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Think about...

-What prevented women from getting an education?
-What types of events played a role in the acceptance of women becoming educated?

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We're currently in the thick of college graduation season, which means that you and your friends are likely gathering your gowns, planning your parties, and wondering what the hell you're going to do with your lives once you've got that shiny new diploma. But women's higher education, and the specific right to earn a degree of the same quality and content as a man at a university, is in many senses a very new right; and to understand just how far we've come, it's necessary to look back a long way to the pioneers and kick-ass women who made this educational revolution.

Women's pursuit of an equal, in-depth, high-level education as adults has met many stumbling blocks over the centuries: inferior standards (or the complete absence) of education for young girls, beliefs in women's intellectual inferiority, and worries that education in non-domestic subjects wouldn't adequately prepare women for their "natural" role as wives and mothers. To the women of a century ago, the fact that 11.7 million women started college in America in 2016 - a majority of the total number of new students - would seem like a miracle. The ability to get your degrees as a woman isn't something to be taken for granted, so let's have a look at the history of women who just wanted to have the same education as everybody else - and the incredible fight it took to get them there.

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Here's How Women Fought For The Right To Be Educated Throughout History

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We're currently in the thick of college graduation season, which means that you and your friends are likely gathering your gowns, planning your parties, and wondering what the hell you're going to do with your lives once you've got that shiny new diploma.

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Think about...

-What does "separate spheres" mean?
-What exists in the "women's sphere"?
-What exists in the "men's sphere"?
-How strictly do we follow these spheres today?

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Gender: Separate Spheres for Men and Women | Encyclopedia.com

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Gender: Separate Spheres for Men and Women
Sources Source for information on Gender: Separate Spheres for Men and Women: American Eras dictionary.

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Think about...

-Why are they called "waves"?
-What happened during this first wave?

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While there is no clear consensus as to when 'first wave' feminism occurred, most accept that in the 19th century, as industrialization progressed, 1st Wave feminism emerged. The term itself was only coined in 1968 by Martha Lear, who also coined the term Second Wave Feminism. There is also a Third Wave Feminist Movement that began in the 1990s. First Wave feminism focused on what we now consider basic issues of inequality in light of more recent developments.

What were the Origins of the First Wave Feminist Movement?

Although feminism can be argued to have its roots in many ancient periods, modern feminism begins around the late 17th and 18th centuries, during the Enlightenment in Europe. One of the early feminists was Mary Wollstonecraft, who mostly wrote in the late 18th century (Figure 1). She was heavily influenced by Rousseau and French political thinkers who began to advocate that societies, and individuals specifically, should have rights that the state provides. Individual rights, separate from teaching from the church, began to become a key focus for philosophers during this period. Individual liberty, as argued, was to be upheld by the state. Similarly, English philosophers, such as John Locke living earlier, had taken up similar ideas.

However, philosophers and writers often ignored women and Wollstonecraft was among the first to call for gender equality. She believed reason and education should be the foundation of social order that included equality for women. Her books (A Vindication of the Rights of Women, published in 1792, and Maria, or the Wrongs of Women, published in 1798, were controversial in their day but also demonstrated her ideas. She saw the lack of focus in educating women as making them appear less informed as men in society. Although we see her views as largely expected and normal today, for over a century her writings and influence were minimized or even avoided by later feminists due to the morals of the day. She had at least two highly publicized affairs that produced at least one child out of wedlock and was explicit about her sexuality. The focus on her behavior, rather than ideas, unfortunately, diminished her influence in the early 19th century as feminists ideas increasingly emerged.

When was the Birth of the Social Reform Movement?

In the United States, early 19th century women emerged advocating emancipation for slaves, temperance, and greater freedom for women compared to men. These campaigns were a direct outgrowth of the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening in the United States (1790-1830) was a religious revival that not only brought in new converts to Christianity, but it inspired female reformers in the United States.

The leaders of this Christian movement argued that people had control over their lives and salvation in opposition to views of the existing Calvinist churches. As part of this movement, women were encouraged to build new churches and push for moral reforms in the United States. Fairly quickly women became moral advocates, while most women joined the Temperance Movement others were attracted to the abolition of slavery and expanding rights for women.

