First Wave Feminism

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In 1800, women had little control over their lot in life.

The average married female


gave birth to seven children. Higher education was off-limits. Wealthier women
could exercise limited authority in the domestic sphere but possessed no property
rights or economic autonomy. Lower-class women toiled alongside men, but the
same social and legal restrictions applied to them.

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.

Also looked at reproductive rights - Contraception

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.

First Wave Feminism:


- Time Period: 1848-1920
- First wave feminism was critical in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in giving women
the right to vote and basic rights such as in property.
- One of the early feminists was Mary Wollstonecraft, who mostly wrote in the late 18th
century. She was heavily influenced by Rousseau and French political thinkers who began
to advocate that societies should not have gender bias rights. Individual rights began to
become a key focus for philosophers during this period.
- Wollstnecraft believed reason and education should be the foundation of social order that
included equality for women. Her books (A Vindication of the Rights of Women,
published in 1792, and Maria: or the Wrongs of Women, published in 1798) were
controversial in their day but also demonstrated her ideas. She saw the lack of focus in
educating women as making them appear less informed as men in society.
- English philosophers, such as John Locke, had taken up similar ideas.
- Issues: Chiefly concerned with suffrage( women’s right to vote) and consequently with
women's access to parliaments and other political activities.
- Politics was dominated by men who did not consider women to be capable enough
- Women were confined to their households and didn’t retain any control there as well.
Unmarried women were seen as the property of their fathers, and married women the
property of their husbands. They didn’t have the ability to file for divorce or be granted
custody of their children.
- Had no right to vote so could not oppose these things and other rights were infringed
upon
- Connected with the abolitionist movement against slavery in the USA
- The wave is often demarcated as officially beginning with the signing of the ‘Declaration of
Sentiments’ at the Seneca Falls Convention, the first ever women’s rights convention. The
convention was created when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were denied
seating at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Many abolitionists were
also feminists and thus the anti-slavery movement fueled the first wave and vice versa.
- National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA) etc were organisations were formed
- In 1916, the National Woman’s Party (NWP) was formed by Alice Paul by breaking from
NAWSA and aiming to achieve suffrage by working towards a constitutional amendment
instead of state amendments. Inspired by British militant suffragists, the party staged
demonstrations outside the White House and continued their campaign through the
World War.
- Helped in lobbying for the 19th Amendment of the US constitution which granted all
citizens equal rights regardless of their sex
- Excluded: Women of colour were still practically disenfranchised, and the victory was only
for white women. Black women were stopped from exercising their right to vote through
tedious disenfranchisement tactics, facing bodily harm and even arrest.
- The first wave had marginalized black women, who faced discrimination based on race as
well as gender. While the NWSA initially worked towards suffrage for white and black
women, with the entry of younger feminists into the organization, the goal became white-
centric.
- Saw support of black women as a liability and hindrance to their cause
- White women campaigning in favour of suffrage claimed that their education and political
awareness would make them good voters and allow them to make informed decisions.
- Argument- First wave feminists believed that they were morally superior to men and their
roles as home makers and mothers would make them effective in the civic sphere
- 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 use of the word "feminism" to describe the support for women's
rights migrated from France to the United States by 1910 . But not all suffragists would
refer to themselves as such; many advocated solely for voting rights and not complete
equality.
- Methods: lecture, marches, protest- faced arrests, violence, ridicule
- Women of color like Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart, and Frances E.W. Harper were
major forces in the movement, working not just for women’s suffrage but for universal
suffrage despite what happened when the suffragist movement became white-centric
- Other Issues: Despite its racism, the women’s movement developed radical goals for its
members. 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.
- And as the movement developed, it began to turn to the question of reproductive rights. In
1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the US, in defiance of a New
York state law that forbade the distribution of contraception. She would later go on to
establish the clinic that became Planned Parenthood
- Individuals:
- Lucy Stone– Important abolitionist and supporter of the women’s suffrage movement in
the U.S. Stone is also recognized for keeping her own last name (Stone) after marriage,
something that was unheard of in the 19th century.
- Susan B. Anthony– Strong supporter of temperance, women’s suffrage and the abolitionist
movement. She believed that women needed a political voice if they were ever to influence
public affairs. Her dedication to the temperance movement, along with her feelings that
she was unable to truly make a difference without having a vote, led to her involvement in
the suffrage movement. She met Stanton in 1851 and soon after began attending women’s
rights conventions.

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