Feminism: The First Wave

The metaphor of “waves” representing the various surges of feminism began in 1968 when Martha Weinman Lear published an article in the New York Times called "The Second Feminist Wave." Lear's article connected the suffrage movement of the 19th century with the women's movements during the 1960s. This new terminology quickly spread and became the popular way to define feminism.

Although this metaphor of "feminist waves" is helpful for people to distinguish between different eras of women's activism, it is impossible to accurately pinpoint specific dates that started or ended each wave of feminism. In reality, each historical era was inspired by a long tradition of activism that transcended generational lines.

A few months prior, reformers were able to persuade the French National Constituent Assembly to adopt the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” This document provided citizenship rights to various members of the population. Unfortunately, it still excluded women and other minority groups from citizenship. When this document became the preamble to the French Constitution in 1791, many women shifted their focus to gaining citizenship and equal rights.

One of these women, playwright Olympes de Gouges, wrote “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” in 1791. Gouges’ declaration begins as follows: “Women are born free and are man's equal in law. Social distinctions can be founded solely on common utility.” Her statement also includes the various rights that both men and women should possess. This document and the collective activism of the women in the French Revolution became a source of inspiration for first wave feminists.

Temperance Illustrations: The Bible and temperance (top), The fruits of temperance (bottom), representing the benefits of an alcohol-free society.

By 1826, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance (American Temperance Society) was formed in Boston, Massachusetts. The society quickly spread, with temperance activists starting local chapters all across the country. In addition, by 1831 there were over twenty-four women's organizations dedicated to the temperance movement. One of the notable groups that developed later in the movement was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Thousands of women from this organization marched into liquor stores and bars demanding that owners sign a pledge to stop selling alcoholic beverages. As these women advocated for temperance and the affairs of their homes, they also demanded to have an equal role in public activity.

“The temperance movement, in fact, gave women the opportunity to be engaged in public political life for the first time.”
--Tara Isabella Burton in “The Feminist History of Prohibition”

African American women were central to early nineteenth century abolitionism. During the 1820s and 1830s, these women established social and literary organizations, as well as religious groups to challenge slavery and support their communities.

On February 12, 1821, two-hundred working–class African American women established the Daughters of Africa Society in Philadelphia. This society provided support to their members, and a weekly allowance of $1.50 when they were sick. Similarly, the Colored Female Free Produce Society was formed in 1831 to boycott the exploitation of enslaved labor by only selling items that were produced by free African Americans.

Several literary societies also formed during this time that were devoted to the “diffusion of knowledge and the suppression of vice and immorality.” The Female Literary Association, the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society, and the Colored Ladies Literary Society were all formed in the early 1830s.

“If not all female abolitionists became women’s rights activists, pioneering feminists owed their public careers to abolition.”

--Historian Manisha Sinha in The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

Eight years later, Mott, Stanton, and three-hundred other women held the first Women’s Rights Convention. This group of women and male supporters met in July of 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. At this meeting, they discussed and voted on the “Declaration of Sentiments,” organized by Stanton. Closely resembling the “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” written by Olympes de Gouges’ during the French Revolution, Stanton declared that “all men and women are created equal.”

The document also advocated for women’s education, right to property, and organizational leadership. One of the most controversial topics on the program was women’s suffrage. Although not everyone agreed, many of these women’s rights activists believed that their goals would be hard to accomplish without the right to vote. After the first convention, this group of women began meeting regularly, and the growing feminist movement started to shift to focus on achieving suffrage and political power.

For the next 70 years, the central goal of the feminist movement was for women to achieve the right to vote. Although they continued to participate in other social movements, many first wave feminists believed that suffrage was the key to unlocking other rights.

However, for other groups of women, the right to vote was not only tied to their gender, but it was also tied to their race and social class. As the movement progressed, the concerns of women of color were often overlooked by first wave feminists. Despite often being uninvited or excluded from fully participating in white organizations, women of color spoke out about facing not only sexism, but also racism, and classism.

“The first and real reason that our women began to use clubs as a means of improving their own condition and that of their race is that they are PROGRESSIVE.”
--Mary Church Terrell, co-founder of the National Association of Colored Women

African American women advocated for women’s rights alongside their fight for freedom and the wellbeing of their communities. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a founding member of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in 1869 alongside white abolitionist Lucy Stone and Frederick Douglass. Black women, like Sojourner Truth and Charlotte Forten, joined AWSA to promote universal suffrage. Forten’s aunts Harriet Forten Purvis and Margaretta Forten were also two of the “chief actors” to help organize the Fifth National Woman’s Rights Convention in Philadelphia.

However, African American women still faced discrimination and often had to join segregated suffrage associations. In 1876, Mary Ann Shadd Cary wrote a letter to the National Woman Suffrage Association on behalf of ninety-four black women requesting that their names be added as signers of Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments.” Unfortunately, the names of these women were never included.

On March 3, 1913, Stanton’s National American Woman Suffrage Association organized their first suffrage parade held in Washington, D.C. Even though they required that African American women march in the back of the parade, black women still participated in the event, including the founders of the National Association of Colored Women.

Asian women also fought sexism, racism, and classism to advocate for their rights. The Page Act of 1875 banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States, and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented Chinese immigrants from attaining citizenship and voting rights. This did not stop Mabel Ping-Hua Lee from leading almost 10,000 people in the 1912 New York suffrage parade on horseback.

Two years later, she gave a speech at the Women’s Political Union’s Suffrage Shop encouraging the civic participation of Chinese women. Unfortunately, when women in the state of New York were granted the right to vote in 1917, the Chinese Exclusion Act still prevented Lee from voting. However, when women in California earned the right to vote in 1912, Tye Leung Schulze became the first Chinese woman to vote in the United States.

Women from the Philippines also advocated for their rights. In the 1900s, the Philippines was a colony of the United States, but these women could not vote in either location. In 1905, the Asociacion Feminista Filipina (Philippine Feminist Association) was founded to encourage the “participation of women in public affairs.” Some of the members met with First Lady Florence Harding at the White house in 1922.

Latina women also fought for women’s rights while promoting social reform. In 1917, suffragist Adelina Otero-Warren was asked by the National Woman’s Party (Congressional Union) to lead their New Mexico chapter. Otero-Warren advocated that suffrage literature was published in both English and Spanish, so it was accessible to Latinx audiences. She was also instrumental in the ratification of the 19th Amendment in New Mexico, granting women the right to vote.

Luisa Capetillo used a grassroots approach instead as a labor advocate and writer to promote worker’s rights and education for women. In 1909 she published “Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer” (My Opinion About the Rights, Liberties, and Responsibilities of Women) that became the first feminist thesis written in Puerto Rico. She also edited Puerto Rico’s first feminist newspaper “La mujer” (The Woman) founded by Ana Roqué de Duprey.

Duprey was also a well-known feminist and in 1917, she established the Puerto Rican Feminist League. Along with other members of this league, she also created the Suffragist Social League, the Puerto Rican Association of Suffragist Women, and the Island Association of Voting Women.

As these women of color and first wave feminists pursued their goals, they were able to accomplish many small victories towards women’s rights along the way. For example, in 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. That same year, Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, even though New York state law prohibited the distribution of contraception. She later established the clinic that became Planned Parenthood. However, first wave feminists had to wait until August of 1920 to witness the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Unfortunately, it would take much longer for women of color to be able to exercise their right to vote due to racial discrimination.