Important Feminist Figures
Organizers of the first Women's Rights Convention in the US in 1848- 'We educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote.'
Who is Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony?
White American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She was radicalized when she was excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840. In 1848, she led the first public gathering about women's rights, the Seneca Falls Convention.
Who was Lucretia Mott?
T/F: The original demands of the First Wave Feminist Movement included calls to uplift all women as they climbed up the social ladder.
False. The original demands excluded women of color.
What critique can be made of starting the history of feminism with the "First Wave" in the 1840s USA?
What is feminism existed in many societies outside of the US and Europe before modern colonization (and even after).
This was the first convention for Women's Rights held in the United States, in Seneca NY in July 1848. During the convention the document "The Declaration of Sentiments"
What is the Seneca Falls Convention?
Black American feminist abolitionist who escaped slavery and went on to write a book of her experiences, act as a spy to end slavery, and deliver famous feminist speeches critiquing the racism of the US.
Who is Sojourner Truth?
This African American journalist and activist exposed racism within the First Wave Feminist Movement, researched racial violence, and helped co-found the National Association of Colored Women's Club and the NAACP.
Who was Ida B. Wells?
The original demands of the First Wave Movement included an Equal Rights Amendment that would solidify women's rights equal to men.
False. The Equal Rights Amendment was thought of as too "radical" by the white middle class organizers of the First Wave.
What are some critiques of the main organizers within the First Wave Feminist Movement (for example, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony)?
What is they were racist and excluded Black women from the right to vote- they were more concerned with white women being equal to white men.
May of 1851, this speech was delivered by Sojourner Truth at the Akron, Ohio Women's Rights Convention
What is "Aren't I A Woman?" Speech
Abolitionist, teacher, and women's rights advocate who was one of the first women of any race to speak in public in the United States. First Black American woman to write and publish a political manifesto. Her calls for Black people to resist slavery, oppression, and exploitation were radical.
Who was Maria W. Stewart
The first native (Ojibwe) woman to become a lawyer. Moved to D.C. with her father to fight for tribal sovereignty and became a federal civil servant, working for the Federal Indian Bureau. Later advocated for Native American suffrage in her work with the Society for American Indians.
Who was Marie Bottineau Baldwin
T/F The original demands of the First Wave of Feminism were inspired by feminists in France who were active in the French Revolution.
True- the organizers were inspired by Olympes de Gouges, who wrote “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” in 1791.
What was a major issue with birth control developed during the First Wave of Feminism?
What is birth control was tested on poor, BIPOC, and immigrant communities without their knowledge to control the population growth (so there would be more white people)
In 1887, this was rejected by the Senate leading to mass protests by women.
What is the Amendment to the Constitution for Women's Suffrage?
American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, and writer. One of the first Black women to be published in the US. Gave a famous intersectional feminist speech, "We Are All Bound Up Together," at the 1866 National Woman's Rights Convention in New York City.
Who was Francis Ellen Watkins Harper?
Published “Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer” (My Opinion About the Rights, Liberties, and Responsibilities of Women) the first feminist thesis written in Puerto Rico. Also edited Puerto Rico’s first feminist newspaper “La mujer”. Helped establish the Puerto Rican Feminist League, the Suffragist Social League, the Puerto Rican Association of Suffragist Women, and the Island Association of Voting Women.
Who was Luisa Capetillo?
T/F A split occurred in the First Wave Feminist Movement between white and Black feminist abolitionists trying to call for an end to slavery and white feminists only calling for women's rights.
True. White abolitionists like Lucretia Mott and Black abolitionists like the Daughters of Africa Society split off from the mainstream white organizers- Stanton and Anthony.
Why was the first wave of feminism a failure in many women's eyes?
What is because it only secured voting rights for white women, while women of color had to wait between 20-60 years to get unrestricted rights to voting.
This event, hosted in 1913 by the National American Women Suffrage Association, made huge headlines with over a thousand women in attendance.
What is the first national suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.
This Chinese American woman lead 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.
Who was Mabel Ping-Hua Lee
Credited with opening the first birth control clinic in the US, this nurse had controversial opinions about stopping births among "feeble minded" populations living in city slums.
Who was Margaret Sanger?
T/F: Original First Wave Feminist Demands called for an end to the Chinese Exclusion Act which separated immigrant Chinese women from their families in China.
False. Though Chinese women like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee and Tye Leung Shulze were active in the feminist movements, their demands were unheard by mainstream organizers.
What continues to be a major issue with how the First Wave of Feminism is taught today?
What is the history only focuses on the accomplishments of white women, and not the many Black, Latina, Asian, and Indigenous women who were instrumental in winning the vote.
Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, this landmark victory took decades of agitation and protest by women, including lecturing, writing, marching, lobbying politicians, and practiced civil disobedience .
*with racist exceptions