Origins Of American Women's Movement-the First Wave

The American Women's Movement occupies an important position throughout the development of American society and has had great impact on American women and society as a whole.The history of American feminist movements has been divided into two "waves" by some feminist scholars and three"waves"by others. Each is described as dealing with different aspects of the same feminist issues. The period of feminist activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century is referred to as the first wave of feminism. It focused primarily on gaining the right of women's suffrage and is considered to have ended with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote.In fact the term, "first-wave," was coined retrospectively after the term second-wave feminism began to be used to describe a newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting against social and cultural inequalities as against further political inequalities. The second wave (1960s-1980s), also named the Contemporary American Women's Movement, built upon the established goals of the First Wave and began to adapt the ideas to American culture. The Third wave of Feminism (1990s-current), the Current American Women's Movement, is seen as both a continuation and a response to the perceived failures of the Second-wave.This thesis aims to analyze the origins of the first American women's movement, with focus on three important historical events: the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution and the Abolition Movement. The thesis argues that these three revolutions, particularly the last one, constitute the major background against which the first-wave feminist movement took place. Specifically, the thesis states if the Industrial Revolution makes it possible for American women to get out of home and participate in the workforce, and if the American Revolution provides the political ideology of natural rights and equality for women to start thinking their own political and social status along these ideological lines, the Abolitionist Movement helps push American women toward the struggle for political voting right. The thesis concludes that when these three forces converged, they opened the way for the first-wave feminist movement to be launched in America, which lasts from 1848 to 1920, culminating in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which grants American women the voting right.