The First Wave

As Tom Head states in the beginning of his article "Feminism in the U.S.", in which he provides a very complete survey of the movement as it has developed in the United States of America, "there has ever been a single united feminism movement". Indeed, what we refer to today as the colossal movement of Feminism, in which women from all over the world take part and fight for equality has always been the product of small congregations of women from all ethnics and social backgrounds, who gathered and fought for their rights.

There have been multiple feminisms representing the efforts of women to live to their full humanity in a world shaped by and for men, but I'm not sure there is a capital-F feminism that has dominated the history of feminist thought. (Head, 2017)

In the general history of the movement, however, three waves have been clearly distinguished. Each of them deals with a different set of problems. The first wave focused on the fight for the right to vote, which was the starting point for woman who until then had barely had the right to a proper education.

If you desired more education, you were viewed with suspicion and called a "bluestocking", a derisive term for an intellectual woman who wanted freedoms beyond those whose role as wife and mother permitted her. Brainy woman faced ostracism because, according to prevailing beliefs, their intellectual efforts sapped them of the energy their uteruses would need to function. (Dicker, 2016, p. 15)

These few woman who could afford (both economically and mentally) a better education  were the ones who eventually pushed for the right to vote. It began with the first women's convention in the Wesleyan Chapel, in Seneca Falls (New York) in 1848. This convention led to the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments, not only by woman bu also 32 men signed this declaration stating all the flaws in the traditional gender roles of the time. 

It was in this convention where the women's suffragette movement started as well. One of the many reason behind it was the sudden political awareness acquired by many of the women attending the convention. They wanted to be more involved in the politics of their country and in Seneca Falls, they realized that they could. Women became activists, and two of the most important figures were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two women founded the American Equal Rights Association, an organization for white and black women and men dedicated to the goal of suffrage for all.

The first wave of feminism ends in 1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting woman the right to vote.

Cited in this post:
          Dicker, R. C. (2016, January 26) A History of U.S. Feminisms. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.