The Seneca Convention, in 1844, was the first organized convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women. This was led by Quakers, who were also leading abolitionists. Prominent women that began to emerge from this convention and its later offshoots included Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and, among the most well know, Susan Brownell Anthony. Interestingly, many early congresses calling for the emancipation of slaves often shunned women or gave them secondary roles.

One key obstacle was many had interpreted their faith to stand against slavery, but at the same time, they saw or interpreted that God created the sexes differently. In effect, women were not equals to men concerning rights. This contradiction, therefore, became an obstacle for early feminists working within the abolitionist movements.

Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony, after the Civil War and in 1868, began to focus on creating a platform for women to rally around. They created a newspaper called The Revolution. This publication helped to rally support for what they saw was one of the first great obstacles to greater freedom, which was the right to vote. In effect, this helped to launch the suffrage movement in the United States. Other countries also, at about the same time or even earlier in some cases, began to have women organizations calling for greater female rights and literature advocating voting for women. This movement included Scottish activist Marion Reid, who collaborated with American feminists and began to see that greater interest in the ideals of a virtuous woman in Victorian Britain creating a repressive standard for women.

While some women, such as Barbara Leigh Smith, focused on employment and education for women as critical areas to focus on, others saw other goals as more of a key focus. Increasingly, more feminists began to see that obtaining voting rights was perhaps among the most important steps before other rights could be secured. Throughout the 19th century, Biblical interpretation of women's role in the house and family prevented their ability to advance feminist ideals. To counteract the power of the church's or some religious interpretation of sex-based hierarchy, Stanton produced an influential work called The Woman's Bible, written in 1895. Although it was much maligned by Biblical scholars, Stanton tried to argue for equality using the Bible. This helped to provide some religious justification, at least for some, for emerging feminism in the period.

Furthermore, the National Woman Suffrage Association, already established by 1869, became a prominent organization advocating for woman suffrage, which took more radical approaches, such as rejecting the 15th Amendment unless it included woman suffrage. The other significant movement was American Woman Suffrage Association, which advocated for state by stat campaigning to achieve suffrage. There was a full split among feminists regarding the approach. However, in the late 19th century it became clear that having rival groups weakened the suffrage movement. In 1890, the two groups merged and formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

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In 1869, John Allen Campbell, the first Governor of Wyoming, granted women the right to vote, making Wyoming the first territory or state women had specific laws that expressed their rights to vote. The National Woman's Party emerged in 1916 as another suffrage organization, which broke from the NAWSA, which had focused only on states rather than any federal laws. They held high profile protests in front of the White House during World War I, as they saw targeting the federal government as the most expedient way to gain the right to vote. Although their protests were often ignored, arguably effort by women during the war, mostly in replacing men in factories, helped many to see that women did have equal skills to men. This helped to persuade, along with the feminist organizations, many in Congress that women should have the right to vote.

Congress passed the 19th Amendment in 1919, and enough states ratified the amendment by 1920, making the right for women to vote legal in the United States in 1920. While the process itself was contentious, often with hunger strikes and even mob violence, sometimes by both sides in the argument, there continued to be problems in the 1920s. Some regions tried to argue the 19th Amendment was unconstitutional and tried to bar women from holding office or voting. Nevertheless, with the gradual acceptance of women as voters, what can be considered the First Wave of feminism had culminated in achieving a major success for women (Figure 2).

Why was First Wave Movement a World Movement?

While there has been much focus on feminists in the United States, feminists movements had also developed in various periods, most notably after the 18th century, in many countries. Southern Australia was among the first places women could vote, wherein in 1895 the right to vote was achieved by women there. Catherine Spence was a prominent figure who had campaigned for the vote.

In Denmark, they had already achieved not only voting rights but equal rights laws that protected a woman's access to education, work, and marital rights during the 1920s. In effect, they had begun to move to topics that only were more fully addressed by second-wave feminists in other countries by the 1960s. In Iran, at the time of the Seneca Falls convention, in 1848, a religious movement, called Babism, represented a view that God wanted women to be equal to men and had been among the earliest religious movements in the Islamic regions of the Middle East to advocate the removal of veils and greater freedom for women. The movement helped eventually start Bahaism, a religious idea that sought unity among many religions and also advocated greater roles and equality for women.

