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January 23, 2015

History of Feminism in the U.S.: The First Wave

SOURCE: https://genderpressing.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/feminism-the-first-wave-2/

THE WAVES METAPHOR

Feminists and Women’s Studies scholars often refer to feminism’s “three waves,” particularly in America and

Great Britain. This metaphor was first introduced in the 1970s as a way for second wave feminists of the 1960s

and 70s to acknowledge their activist foremothers, women like Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B.

Anthony, Ida B. Wells, Lucretia Mott, and others from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to denote strong

“peaks” in feminist activism and protest in history. The first wave of feminist movement in America is often

referred to as the Suffrage Movement and early feminist activists as suffragettes, because much of their activism

focused on gaining the right to vote (i.e., suffrage) for women.

However, some feminists criticize the wave metaphor because it leaves out the ongoing activism of women

throughout history, including women’s efforts to challenge the institutions and practices of patriarchy in the many

centuries preceding the 1800s. It’s also rather ethnocentric, since these “waves” don’t take into account feminist

activism outside the western world. In fact, they make it seem as though feminism and women’s activism began

in the west when it did not.

The term “feminist” wasn’t coined until the late 1800s, in France (feminisme). The word wasn’t introduced to

the U.S. until the early 1900s and was not used popularly until the beginning of the U.S. women’s movement in

the 1960s, or the beginning of the second wave. Early feminists were more likely to identify themselves as

suffragists.

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VOTES FOR WOMEN

Hanging posters advocating women’s right to vote.

A suffrag[ist] with a poster challenging President Woodrow Wilson’s hypocrisy (c. 1913) in being alarmed at the

Germans’ lack of freedom while overlooking women citizens’ lack of freedom in his own country.

THE FIRST WAVE

“[Y]our Declaration of Independence declares, that governments derive their just powers from the

consent of the governed. And as women have never consented to, been represented in, or been recognized

by this government, it is evident that in justice no allegiance can be claimed from them …”

-From the letter penned by 44 married New York women who petitioned the Assembly in March 1848 to

pass the state’s Married Women’s Property Act.

To put the time period in perspective, consider that at the time of first wave feminism, women were legally

prevented from:

● owning property

● executing wills or signing legal documents

● serving on juries (even if the defendent was a woman)

● voting in elections (or even local meetings)

● refusing to have sex with their husbands

● attending university (or depending on race, class, and region, attending school at all)

● having legal custody of their children (both wives and children were legally owned by husbands)

● divorcing their husbands

Think of first wave feminism not as the beginning of women fighting for equality, but as the beginnings of an

organized, nation-wide movement advocating women’s rights in the western world, including the United

Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. Members of organizations like the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA )

focused solely on one issue: gaining the right to vote state-by-state as a precursor to gaining a federal

amendment granting women the right to vote. Other organizations like the National Women’s Suffrage Association

(NWSA) had broader goals for greater social equality and were considered more radical.

Characteristics of The First Wave:

● Spanned the early 19th through the early 20th centuries (1800s through early 1900s).

● Focused on women gaining civil rights, or rights as full citizens, including the right to vote (suffrage),

equal access to education and health care, and the right to enter and practice in the professions; that

is, the right to enter and shape the public sphere.

● Sought to articulate women’s public (legal) and private (in the home) oppression and make such

oppression visible; and questioned the arguments that God and nature justified such inequality.

● Grew out of and was often linked with the abolition movement, the fight against slavery.

● Was heavily influenced by the Religious Society of Friends, or the Quakers, who believed in egalitarian

relationships between husbands and wives, but also by Christian charity (pity for the “less fortunate”).

● Employed mostly moderate activist tactics (e.g., using available political channels like signing

petitions, lobbying, etc.), but sometimes more radical activism (e.g., hunger striking and picketing), as

portrayed in the film Iron-Jawed Angels.

● Was aided in some ways by the onset of World War I, when many women went to work outside the

home for the first time (though they were limited to factory and domestic labor).

Landmark First Wave Moments:

● 1833: first co-educational university in U.S. (Oberlin).

● 1848: Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, NY, the first women’s rights convention, organized

by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with others.

● 1854, Florence Nightingale establishes female nurses as adjuncts to the military.

● 1851: Sojourner Truth delivers her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” at the Ohio Women’s Rights

Convention in Akron, OH, bringing race into the conversation.

● 1855: first co-ed public or state university (Univ. of Iowa).

● 1860: New York’s revised Married Women’s Property Act (allows women shared ownership of children

and a say in their wills and wages; allows women to inherit property).

● 1892: Investigative African-American journalist and activist Ida B. Wells (a freed slave) publishes and

lectures from her book Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

● 1896: Wells founds the National Association of Colored Women and the National Afro-American Council.

● 1913: (In)famous March for Women’s Suffrage in Washington, organized by Alice Paul; often

considered the moment when the fight for women’s rights was desegregated. (Portrayed in the movie

Iron-Jawed Angels.)

● 1915: American Medical Association begins to admit women.

● 1916: Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the U.S. (led to her arrest); opened the

first clinic with all-female staff and the first clinic in Harlem staffed entirely by African-Americans.

● 1918: Marie Stopes publishes Married Love, more popular than works by both Einstein and Freud at the

time, in which she argues for the importance of women’s sexual desire (unthinkable at the time).

● 1920: 19th Amendment passed in U.S. (gives women the right to vote).

● 1921: Sanger, who coined the term “birth control,” forms the American Birth Control League (later

called Planned Parenthood).

Overall, first wave feminism saw many women, state-by-state, gain control over their wages, property, and

inheritances and finally have a say in their wills, and acquire trade licenses and enter professions, including

medicine and law, gain access to higher education, and, finally, to vote in elections. But it’s important to

remember that this affected only some women.

Problems and Limitations:

While it made unprecedented strides in gaining women legal rights and a foothold in the public sphere, first wave

feminism was not without its limitations. First, reform often granted married women more rights than single

women, or even widowed women. Second, although many suffragettes were also abolitionists, Black women (and

“foreigners,” or immigrants) and men were sometimes ignored or denied participation in meetings and

demonstrations, and arguments of whether or not African-Americans should be granted the right to vote (before

or even after) white women was a divisive issue in the movement. Overall, most prominent feminists tended to

be white, middle- and upper-class women with leisure time and some education. Finally, first wave feminists

often based their arguments on the belief the because women were mothers, they were “naturally” more

nurturing, kind, and moral, and would therefore make better leaders and politicians than men because of this

virtue.

SUFFRAGETTES IN THE MEDIA

From the beginning of women’s fight for equal rights, female activists and suffragettes were often portrayed

negatively in posters and other print media that sought to discredit their efforts and arguments. They were often

depicted as unattractive with large teeth and shrill voices, sometimes wielding a threatening umbrella – or, on

the other hand, as completely ineffectual and weak. Some images even advocated violent or inhuman punishment

of such women.

An early 20th century poster arguing against women’s entry into the public professions, implying that their (more

important) work of taking care of the children and the home will suffer. Note the expression on the husband’s

face.

A British postcard depicting noted activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Notice how the poster interprets the suffragette’s

arguments as emasculation.

Another British anti-suffragette postcard, using a pun on the word “plain” to describe both the ideas and the

looks of these female activists.

Another postcard “humorously” depicting a violent punishment for any suffragette. Notice she is still portrayed as

“witch-like,” with snaggly teeth and hair.

To see more anti-woman’s suffrage propaganda, check out “Posters That Warned Against the Horrors of a World

with Women’s Rights.”