History of feminism

Suffrage parade in New York City in 1912

The earliest works on 'the woman question' criticised the restrictive role of women without necessarily claiming that women were disadvantaged or that men were to blame. Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the few works written before the 19th century that can unambiguously be called feminist. By modern standards her metaphor of women as nobility, the elite of society, coddled, fragile and in danger of intellectual and moral sloth, does not sound like a feminist argument. Wollstonecraft believed that both sexes contributed to this situation and took it for granted that women had considerable power over men.

Seeds of the feminist movement (pre 1850s)

Feminism in the 19th Century

Feminism is generally said to have begun in the 19th century as people increasingly adopted the perception that women are oppressed in a male-centred society (see patriarchy). The feminist movement is rooted in the West and especially in the reform movement of the 19th century. The organised movement is dated from the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.

Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the founders of the suffragette movement and aimed to reveal the institutional sexism in British society, forming the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Often the repeated jailing for forms of activism that broke the law, particularly property destruction, inspired members to go on hunger strikes. As a result of the resultant force-feeding that was the practice, these members became very ill, serving to draw attention to the brutality of the legal system at the time and to further their cause. In an attempt to solve this the government introduced a bill that became know as the Cat and Mouse Act which allowed women to be released when they starved themselves to dangerous levels then re-arresting them latter.

Feminism in the 20th Century

Many countries began to grant women the vote in the early years of the 20th century, especially in the final years of the First World War and the first years after the war. The reasons for this varied, but included a desire to recognize the contributions of women during the war, and were also influenced by rhetoric used by both sides at the time to justify their war efforts. For example, since Wilson's 14 Points recongized self determination as a vital component of society, the hypocricy of denying half the population of modern nations the vote became difficult for men to ignore.

Over a century and a half the movement has grown to include diverse perspectives on what constitutes discrimination against women. Early feminists and primary feminist movements are often called the first wave and feminists after about 1960 the second wave. There is a so called third wave, but feminists disagree as to its necessity, its benefits, and its ideas. These three "waves" are known as such, because, like waves on a beach, each wave comes on top of the one before, drawing on each other.

Recent activities in feminism

Historical feminists of note

For a more complete list, see: List of notable feminists

References

Books

The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001 reprint, ISBN 0393322572
Feminism and History (Oxford Readings in Feminism), Joan Wallach Scott, Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0198751699
Global Feminisms: A Survey of Issues and Controversies (Rewriting Histories), Bonnie G. Smith, Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0415184908
A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present, Bonnie S. Anderson, Judith P. Zinsser, Oxford University Press, 1999 (revised edition), ISBN 0195128397
No Turning Back : The History of Feminism and the Future of Women, Estelle Freedman, Ballantine Books, 2002, ISBN B0001FZGQC

External link

Timeline of feminist history