Although these movements have largely been suppressed, it helped to launch or influence feminist ideas in non-Western regions. In Russia and China, the rise of socialist and eventually Communism helped to create greater feminist equality. Although women did gain the right to vote and were considered equal to men in Soviet society, at least by party ideals, voting was restricted to the Communist party. Women, however, gained rights in other areas that Western women could only dream about for many decades. This included generous maternity leave, free childcare, abortion rights, and generally had greater access to higher education. Some of these have yet to be achieved in the West. However, by the later half of the 20th century, women did not make as many gains in holding political power or even high-level job roles in the Soviet Union.

In the UK, women gained the right to vote in 1918, although their rights were not fully equal to men until 1928. The suffragettes were often notorious for their militancy in trying to achieve their goals. Perhaps the most prominent agitator was Sylvia Pankhurst, a famous socialist who helped campaign for women equality and many other causes she considered part of social injustice. By the 1910s, society in the UK had also increasingly saw that it was natural to have women be given the right to vote. The UK also had other restrictive laws, such as prohibition from wealthy women from controlling their property, that was not fully removed until the late 1890s. In the 1850s, divorce became an issue that was moved to the civil courts rather than requiring the Church to be responsible for.

What was the Significance of the First Wave Feminist Movement?

First wave feminism was instrumental in giving women basic rights such as to vote and even administer their property. World War II and the recovery period that saw men retaking many of their old jobs, in some ways, slowed down the feminist movement. However, by the 1960s the political climate in the West began to change and accept more liberal ideals. While first wave feminists achieved their key goals, it was evident in countries such as the UK and the US that equality in voting did not translate to equality in the workplace or aspects of social acceptance such as marriage.

Communist states emerged as early countries that embraced more equality, but in the West, this took time as social norms began to change in the context of major wars and increasingly greater roles women played in society, both in a civil and political sense. Nevertheless, the key foundation for second wave feminism required the rights earned by first wave feminists, mainly in giving women political power through the vote.

First wave feminism was critical in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in giving women the right to vote and basic rights such as property. While the roots of this feminism are not clear, new movements from the Enlightenment and industrialization began to focus on female rights and individuality. The 19th century was a time where people questioned basic rights and who had access to them. It emerged that both sexes, as well as different races, should have basic given rights such as emancipation, rights to vote, and rights to own property, even though the battles for equality continued into the 20th century. Achieving the right to vote was generally seen as the major achievement for first-wave feminists.

References

Updated December 9, 2020

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What was the First Wave Feminist Movement

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While there is no clear consensus as to when 'first wave' feminism occurred, most accept that in the 19th century, as industrialization progressed, 1st Wave feminism emerged. The term itself was only coined in 1968 by Martha Lear, who also coined the term Second Wave Feminism.

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Think about...

-What are the notable features of second wave feminism?
-What other important movement had an impact on the second wave of feminism?

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"A new era for women workers, minority women and lesbians" 1976
National Women's History Museum

FEMINISM : The Second Wave

85199 (Sep 1970)
by John Olson
LIFE Photo Collection

The Second Wave

After the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote, the first wave of feminism slowed down significantly. Although many of these activists continued to fight for women's rights, the next sustained feminist movement is believed to have started in the 1960s. Much like the first wave that developed during a period of social reform, the second wave also took place amidst other social and political movements.

Image Collage: Simone de Beauvoir 1939 - 1967
National Women's History Museum

The Predecessor

In between the first and the second wave, French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir published a foundational book that set the tone for the next surge of women's rights activism. Published in 1949, her book entitled "The Second Sex," provided extensive definitions of womanhood and outlined how women have historically been treated as second to men. Originally published in France, "The Second Sex" quickly became a phenomenon and was published in the United States in 1953. Beauvoir was not only a feminist writer, but she was also considered a philosopher because her writings often answered complex and philosophical questions. In "The Second Sex," she questions, "What is a woman?" Ultimately, she determined that "one is not born but becomes a woman.

Image Collage: Betty friedan
National Women's History Museum

The Instigator

Ten years after "The Second Sex" was published in the United States, American feminist writer Betty Friedan helped ignite the second feminist wave with her book "The Feminine Mystique." Released in 1963, Friedan builds on the foundation of Simone de Beauvoir's work. However, Friedan not only employed philosophical thought to discuss feminism, she also incorporated oral histories and her personal experiences to address the issues many women were facing. Friedan first began by researching the role of women in society to see if other women shared her feelings of dissatisfaction and "malaise" as housewives. To her surprise, she was not alone, and her interviews became the source material for her first book.

