First Wave Feminism
First Wave Feminism
First Wave Feminism
The first wave of feminism refers to the West’s first sustained political movement
dedicated to achieving political equality for women: the suffragettes of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
Begins with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 - 200 women attended - A
Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.
Organizer Elizabeth Stanton, an active abolitionist, drafted The Declaration of
Sentiments and Grievances which detailed the injustices inflicted upon women in the
United States and called upon U.S. women to organize and petition for their rights.
Suffragists began to make headway in 1860 when New York passed the Married
Women's Property Act. The bill legalized property ownership, joint child custody and
wage retention for women.
The 15th Amendment’s passage in 1870, granting black men the right to vote
politicized white women and turned them into suffragettes.
Many First-Wavers fought only for the rights of white women, and often fuelled the
movement with racial animus.
First-wavers fought not only for white women’s suffrage but also for equal
opportunities to education and employment, and for the right to own property
The 19th Amendment was adopted in 1920, granting American women the
constitutionally protected right to vote. In theory, it granted the right to women of all
races, but in practice, it remained difficult for black women to vote.