Feminism

Feminism has existed in the United States for quite some time. In 1792, English philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft published her book titled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. According to Tom Head, author of the online article “Feminism in the United States”; although the book was technically written in Britain, it arguably represents the beginning of first-wave American feminism (1). But Wollstonecraft’s book only represents so much of the first-wave American feminism. What we think of as the first-wave feminism movement probably began at the Seneca Falls Convention of July 1848 (Head 1). At the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott authored a Declaration of Sentiments which was patterned after the Declaration of Independence which asserted fundamental rights often denied to women, including the right to vote. The Seneca Falls convention also adopted a set of resolutions, demanding legal and educational reforms and the end of sexual double standard. But, the organizers of the Seneca Falls convention got their idea at a Global abolitionists’ meeting.

The 19th century feminist movement had its roots in the abolitionists’ movement. But still, the central question of 19th century feminism was whether it was acceptable to promote black civil rights over women’s rights. Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and early feminist was another early pioneer of this movement. Truth spoke at a Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio where she gave her speech “Ain’t I a Woman”. In her speech, she mocked people who thought that women were too weak and foolish to be given the same rights as men. “Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed, and planted, and gathered [crops] into barns, and no man could head me. And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much as a man- when I could get it- and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman (Sojourner Truth: “Ain’t I a Woman”)? Truth’s now famous words showed that expecting a person to be inferior because of their sex or skin...