first-wave feminism
Vote-seeking women's movement
First-wave feminism refers to the period of feminist activism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focused primarily on women's suffrage and legal rights.
The movement secured voting rights in many Western countries and challenged laws that treated women as property of their husbands.
First-wave feminism culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment.
The "wave" terminology came later, coined to distinguish this era from the movements that followed.
Female voting-rights activists
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- ballotsVoting forms
- pollingSystematic opinion gathering
petitions · pickets · legislation · Seneca Falls · Susan B. Anthony · Elizabeth Cady Stanton · elections · lobbying
Public displays of opinion
- protestsPublic expressions of opposition
- picketingOrganized protest outside workplace
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
- pamphletsThin informational booklets
oratory · boycotts · hunger strikes · marches · rallies · grassroots organizing · advocacy · campaigns
Same status for all
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- egalitarianismPhilosophy of universal equality
- natural rightsFreedoms inherent to personhood
autonomy · self-determination · gender equity · true womanhood · bodily autonomy · educational equality · moral reform
Britain under its longest-reigning queen
- 19th centuryThe eighteen hundreds
- Seneca Falls Convention1848 women's rights assembly
- temperance movementCampaign against alcohol consumption
- abolitionismMovement to end oppression
bloomers · Sojourner Truth · women's colleges · Ida B. Wells
Legal control over possessions
- covertureWife's suspended legal identity
- inheritanceProperty received from ancestors
- divorce reformChanging laws governing marital endings
- custody rightsLegal authority over children
legal status · contract rights · guardianship · marital property · common law · legal personhood · employment rights · education access
suffragettes
Female voting-rights activists
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- ballotsVoting forms
polling · petitions · pickets · legislation · Seneca Falls · Susan B. Anthony · Elizabeth Cady Stanton · elections · lobbying · parliament
demonstrations
Public displays of opinion
- protestsPublic expressions of opposition
- picketingOrganized protest outside workplace
- civil disobediencePeaceful refusal to obey
pamphlets · oratory · boycotts · hunger strikes · marches · rallies · grassroots organizing · advocacy · campaigns · meetings
equality
Same status for all
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- egalitarianismPhilosophy of universal equality
natural rights · autonomy · self-determination · gender equity · true womanhood · bodily autonomy · educational equality · moral reform
Victorian era
Britain under its longest-reigning queen
- 19th centuryThe eighteen hundreds
- Seneca Falls Convention1848 women's rights assembly
- temperance movementCampaign against alcohol consumption
abolitionism · bloomers · Sojourner Truth · women's colleges · Ida B. Wells
property rights
Legal control over possessions
- covertureWife's suspended legal identity
- inheritanceProperty received from ancestors
- divorce reformChanging laws governing marital endings
custody rights · legal status · contract rights · guardianship · marital property · common law · legal personhood · employment rights · education access · professional licensing
first-wave feminismanti-feminism
Opposition to gender equality
patriarchy · men's rights · coverture · masculism · disenfranchisement
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