Housewife Cartoon
National Women's History Museum

In the mid-1950s, Friedan found herself as a stay-at-home housewife after a long career as a journalist, writer, and activist. When she got married and had children, Friedan left her career and moved to the suburbs with her family. Even though she continued writing freelance, she soon realized that she was unhappy solely as a housewife. However, she felt the societal pressure to find ultimate happiness as a mother and a homemaker. In 1957 at her 15-year Smith College reunion, Friedan surveyed her classmates and found that they also were unhappy being confined to the home.

For the next five years, Friedan conducted interviews with white middle-class women who were grappling with their roles as housewives. She published her findings in "The Feminine Mystique," and instantly became a household name. In her book she criticized the separate "sphere" of motherhood and homemaking that women were relegated to. In contrast, men were allowed to flourish in the "male sphere" of work, politics, and power. Friedan's book encouraged women to step outside of their "sphere," and fight gender oppression, which she called "the problem that has no name."

Kennedy 1963
Unknown | National Women's History Museum

The Movement Begins

Friedan's book sold over three million copies within the first three years and quickly fueled a resurgence of the feminist movement. Middle-class women across the country began to organize to advocate for women's social and political equality. The same year "The Feminine Mystique" was published, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law. The new legislation stipulated that women could no longer be paid less than men for doing "comparable work" at the same job. This Act was the result of a group of women in the White House, lead by labor activist Esther Peterson. Peterson was appointed as the head of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor in 1961. She convinced President Kennedy to establish a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women to work towards achieving equality. The commission included revolutionary women such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Height. After collaborating with the commission, Peterson submitted a draft of the Equal Pay Act to congress on behalf of the Kennedy administration.

"Public service announcement (PSA) informing viewers of their rights under the equal pay law."

Civil rights march on Washington, D.C. / [WKL].Aug 28, 1963
National Women's History Museum

Following the Equal Pay Act of 1963, two more legal victories propelled the fight for women's rights forward. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 both secured rights for some feminists and encouraged them to continue to advocate for women's equality.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevented employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition to the Civil Rights Act, the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 prevented anyone from limiting a woman's access to contraception or other methods of birth control. This case would be used in the famous Roe v. Wade decision, protecting a woman's right to have an abortion in 1973.

These legal victories gave some women more autonomy in both public and private life. However, many women of color were still disenfranchised.

Image Collage: Gloria Steinem 1972 - 2016
National Women's History Museum

The Women's Liberation Movement

Early in the second wave, feminist writer Gloria Steinem gained national attention by going undercover as a Playboy Bunny. Her exposé called "A Bunny's Tale," highlighted the sexism and low wages that women faced in these clubs. Steinem went on to become one of the most recognizable leaders of the second wave. She co-founded both "New York" and "Ms." magazines and covered political issues ranging from abortion to rape. Steinem first spoke publicly in 1969 at an event to legalize abortion in New York State. Shortly afterwards, she began writing and publishing books that would influence a generation of feminists. Her publications accompanied a host of other feminist work that was published during the period that became the women's liberation movement. Some of these books include; Kate Millett's "Sexual Politics" in 1969, Juliet Mitchell's "The Subjection of Women" in 1970, and Shulamith Firestone's "The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution" in 1970.

(Jun 1972) by Leonard Mccombe
LIFE Photo Collection

In 1972, Steinem teamed up with Betty Friedan and other activists such as Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to form the National Women's Political Caucus. This caucus was established to support gender equality and ensure proper women's representation in political office. At the founding meeting, Steinem delivered a speech entitled "Address to the Women of America," where she called for a women's revolution.

That same year, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed by Alice Paul in 1923 finally passed in Congress. Unfortunately, this amendment guaranteeing equal constitutional rights for women failed to be ratified in 38 states within seven years. Supporters of the ERA continue to fight for it's ratification today.

(Aug 1963) by Francis Miller

The Civil Rights Movement

When the second wave of feminism began, the Civil Rights Movement was already in full swing. After emancipation, African American men and women still had to fight against racism, violence, and segregation to exercise their basic human rights. In addition, even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment ensuring that both men and women were able to vote, African American men and women were still restricted from voting by Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, and grandfather-clauses. As the second surge of feminism grew, African American women were once again fighting for their rights as women, alongside their fight for freedom from racial oppression.

