What was the first wave feminist movement?

First-Wave Feminism:

Definition and Basic Tenets

First-wave feminism was a movement spanning from the late 19th century to the early 20th century in the United States that focused on giving women the right to vote, resulting in the coining of the term “suffragettes” to describe its participants. This wave ended with the implementation of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, which prevents any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex . Groups such as the Women’s Temperance Union, the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association tirelessly worked toward this goal. 

In Gender Stories, Foss, Foss, and Domenico point to the fact that in working toward the passing of this amendment, the “suffragists advocated for a change in gender roles [and]… often violated conventional gender roles themselves” (Foss 47). Using the freedom and power given to them through their work as well as this amendment, these women showed that women had the ability to play a decidedly major role in modern American society.

Early History

The first major accomplishment of first-wave feminism was the creation of the Declaration of Sentiments at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York. The document, drafted by suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, put to question the androcentric nature of modern society and made the claim that women at that time were not being awarded the rights they deserved. Notably, women were not the only people in attendance at the convention; men actually made up the majority of the signers. This indicated that despite the low status of women at that time, gaining enough popular support to manifest universal suffrage was not impossible.

Once in the public eye, Stanton, along with fellow suffragist Susan B. Anthony, travelled across the country orating on the subjects of the undeniable socio-political inequality in the U.S. and the responsibility of the American public to consider approving universal suffrage in order to remedy that inequality. However, public addresses were not the only modes of communication used by first-wave feminists; many feminist writers rose to prominence through their activist works.

Writings

The publication of Mary Wollstonecraft ’s 1792 work A Vindication of the Rights of Women enabled the increase in prominence of future first-wave feminists. In her book, Wollstonecraft argues that men and women are equally deserving of an education—a sentiment frequently echoed in Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s Herland through Gillman’s focus on women as “kind, quiet, steady, ingenious” tutors of the male explorers as well as their own children (Gillman 43). Wollstonecraft’s monumental work paved the way for the publication of later first-wave feminist works including Simone de Beauvoir ’s The Second Sex, and Marie Stopes’ Married Love, and was preceded by Phyllis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Later, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique became quite influential for second-wave feminists in that it pointed out to mid-20th century women that despite the passing of the Nineteenth amendment, their lives remained far from perfect.

Activism and Protest

In addition to these written works, first-wave feminism was marked by the courageous actions of suffragists Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Carrie Chapman Catt, and others who risked life and limb for the cause and “introduced militant tactics to the [movement]" (Krolokke 3). Following a series of non-violent protests against President Woodrow Wilson’s refusal to support the suffrage amendment, Paul, Burns, and their colleagues were imprisoned on the charge that their picketing obstructed traffic. Further, during their imprisonment, the women staged a hunger strike to protest the terrible conditions of the prison and were subsequently tortured through force-feeding.

International Suffrage

The United States was far from being the first country to implement women’s suffrage; women had the ability to vote in New Zealand as early as 1893, in Finland by 1906, in Norway by 1913 and even in the notoriously oppressive USSR by 1917. In England, the homeland of the aforementioned Wollstonecraft, more women started working away from home and attending Universities by 1910. Feminist Louise Weiss led the cause for women through La Femme Nouvelle in 1930s France. Decidedly, feminism was not solely an American cause.

Later Years

After the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, Alice Paul proposed an Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution that would continue to increase the rights of women beyond having the right to vote. While this amendment was never passed, the majority of individual states have adopted its conditions into their own constitutions. Further, much of second-wave feminism revolved around the debate over the ERA and its potential to give women concrete constitutional rights and protection. Work to pass this amendment continues even today.

Works Cited

"First-Wave Feminism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 December 2012. Web. 9 January 2013.

Foss, Sonja K., Mary E. Domenico, Karen A. Foss. Gender Stories: Negotiating Identity

in a Binary World. Long Grove, IL: Waveland, 2013. Print. 

Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1998. Print.

Kroløkke, Charlotte, and Ann Scott Sørensen. "Three Waves of Feminism: From Suffragettes to Grrls." Gender 

Communication Theories & Analyses: From 'Silence to Performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006. 1-23. uk.sagepub.com. Sage. Web. <http://www.Uk.sagepub.com/upm-data/6236_Chapter_1_Krolokke_2nd_Rev_Final_Pdf.pdf>.

Since the mid-19th century, organized feminist movements in the United States have called for greater political, economic and cultural freedom and equality for women. Yet not all of these movements have pursued the same specific goals, taken the same approaches to activism or included the same groups of women in their rallying cry. Because of these generational differences, it’s common to hear feminism divided into four distinct waves, each roughly corresponding to a different time period.

This concept of the “waves of feminism” first surfaced in the late 1960s as a way of differentiating the emerging women’s movement at the time from the earlier movement for women’s rights that originated in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention. At the same time, the idea of a “second wave” also linked the movement to those earlier activists in a long, worthy struggle for women’s rights.

Critics of the “wave” concept argue that it oversimplifies a more complicated history by suggesting that only one distinct type of feminism exists at any one time in history. In reality, each movement includes smaller, overlapping sub-groups, which are often at odds with each other. While the wave concept is certainly imperfect, it remains a helpful tool in outlining and understanding the tumultuous history of feminism in the United States, from its origins at Seneca Falls into the social media-fueled activism of the #MeToo era.

First Wave: 1848 - 1920

The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy. Here, suffragettes march in Greenwich Village, New York City, ca. 1912.

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Women gather at the Woman Suffrage Headquarters located in Cleveland, Ohio, in September 1912. At extreme right is Miss Belle Sherwin, president of the National League of Women Voters.

