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First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. It primarily focused on gaining the right of women's suffrage. The term, "first-wave," was coined retroactively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement.
United Kingdom
In the UK, Mary Wollstonecraft published the first feminist treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), in which she advocated the social and moral equality of the sexes. Her later unfinished work "Maria, or the Wrongs of Women" earned her considerable criticism as she dared to acknowledge the existence of women's sexual desires, almost certainly becoming the first published woman writer to do so.
Wollstonecraft is regarded as the grandmother of British feminism and her ideas shaped the thinking of the Suffragettes. The Suffragettes campaigned for the women's vote, which was eventually granted − to some women in 1918 and to all in 1928 − as much because of the part played by British women during the First World War, as of the efforts of the Suffragettes.
United States
In the United States prominent leaders of this movement include Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who each campaigned for the abolition of slavery prior to championing women's right to vote. Anthony and other activists (such as Victoria Woodhull and Matilda Joslyn Gage) made attempts to cast votes prior to their legal entitlement to do so, for which many of them faced charges. Other important leaders include Lucy Stone, Olympia Brown, and Helen Pitts.
First-wave feminism involved a wide range of women, some belonging to conservative Christian groups (such as Frances Willard and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union), others resembling the diversity and radicalism of much of second-wave feminism (such as Matilda Joslyn Gage and the National Woman Suffrage Association).
Both Stanton and Anthony believed that abortion was an imposition of the patriarchy upon women, that it robbed the unborn child of its life, and that if decisions about abortion were placed into the hands of women, it would happen far less often (or cease entirely). Anthony believed abortion to be "child-murder", but did not believe that outlawing the practice would help women:
Much as I deplore the horrible crime of child-murder, earnestly as I desire its suppression, I cannot believe that such a law would have the desired effect. It seems to me to be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. We want prevention, not merely punishment. We must reach the root of the evil, and destroy it.− Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution, 1869.
In the United States, the end of first-wave feminism is often linked with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1919), granting women the right to vote. This was the major victory of the movement.
See also
Sources
- Biography of Mary Wollstonecraft with links to works.
- Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly
- Woodhull's attempt to run for President.
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"First-wave feminism"