Women at the March
National Women's History Museum

In 1969, Frances M. Beal published "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," detailing the experiences of African American women during the feminist movement. Her essay specifically noted the exploitation of black women in society and the different struggles between white and "non-white" feminists.

That same year, Betty Friedan stepped down as president of the organization she co-founded called the National Organization for Women (NOW). Although the organization was racially inclusive, the concerns of black women were frequently sidelined. For example, Friedan and some of the African American members clashed over Friedan's use of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to advocate for more jobs for middle-class white women, when many African American men and women faced racially motivated job discrimination and lived below the poverty line. By the time Friedan stepped down in 1969, African American women had already started forming their own feminist organizations.

Angela Davis 1965 - 1980
National Women's History Museum

By the 1970s, black women were convening as separate feminist organizations starting with the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in 1973. The Combahee River Collective formed in 1974 for a similar purpose, but they also focused on issues of sexuality that were often left out. Their statement notes, "we are committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression..." and the way those systems of oppression intersect.

As these women pursued their collective goals, revolutionary scholar and activist Angela Davis began publishing articles and books that would contribute to the foundation of the "Black Feminist" movement. She published an article on the harmful stereotypes of black women in society in 1972 and then followed that with her book entitled, "Women, Race & Class" in 1981. The Combahee River Collective and "Women, Race & Class" both provided a solid foundation for future feminists to study various forms of oppression.

bell hooks (Nov 1, 2009)
National Women's History Museum

Rethinking Feminism

"Although the women's movement motivated hundreds of women to write on the woman question, it failed to generate in-depth critical analyses of the black female experience." --bell hooks in "Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism"

Civil Rights Demonstration
National Women's History Museum

Also writing in 1981, author Gloria Jean Watkins, known as "bell hooks," published "Ain't I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism." Her book provides an analysis of the current movement and a critique of mainstream feminism for excluding the concerns of black women in their overall fight for equality. Instead, she provides an inclusive method for activism through black feminism. She states, "although the focus is on the black female, our struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people."

After her pioneering work, many feminist writings followed that addressed the concerns and activism of women of color. One of these books was "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color" edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa in 1981. This work included several writings from black, Native American, Asian American, and Latina women feminists that advocated for their rights in the white-dominated feminist movement.

Walker, Alice
LIFE Photo Collection

Although many African American women identified with hooks' writing, Alice Walker introduced a new variation of black feminism called "womanism." Coined by Walker in her 1983 book "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose," Walker introduces readers to womanism through a collection of personal and political essays. Developed from the African American cultural significance of the word "womanish," Walker writes that a womanist is "committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health."

Womanism is closely aligned with black feminism and many people use the two terms interchangeably. Walker herself notes that the womanist is "a black feminist or feminist of color." However, Walker also says: "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender." With this analogy, Walker reminds her audience that there are many different forms and shades of feminism. Walker's novel "The Color Purple" also became a film directed by Steven Spielberg, featuring Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg.

Gay Rights Demonstration (Jul 11, 1976)

The Gay Rights Movement

Women of color weren't the only group fighting for their voice in the larger feminist movement. During the 1960s, the gay rights movement also gained momentum as participants advocated for equal rights and unbiased information about homosexuality. The first gay rights demonstrations were held in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as early as 1965. However, the riots at the Stonewall bar in 1969 marked a shift in LGBTQ activism. Starting on June 28, 1969, customers of the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village fought against targeted and frequent police raids.

"A new era for women workers, minority women an... (1976)"

As the movement progressed, lesbian women had concerns that were not addressed by gay rights activism. Many of these women decided to leave the male leadership of that movement to form their own lesbian organizations. These women advocated for gay rights, as well as feminist rights within organizations like Betty Friedan's National Organization for Women (NOW). Unfortunately, many of these mainstream feminists rejected their participation. Lesbian women protested their treatment, including a demonstration at the Second Congress to Unite Women in 1970. These women called themselves the "Radicalesbians" and they read their declaration called "The Woman-Identified Woman" to the attendees. The very next year, the NOW adopted a resolution recognizing lesbian rights, and in 1973 they established the NOW Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism. Simultaneously, Lesbians of color like Audre Lorde started writing about their particular experiences. Lorde published "Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches" in 1984.

