Held on March 8, International Women鈥檚 Day celebrates the progress women have made over the last century, and the inspiring women who helped make that progress happen. Likewise, the entire month of March celebrates Women’s History Month. From the suffragist movement of the 1800s to the 2017 Women鈥檚 March in Washington, women have used the power of language and oration to inspire countless people.
Early inspiration: the Enlightenment
Early feminism was heavily influenced by the Enlightenment听in Europe during the late 1700s. The movement focused on reason and equality for all, and it ultimately inspired the American and French Revolutions. Think of the Declaration of Independence: 鈥淲e hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.鈥�
Of course, that whole all men are created equal thing didn鈥檛 apply to women or people of color at the time. That was a problem and a great source of tension for early feminism.
In the UK, Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist, published听A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792, promoting the听then-radical idea that women be educated on the same level as their male peers.
The word feminism听itself was first coined in 1837 by French philosopher, Charles Fourier (as 蹿茅尘颈苍颈蝉尘别). It originally referred to 鈥�feminine qualities or character,鈥� but that sense isn鈥檛 used any more. Toward the end of the century, the word came to refer to equal rights for women and became inextricably linked to the suffragist movement.
Women鈥檚 suffrage: men and women are created equal
The Seneca Falls Convention听in July 1848 marked the official beginning of the American Women鈥檚 Suffrage movement, and, arguably, of American feminism in the United States. Around 300听women and men came together from across the country to discuss the status of women in the United States. Together, they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, which opened with these words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Sound familiar? By purposefully mirroring the language of the Declaration of Independence, the writers compared the injustice of women鈥檚 status with the injustice faced by the American colonies in 1776. The document protested laws that denied women access to property rights, labor rights, or education, and it famously called for women to be given the right to vote (i.e.,听suffrage).
Many women鈥檚 suffrage leaders were also abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. In 1851, Truth gave an impassioned speech at the Women鈥檚 Convention in Ohio arguing against the then-popular argument that women鈥檚 suffrage would de-feminize women, explaining that slavery exposed her to the same backbreaking labor and mistreatment as any of the male slaves.
The Nineteenth Amendment: the spirit of protest
The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was the first and most significant march for the cause. Occurring the day before President Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 inauguration, which women were barred from attending, the parade saw thousands of suffragettes听marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.
This early spirit of protest continued in the form of the Silent Sentinels, who picketed silently in front of the White House six days a week between 1917鈥�1919. The constant presence of these women was a daily reminder to President Wilson that America鈥檚 women had their eye on him. The protesters even used Wilson鈥檚 own quotes against him: 鈥淲e shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts鈥攆or democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments.鈥�
In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for trying to vote. During her trial, she argued that as a citizen of the United States, she had a constitutionally protected right to vote. The court ruled that citizenship didn鈥檛 equal voting rights. Almost 50 years later, in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment听was passed, proclaiming, 鈥淭he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.鈥� Notably, 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Women鈥檚 liberation movement: the second wave of feminism
Tracing a history of feminism leads us to what is known as the second wave of feminism鈥攐r the Women鈥檚 Movement or Women鈥檚 Liberation鈥攖hat stretched from the early 1960s鈥�1980s. (In this sense, liberation听is 鈥渢he act or fact of gaining equal rights or full social or economic opportunities for a particular group.鈥�) When the Kinsey Reports, the first academic studies of human sexuality, were published in 1948 and 1953, the taboos surrounding sex and sexuality鈥攖aboos felt largely by women鈥攂egan to fade. And then, in 1963, Betty Friedan published her national bestseller, The Feminine Mystique.
In 1961, President Kennedy鈥檚 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women found that American women had far fewer rights or economic opportunities than men. They were paid less for the same jobs, experienced more (unpunished) harassment, and they could be fired or denied a job for becoming pregnant. Domestic violence was an unaddressed issue at home, and it was very hard to divorce, especially if there were children in the picture. All of that is just scratching the surface.
Around this time, Women鈥檚 Liberation activists used language to further their social goals. They began using the ambiguous Ms., rather than Miss or Mrs., to hide their marital status (the way Mr. already did for men). This was also the time when the terms sexism听and sexual harassment听were coined, highlighting the similarities between discrimination against women and racism.
A lot of the legislation of these decades focused on the aspect of equality听the听Equal Pay Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Equal Credit opportunity, etc. These all helped to promote the joint interests of women and people of color in the struggle for equal rights. (The Women鈥檚 Strike for Equality in 1970 was another reflection of this struggle.)
Third-wave feminism and intersectionality
Today, we live in the era of third-wave feminism. This generation is much more focused on the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and income inequality. Rising in the 1990s with the Riot Grrrl听movement and Anita Hill鈥檚 very public sexual harassment case against incoming Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, this era continues the work of Women鈥檚 Liberation while also breaking new ground for future generations.
No movement is without its internal struggles, however. The Women鈥檚 Liberation movement represented numerous different groups with different priorities; as a result, third-wave feminism has sectioned off somewhat to reflect these differing priorities and politics. Although those lines can blur, this intersectionality听(鈥渢he theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class, contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual鈥�) is becoming a prominent feature of today鈥檚 feminism.
WATCH: Do You Know If Intersectionality Affects You?
As issues of gender, sexual, and racial identity continue to overlap, so, too, will the language of feminism need to keep up. But if the women鈥檚 movements of the past have taught us anything, it鈥檚 that political change tends to follow social change, and language can be a major force in driving that change.
