When did womens movement start?

Answer 1

In the United States, the fight for women's rights has been ongoing since the founding of the country, although advances for women were few till the late 1800s. There were individual efforts to bring about better treatment for women as early as 1776, when Abigail Adams tried unsuccessfully to persuade her husband, founding father John Adams, to "remember the ladies" and give women more legal rights. One of the first organized efforts occurred at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848, at a small (110 people perhaps) conference that advocated for women's equality. By the late 1800s/early 1900s, a small but growing number of upper-middle class women had begun to go to college; some would become lawyers and businesswomen, while others became nurses and educators.

The women's suffrage movement ("suffrage" is an old word that means "permission"-- women wanted permission to vote) was part of the struggle for equality. Women from all walks of life persisted state by state, fighting for the right to vote and even trying to run for political office, from the late 1800s until women finally got the vote in 1920. But the most visible and successful chapter of the women's movement probably began in the 1960s, when Second-Wave feminism led to women entering many non-traditional occupations, fighting for equal pay for equal work, and helping to overturn laws that gave husbands legal authority over their wives.