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American suffragettes led by Beatrice Brown post bills advertising a lecture by the English suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst in New York, 1913. 

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A group of suffragettes march in a parade carrying a banner reading, 'I Wish Ma Could Vote,' circa 1913.

READ MORE: This Huge Women’s March Drowned Out a Presidential Inauguration in 1913

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A car taking part in a suffragette parade in Long Island, New York, 1913

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Hanging paper sign claiming the success of women voting and showing the states in which the rights have been granted, 1914. By 1917, some four million women were already empowered to vote in state and local elections by their state constitutions.

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Schoolgirls design posters with women's equality themes as they compete for a prize in a suffrage poster contest at the Fine Arts Club, October 14, 1915.

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American suffragette leader Harriot Stanton Blatch (1856-1940) voices her disapproval of anti-suffrage speaker Richard Barry outside New York City's Lyceum Theatre, 1915.

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A woman stands against an automobile, modeling a costume for the Chicago suffrage parade in 1916.

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Women suffrage parade backing Woodrow Wilson's campaign for Woman's votes, 1916. Wilson initially opposed suffrage at the national level.

READ MORE: American Women Fought for Suffrage for 70 Years. It Took WWI to Finally Achieve It

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Mrs. William L. Colt, of New York City, traveled to Washington, D.C. to join others picketing the White House, 1917.

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Miss Lucy Burns in jail after a suffragette picket in Washington, 1917. After peacefully demonstrating in front of the White House, 33 women endured a night of brutal beatings.

READ MORE: The Night of Terror: When Suffragists Were Imprisoned and Tortured in 1917

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A woman pickets holding a sign reading 'To Ask Freedom For Women Is Not A Crime,' 1917. 

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A suffragette stands by a sign reading, "Women of America! If you want to put a vote in in 1920 put a (.10, 1.00, 10.00) in Now, National Ballot Box for 1920," circa 1920. 

On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

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The first organized movement aimed at gaining rights for American women effectively began in July 1848, with the convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott at Seneca Falls, New York. Attendees signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which affirmed women’s equality with men, and passed a dozen resolutions calling for various specific rights, including the right to vote.

Although the early women’s rights movement was linked to abolitionism, passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 angered some women’s rights leaders who resented Black men being granted suffrage before white women. Similarly, the women’s suffrage movement also largely marginalized or excluded Black feminists like Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells. Though ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 fulfilled the principal goal of feminism’s first wave—guaranteeing white women the right to vote—Black women and other women of color faced continued obstacles until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Second Wave: 1963 - 1980s

The National Organization for Women (NOW) at its second annual National Conference in 1968. Dr. Kathryn F. Clarenbach (left) of the University of Wisconsin was re-elected as chairman of the board, and author Betty Friedan of New York (right) was elected as president. 

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In 1963, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which argued that women were chafing against the confines of their roles as wives and mothers. The book was a massive success, selling 3 million copies in three years and launching what became known as the second wave of feminism. Inspired by the civil rights movement and protests against the Vietnam War, second-wave feminists called for a reevaluation of traditional gender roles in society and an end to sexist discrimination.

Feminism—or “women’s liberation”—gained strength as a political force in the 1970s, as Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. High points of the second wave included passage of the Equal Pay Act and the landmark Supreme Court decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973) related to reproductive freedom. But while Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, a conservative backlash ensured it fell short of the number of states needed for ratification.

Like the suffrage movement, second-wave feminism drew criticism for centering privileged white women, and some Black women formed their own feminist organizations, including the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO). Despite its achievements, the women’s liberation movement had begun to lose momentum by 1980, when conservative forces swept Ronald Reagan to the White House.

​​Third Wave: 1990s -

Professor Anita Hill being sworn-in before testifying at the Senate Judiciary hearing on the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination. 

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While the advances of second-wave feminism had undoubtedly achieved more equality and rights for women, the movement that emerged in the early 1990s focused on tackling problems that still existed, including sexual harassment in the workplace and a shortage of women in positions of power. Rebecca Walker, the mixed-race daughter of second-wave leader Alice Walker, announced the arrival of feminism’s “third wave” in 1992, while watching Anita Hill testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusations of sexual harassment against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. That same year, dubbed the “Year of the Woman,” saw an unprecedented number of women elected to Congress.

Embracing the spirit of rebellion instead of reform, third-wave feminists encouraged women to express their sexuality and individuality. Many embraced a more traditionally feminine style of dress and grooming, and even rejected the term “feminist” as a way of distancing themselves from their second-wave predecessors. “Riot grrl” groups like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Heavens to Betsy brought their brand of feminism into pop music, including songs that addressed issues of sexism, patriarchy, abuse, racism and rape.

Third wave feminism also sought to be more inclusive when it came to race and gender. The work of scholar and theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw on the concept of “intersectionality,” or how types of oppression (based on race, class, gender, etc.) can overlap, was particularly influential in this area. Third-wave feminists also drew on the work of gender theorist Judith Butler, including support for trans rights in this type of intersectional feminism.

Fourth Wave: Present Day

The fearless girl statue and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are pictured on April 20, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City.

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Though fourth wave feminism is relatively difficult to define—as some people argue it’s simply a continuation of the third wave—the emergence of the Internet has certainly led to a new brand of social media-fueled activism. Launched by Tarana Burke in 2007, the #MeToo movement took off in 2017 in the wake of revelations about the sexual misconduct of influential film producer Harvey Weinstein.

In addition to holding powerful men accountable for their actions, fourth-wave feminists are turning their attention to the systems that allow such misconduct to occur. Like their predecessors in the feminist cause, they also continue to grapple with the concept of intersectionality, and how the movement can be inclusive and representative regardless of sexuality, race, class and gender.