Introduction


Mary Wollstonecraft

Susan B. Anthony

Simone de Beauvoir
The right to vote. Equal pay for equal work. Reproductive rights. Equal access to educational opportunities. Maternity leave. Those are just a few of the political and social advances feminism has made. Essentially, feminism is the belief and advocacy of equal rights for women. One of the first people to take such a stance was the Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft. Her treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) outlined the complaints and paths for social equality that has been emulated around the world. “First Wave” feminism came to the United States in the late 1800s. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony tirelessly worked for suffrage (the right to vote) until it was won in 1920. In the 1950s to 1980s, “Second Wave” feminism worked toward cultural integration and was led by activists such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem in America and Simone de Beauvoir in France. Although many gains have been made, feminists still strive today toward the goal of complete social equality.

Essential Facts

  1. Seneca Falls, New York, was the location of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s 1848 speech, “A Declaration of the Rights of Women,” which called for full political and social rights for women.
  2. Margaret Sanger began advocating for women’s reproductive rights in 1912 and is the founder of what is now known as Planned Parenthood.
  3. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed in 1966 and is the largest feminist organization in the United States. Betty Friedan was its first president.
  4. In the United States, feminists helped push through Title IX legislation in 1972, which gave young female athletes the same opportunities and access to funding as their male counterparts.
  5. Feminists still hope to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would guarantee protection under the law. The ERA has been before every session of the U.S. Congress since 1982 but has yet to pass.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Feminism as it Relates to Elizabethan and Jacobean Ideas About Women
  2. Feminism in Literature
  3. Feminism: American History Through Literature
  4. Feminism: The Fight for Suffrage
  5. Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. 1980's: Feminism Flounders
  2. Contemporary Feminist Criticism Criticism
  3. D'Eaubonne Coins the Term Ecofeminism
  4. Downhome Feminists in Shiloh and Other Stories
  5. Ecofeminism
  6. Ecofeminism and Nineteenth-Century Literature
  7. Ecofeminism Gives Life Purpose
  8. Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume One, 1884-1933 Principles of Feminist Biography
  9. Errors and Labors: Feminism and Early Shakespearean Comedy
  10. Feminism
  11. Feminism and History in On Discovery
  12. Feminism and Metadrama Role-Playing in Blood Relations
  13. Feminism and Psychoanalysis
  14. Feminism and the Sexual Revolution
  15. Feminism as it Relates to Elizabethan and Jacobean Ideas About Women
  16. Feminism Has Abandoned Its Original Principles
  17. Feminism Has Benefited Men
  18. Feminism Has Caused the Breakdown of the Family
  19. Feminism Has Expanded Women's Choices
  20. Feminism Has Harmed Men
  21. Feminism Has Limited Women's Choices
  22. Feminism Has Not Abandoned Its Original Principles
  23. Feminism in Agatha Christie's Writing
  24. Feminism in Literature
  25. Feminism in Literature - By Author
  26. Feminism Overcomes
  27. Feminism Reflected in Literature
  28. Feminism Supports the Family
  29. Feminism Without Illusions
  30. Feminism Without Illusions
  31. Feminism Without Illusions
  32. Feminism: American History Through Literature
  33. Feminism: The Fight for Suffrage
  34. Feminisms and Science
  35. Feminist art: The Oxford Dictionary of Art
  36. Feminist Cosmology: Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
  37. Feminist Criticism - Poetry Essay
  38. Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare
  39. feminist criticism: The Oxford Companion to English Literature
  40. Feminist Criticism: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
  41. Feminist Jurisprudence: West's Encyclopedia of American Law
  42. Feminist Literary Criticism Essay
  43. Feminist Long Fiction Essay
  44. Feminist Perspectives: The Sixties in America Primary Sources
  45. Feminist Science Fiction Essay
  46. Feminist Theology: Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
  47. Flesh and Feminism in the poem "Maternity"
  48. Grendel Grendel from a Feminist Perspective
  49. Maxine Kingston Hong on Feminism
  50. Maxine Kingston Hong on Feminism and Race
  51. Much Ado about Nothing Feminist Criticism of Beatrice and Hero
  52. Old Worlds and New: Anti-Feminism in Watership Down
  53. Postmodernism Criticism | Feminist Contributions
  54. Power Feminism
  55. Realism and Feminism in the Progressive Era
  56. Salem on History: Feminism and Feminists
  57. Storytelling and Grace Paley's Feminism
  58. Susan Glaspell's The Verge: An Experiment in Feminism
  59. The Bean Trees Utopian and Feminist Ideals
  60. The Confluence of Folklore, Feminism, and Black Self-Determination in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
  61. The Creation of Feminist Consciousness Review - Gerda Lerner
  62. The Edible Woman Feminine, Female, Feminist: From The Edible Woman to The Female Body
  63. The Feminist Movement in the 20th Century | Roe V. Wade (Legal Decision Date 1973): Feminism in Literature
  64. The Great Gatsby: Jordan Baker & Feminism
  65. The Impact of Feminist Theater in Calm Down Mother
  66. The Not-so-Failed Feminism of Jean Auel in Clan of the Cave Bear
  67. The Struggle for Space: Feminism and Freedom in The House of the Spirits
  68. Time Travel as a Feminist Didactic in Works by Phyllis Eisenstein, Marlys Millhiser, and Octavia Butler
  69. Town and Country Lovers: The Feminist Aspect of Gordimer's Short Story
  70. Victorian Feminists Review - Barbara Caine
  71. What the Black Woman Thinks about Women's Lib.
  72. Women Should Embrace Feminism
  73. Women Should Reject Feminism
  74. Yellow Woman as a Representation of the Literature of Ecofeminism.