the World Conference on Women, 1995 in Beijing.

Social media had an amplifying effect as the fourth-wave feminist movement began to grow. Fourth-wave feminism began its peak in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Brazil in 2018 as a result of a number of different factors, with women mobilized on a large scale to take to the streets. Their mobilization also challenged for the first time, the legitimacy of Spain's judiciary, whereas in previous waves the focus had been more on political leadership and acts of the legislature. The wave in Spain would also face a major challenge, including the emergence of Vox, a far right political party who won seats in Andalusia. Vox was opposed to The Organic Law of Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence and wanted to see it overturned. In Argentina, the peak would be around the abortion rights issue which saw thousands of women with green scarves take to the streets. Social media helped organize and connect these protests, allowing feminist movements to support each other across the world. It also gave opportunities for more voices to be heard, especially people from marginalized groups, and helped prove that gender inequality is linked to other issues like race, class, and sexuality.