Bra Burning Women

The second wave of the feminist movement is not only known for the tensions between various streams of feminism. This wave is also heavily associated with the "bra-burning" protest of 1968. Although no bra-burning actually occurred, this myth continues to follow the women's liberation movement. This rumor came from the 1968 Miss America Pageant protest in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On September 7, 1968 a few hundred women interrupted the live broadcast of the Miss America Pageant to protest beauty standards and the objectification of women. These women threw bras, high heels, Playboy magazines, and other symbolic feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can." Although the women did not actually ignite a fire, a reporter compared their actions to Vietnam war protesters that would burn their draft cards. This idea of bra-burning feminists followed the movement ever since and contributed to the stereotype of feminists as angry and "man-hating."

Alice Walker(Left) and Gloria Steinem (right) (2016)
by Liberty Media for Women, LLC
National Women's History Museum

By the late 1970s, the second wave of feminism began to lose steam. As multiple sub-groups created new organizations for themselves, other debates within feminism grew. One of the key debates was over pornography and sexual activity. Many feminists decided between being "anti-porn feminists" or "sex-positive feminists." These debates accelerated an already dwindling larger movement. By the early 1980s, the second wave came to a close and a large-scale feminist movement would not return for another decade.

Credits

Exhibit written and curated by Kerri Lee Alexander, NWHM Fellow 2018-2020

Davis, Angela Yvonne. Women, Race & Class. London: Womens Press, 1986.

D'Emilio, John. "After Stonewall." Queer Cultures. Eds. Deborah Carlin and Jennifer DiGrazia. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2004. 3-35.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Gay, Roxane. "Fifty Years Ago, Protesters Took on the Miss America Pageant and Electrified the Feminist Movement." Smithsonian.com, January 1, 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fifty-years-ago-protestors-took-on-miss-america-pageant-electrified-feminist-movement-180967504/.

hooks, bell. Aint I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. New York: Routledge, 2015. Pp. 12

Lee, Jennifer. "Feminism Has a Bra-Burning Myth Problem." Time Magazine, June 12, 2014. https://time.com/2853184/feminism-has-a-bra-burning-myth-problem/.

Love, Barbara J. Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Morris, Catherine, Rujeko Hockley, Connie H. Choi, Carmen Hermo, and Stephanie Weissberg. We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85: a Sourcebook. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 2017.

Morris, Bonnie J. "History of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Social Movements." American Psychological Association, 2009. https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/history.

Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Motherss Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego: Harvest, 1984. Pp. xii

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After the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote, the first wave of feminism slowed down significantly. Although many of these activists continued to fight for women's rights, the next sustained feminist movement is believed to have started in the 1960s.

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Think about...

-Who did women originally "belong" to?
-What were men compared to in the household?
-How has this changed?

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In the early nineteenth century, married women in the US were legally subordinate to their husbands. Wives could not own their own property, keep their own wages, or enter into contracts. Beginning in 1839, states slowly began to enact Married Women's Property Acts to allow women more control over their property and finances.

In the late nineteenth century, however, Anne Brown Adams, a daughter of the abolitionist John Brown, wrote to a friend that reform was slow and did not necessarily change behaviors inside the home. In her letter, Adams lamented that the "struggle for a married woman's rights will be a longer and a harder fought battle than any other that the world has ever known." She declared that "men have been taught that they are absolute monarchs in their families" and enumerated the abuses that some women suffered:

Women are taught that their only hope of heaven, is to " endure to the end," That it is a religious duty to "submit themselves to their husbands in all things," I know a man who tells his wife "I own you, I have got a deed (marriage license and certificate) to you and got it recorded, I have a right to do what I please to you," And the law of a Christian land says she shall submit, to indecencies that would make a respectable devil blush for shame.

Excerpt

The struggle for a married woman's rights will be a longer and a harder fought battle than any other that the world has ever known. Men have been taught that they are absolute monarchs in their families, (even in a republican country,) ever since the world began, and that to kill a wife by inches, is not murder, women are taught from infancy that to betray by look or word or even to mention to an intimate friend the secrets of their married life, is worse than disgraceful, Therein lies the power of the man, He knows that no matter what he does, the woman will keep silent as the grave

I could tell you things that have come under my observation, that would make the blood boil in your veins, And these things are going on day after day without let or hinderance. "Wives be obedient to your husbands in all things!"

