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First-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom and the United States. It focused on de jure (officially mandated) inequalities, primarily on gaining women's suffrage (the right to vote). The term first-wave was coined retroactively in the 1970s. The women's movement then, focusing as much on fighting de facto (unofficial) inequalities as de jure ones, acknowledged its predecessors by calling itself second-wave feminism.
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Origins
According to Miriam Schneir, Simone de Beauvoir wrote that the first woman to "take up her pen in defense of her sex" was Christine de Pizan in the 15th century.[1] Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Modesta di Pozzo di Forzi worked in the 16th century.[1] Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Anne Bradstreet and François Poullain de la Barre wrote in the 17th.[1]
United Kingdom
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Mary Wollstonecraft published one of the first feminist treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she advocated the social and moral equality of the sexes, extending the work of her 1790 pamphlet, A Vindication of the Rights of Man. Her later unfinished work "Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman" earned her considerable criticism as she discussed women's sexual desires.
Wollstonecraft is regarded as the grandmother of British feminism and her ideas shaped the thinking of the suffragettes, who campaigned for the women's vote. After generations of work, this was eventually granted − to some women in 1918, and equally with men in 1928.
In 1918 Marie Stopes, who believed in equality in marriage and the importance of women's sexual desire, published Married Love,[2] a sex manual that, according to a survey of American academics in 1935, was one of the 25 most influential books of the previous 50 years, ahead of Relativity by Alfred Einstein and Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.[3]
United States
Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller has been considered the first major feminist work in the United States and is often compared to Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.[4] Prominent leaders of the feminist movement in the United States include Lucretia Coffin Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony; all of whom 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 Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.
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).
The first wave of feminists, in contrast to the second wave, focused very little on the subject of abortion. Though she never married, Anthony published her views about marriage, holding that a woman should be allowed to refuse sex with her husband; the American woman had no legal recourse at that time against rape by her husband. Of primary importance to Anthony was granting to woman the right to her own body which she saw as an essential element for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, using abstinence as the method. In her newspaper, The Revolution, she wrote in 1869 about the subject, arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed. Simply passing an anti-abortion law would, she wrote, "be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains."[5]
The end of this wave is often linked with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1920), granting women the right to vote. This was a major victory of the movement, which also included reforms in higher education, in the workplace and professions, and in healthcare.
See also
- Second-wave feminism
- Third-wave feminism
- The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill
- Timeline of Womens Rights (other than voting)
- Oberlin College, the first American college to regularly admit women.
- Seneca Falls Convention
- George Gissing, The Odd Women; novel
- Lily Braun
- Pro-life feminism
Notes
- ^ a b c Schneir, Miram, 1972 (1994). Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings. Vintage Books. p. xiv. ISBN 0-679-75381-8.
- ^ Stopes, Marie Carmichael and McKibbin, Ross (ed.), 1918 (2004). Married love. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192804324. http://books.google.com/books?id=M13Q0aymFJoC.
- ^ Short, R.V. (August 23, 2005). "Footnote in New ways of preventing HIV infection: thinking simply, simply thinking". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (The Royal Society via PubMed (U.S. National Institutes of Health)). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1609406/. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
- ^ Slater, Abby. In Search of Margaret Fuller. New York: Delacorte Press, 1978: 89–90. ISBN 0-440-03944-4
- ^ "Marriage and Maternity". The Revolution. Susan B. Anthony. July 8, 1869. http://www.prolifequakers.org/susanb.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
Sources
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
