First and Second wave Feminism.

First Wave Feminism;

Women’s suffrage began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls convention. Activists at the time such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott fought for women’s right to vote in the USA. A few years later Lucy Stone organised the National Women’s Rights Convention and Susan Anthony joined the cause. In 1920 the 19^th Amendment was passed forbidding the government from restricting voting rules based on gender.

 In England, there were two groups leading the fight for women’s right to vote. They were the Suffragettes and the Suffragists. The Suffragists were ran by Millicent Fawcett. In the wake of defeat of the first reform act that would allow women to vote the London Society for Women's Suffrage was formed. Similar Women's Suffrage groups were formed all over Britain. In 1897, seventeen of these individual groups joined together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

The NUWSS adopted a peaceful and non-confrontational approach. Members believed that success could be gained by argument and education. The organisation tried to raise its profile peacefully with posters, leaflets, calendars and public meetings.

This differed significantly from the Suffragettes led by Emmeline Pankhurst. The suffragettes were involved in a lot of controversy surrounding their methods. In 1911, the UK witnessed the first act of suffragette arson (orchestrated by Christabel Pankhurst) and two years later Emily Davison died at the Derby as she rushed out to bring down the King's horse. In Parliament, pressure for change was led by some liberal MPs, who were the leading figures in a suffrage committee. But away from the reasoned debate of Westminster, prisons filled with women prepared to go to jail for the right to vote. The civil disobedience continued behind bars, with many women force-fed to prevent them hunger striking.

While the authorities tried to present them as insane, their families campaigned for the inmates to be given political status, including the right to wear their own clothes, study and prepare their own food.

World War I proved to be the turning point for the campaign.The suffragettes effectively put their campaign on hold in the interests of national unity. As men went to the Western Front, women proved how indispensable they were in the fields and armaments factories. By 1918, no government could resist and the Representation of the Peoples Act allowed women over 30 the right to vote. It would take a further 10 years to abolish the age qualification and put men and women on an equal footing. Many people believe women’s contribution to the war effort and not the suffragettes allowed women to gain the right to vote.

Second Wave Feminism.

The second wave of feminism began in the 1960’s and stayed until the 1990’s. It began with protests against the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in 1968 and 1969. Feminists parodied what they held to be a degrading "cattle parade" that reduced women to objects of beauty dominated by a patriarchy that sought to keep them in the home or in dull, low-paying jobs. The radical New York group called the Red stockings staged a counter pageant, in which they crowned a sheep as Miss America and threw "oppressive" feminine artifacts such as bras, girdles, high-heels, makeup and false eyelashes into bins.

The contraceptive pill, which was put on sale in 1960 made a huge change to women’s lives. They could now decide when they were going to have children and how many children they wanted. This meant women could have long standing careers and plan ahead allowing them to have many of the same opportunities as men.

 The greatest victories of Second Wave Feminism during the 1970's was the passage of Title IX, which allowed women equal access to education, especially college and professional schools. Furthermore, the work of these feminists also opened up numerous employment opportunities that before had been completely confined to men. In an epic battle, the National Organization for Women took the battle all the way to the Supreme Court.