Feminism: The First Wave of Feminism

The first wave of feminism is believed to have started around 1848, often tied to the first formal Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The convention was notably run by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who were among the other 300 in attendance, which was thought to have ended around 1920.

The first wave of feminism happened together with the abolitionist movement in the United States when activism fought for the abolition of slavery. A key figure of the feminist movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, found that she and other women at an abolitionist convention were not allowed a place on the floor of the meeting with the men. Stanton considered this discrimination against women a turning point (Davis, 2010).                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                          Meanwhile, the first mass women’s suffrage petition in the United Kingdom was sent to the House of Commons in 1866, to persuade the parliament members to support their cause.

There was a dispute in the suffrage movement regarding the 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution, which gave voting rights to black men. Stanton and Anthony opposed this amendment and disagreed that black men should have the right to vote before women.

In 1897, in the U.K., seventeen suffrage societies were united to create the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The leader of this was politician and writer Millicent Fawcett.

As the movement developed, reproductive rights became a significant issue for women. In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States.

The first wave of feminism began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and focused on gaining basic legal rights for women, such as the right to vote, own property, access higher education and file for divorce.

 

 Central goals were women’s suffrage and improving women’s access to education and employment opportunities.

In 1918 in the UK, the Representation of the People Bill was passed, meaning that women over the age of 30 and men over the age of 21 were granted the right to vote. In the US, women were allowed to vote from August 1920. The vote was granted at different times for other Western countries, such as in 1918 for Canada and Germany, and not until 1944 for France.

Stanton declared that all men and women were created equal, and thus, she advocated for women’s education, their right to own property, and organizational leadership.

 

Criticisms of first-wave feminism

One of the biggest criticisms of the first wave of feminism is that the focus was primarily on the rights of white, western, middle-class women.

Many Black women were excluded from the suffrage movement or had to form their own suffrage groups. In some marches, Black women were often made to march behind white women. The struggles of Black women, who faced additional discrimination for their race and being women, were often ignored.

What was achieved by first-wave feminism?

The most notable achievements of first-wave feminism were due to the suffrage movement. The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote in 1920 by stipulating that the right to vote could not be denied because of sex.