Women are taught that their only hope of heaven, is to " endure to the end," That it is a religious duty to "submit themselves to their husbands in all things," I know a man who tells his wife "I own you, I have got a deed (marriage license and certificate) to you and got it recorded, I have a right to do what I please to you," And the law of a Christian land says she shall submit, to indecencies that would make a respectable devil blush for shame, Man, who is said to have been created in the image of God, is the lowest animal in the world, and the most cruel. It shatters my faith in the goodness of God, so much that it makes me tremble for my own reason, at times.

A complete transcript is available here.

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The struggle for married women's rights, circa 1880s

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In the early nineteenth century, married women in the US were legally subordinate to their husbands. Wives could not own their own property, keep their own wages, or enter into contracts. Beginning in 1839, states slowly began to enact Married Women's Property Acts to allow women more control over their property and finances.

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Think about...

-What did the Married Women's Property Act do?
-What changed for women in the 20th century?
-What is it like for women handling money today?

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Many women take the lead with managing household finances and many have also increased the amount of money they earn in their careers. In honor of March being Women's History Month, let's take a closer look at the history of women, money and the power they've gained over the last few centuries.
Early Americas
While women in the United States began gaining power in the 1700s, it wouldn't be until the Women's Rights Movement of the 1800s that women would achieve any significant milestones. In 1848, the Married Woman's Property Act was passed in New York. The act was subsequently used as a model for other states, all of which passed their own versions by 1900. With this act in place, a woman was no longer liable for her husband's debts, could now enter contracts on her own, was able to collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right and could file a lawsuit on her own behalf.
The Twentieth Century
The 1900s brought significant milestones for women and money. In 1938, the federal minimum wage was established as a result of the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, eliminating many pay differences between men and women for hourly jobs. In the 1960s women gained the right to open a bank account. Shortly after, in 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed which was supposed to prohibit credit discrimination on the basis of gender. Before its passage, many banks granted credit cards to women only with their husbands' signatures and outright refused to issue them to unmarried women.
Today and Tomorrow
Today, women have taken the reigns when it comes to managing household finances. According to U.S. News and Money, a survey found that 51 percent of women consider themselves the "CFO" of their household. In addition, 54 percent said that they have either complete or a great deal of responsibility when it comes managing their household's long-term savings and investments. Despite maintaining a dominant role with household finances, 63 percent of women wish they knew more about financial planning and investing.

The next generation of women is particularly eager for greater financial knowledge. The same survey found that the majority of young women are interested in understanding financial concepts on a deeper level, but over half of those women don't know where to seek out that information. For women who have sought help from a financial advisor, 93 percent said they have established financial goals and are on the right path to a more successful financial foundation.

Lastly, today's generation of women who take the time to build an in-depth financial knowledge base will see the empowering benefits and will also set the standard for future generations to come.

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The History of Women and Money in the United States in Honor of Women's History Month - ONE Advisory Partners

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Many women take the lead with managing household finances and many have also increased the amount of money they earn in their careers. In honor of March being Women's History Month, let's take a closer look at the history of women, money and the power they've gained over the last few centuries.

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Think about...

-What were a nanny's role in the house? What were the parent's roles?
-How were children often viewed?
-How have the expectations of children changed?

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Childhood barely existed for most British children at the end of the eighteenth century, since they began a lifetime of hard labour as soon as they were capable of simple tasks. By contrast, the fortunate children of the wealthy generally were spoiled and enjoyed special provisions for the need of a lengthy childhood, yet who in a way may have endured the same pain of those who were not as fortunate.

Child-rearing in Victorian times was not at all similar to child-rearing today. There were of course two different categories on how the child was brought up. They went from one extreme to the other. They were the difference between the classes.

The life of an upper-class child during the Victorian era, was as one may put it, stuffy, conventional and routine, not to mention quite lonely at certain times. Yet others argue Victorian children should have been quite content, given the fact that they were treated to only the best of toys, clothes and education and it was absurd to even consider the child being neglected.

Mothers and Fathers were seen as special, glamorous guests, due to the fact that they were never around and rarely seen by their children. This was because the child and the parent led totally separate existences; they were only summoned to appear before their parents at a certain set hour of the day.

Many Victorian children like Winston Churchill and Harriet Marden recall such cold relations between their selves and their mothers that they would be able to count how many times in their life they had been hugged. Family life was formal, although, during that time child-rearing manuals urged bonding and maternal ties, mothers remained cool and distant. Children were a convenience to their parents; they obeyed them as they would an army officer. Sir Osbert Sitwell once argued,

Parents were aware that the child would be a nuisance and a whole bevy of servants, in addition to the complex guardianship of nursery and school rooms was necessary not so much to aid the infant as to screen him from his father or mother, except on some occasions as he could be used by them as adjuncts, toys or decorations.

Although this only describes a minority of parents it was always in the best interests for the child not to be heard or in the way, it was rarely taken to the extent of screening the child.

It was the era of nurses and nannies, the child was not raised by the woman who gave birth to him, but by the hired help. This assured the parents of a good upbringing, considering they inform the nanny to instill their beliefs and morals onto the children. It also assured constant care and a watchful eye.

The child's life operated with clockwork regularity, they seldom ventured out of the nursery, unless it was to take a walk in the park or to attend dance class with the nanny. The child ate breakfast at eight o'clock, dinner at 12 o'clock, and tea at six o'clock. When the children reached a certain age they were permitted to join their mother for a luncheon at 10 o'clock, and were able to spend one hour prior to dinner in their mother's dressing room.

Other than meals, occasional visits with mother, and short walks in the park, the child had nothing to do except play with lavish toys, such as the toy theatre, the steam-driven train, jack-in-the-boxes, and beautiful dolls.

It was quite important to select a conscientious, attentive type of nurse given she will raise the children until the latter years in which they will be reared by the school.

Therefore, parents screened them before hiring them. Many nannies, contrary to the Mary Poppins stereotype were usually unmarried old maids who were strict to the point of being sadistic.

Although on the other hand, some were warm and caring, providing the only love and companionship in the child's life. Even with the austere aspects of the nursery, caring nannies could brighten everything up right down to the meals, which were monotonous unlike those of their parents who would feast on a thirteen-course meal while they would force down boiled potatoes and mutton.

They were not permitted to indulge in any confectionery, fresh fruit, puffed pastries, or sugared candy for it was thought rich foods of that sort were bad for the child's digestive system along with his morals.

Children who were raised in the wealthy families of this period had lives that were very protective, very suffocating; they were unable to show any emotion to the people responsible for bringing them into this world.

They were always to act prim and proper, and to speak only when spoken to. In our day in age, we would probably consider that mental abuse, and even though they were the educated ones, the families in the lower classes were more attached, more bonded as a family.

The regime for the upbringing of the poorer families was not at all as extravagant and ludicrous as those of aristocracy. They were usually tightly bonded, living in such small quarters, sharing everything, and being unable to afford any hired help to raise the children. The lower class children did not enjoy the expensive toys, the attentions of the nursemaid, nor the comforts of a wholesome diet.

The gap between these children diminished as we entered the twentieth century, albeit during the Victorian era they came to share the same pastimes, educational facilities, and welfare.

The strict upbringing of prominent Victorian children left its mark on society. Even though it has almost been 100 years since the end of this era, it took a very long time for the child to escape the meticulous and rigid manners of such a contrast time and finally be free to express a feeling, thought, and opinion without being punished.

It leaves one to question the morality and sense in the minds of these parents, who in a way had children that they did not take care of, yet provided for them throughout their lives. Parents wanted perfection instead of devotion. And it seems all preposterous, but it appeared theirs was less violence, more respect, and virtually a better society.

It would appear the Victorians had the right idea in the strictness and the demonstration of respect, but they lacked love and feeling in the realm of child-rearing.
Works Cited
Evans, Hillary & Mary. The Victorians. New York: Arco, 1973.

Greenleaf, Barbara Kaye. Children Through The Ages. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978, pp. 78-83.

Kennedy, David. Children. London: Batsford, 1971, pp. 59-67.

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Childhood barely existed for most British children at the end of the eighteenth century, since they began a lifetime of hard labour as soon as they were capable of simple tasks. By contrast, the fortunate children of the wealthy generally were spoiled and enjoyed special provisions for the need of a…