The women’s rights movements have existed for a long time. The main aim of establishing these movements is to safeguard the rights of women against gender discrimination. Equality or fairness has always been the cause of concern for all women’s rights movements. Women’s statuses have been debated in terms of political, social, and economic well being.
Most feminist tendencies have always sought a fair representation of women in society regardless of their gender. When discussing the aspect of women’s movements, it is imperative to mention that there has been a long equality struggle for almost two centuries. The following section briefly discusses some of the feminist movements and how they influenced the rights of women.
To begin with, it can be recalled that Mary Wollstonecraft wrote one of the first feminist publications way back in 1792. The book entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Woman marked the early beginning in the fight for the rights of women in Europe. However, the inception of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) ushered the militant political action for feminist movements.
The union was formed in 1903. Emmeline Pankhurst was the leader of the union. Immediately after the formation of this movement, a mass demonstration was held. It comprised of women drawn from all categories irrespective of their age or class. The main aim of this movement was to champion for women’s suffrage.
Most of the protestors were thrown downstairs from parliament buildings, denied access to their meeting places or even jailed for participating in the demonstrations. However, a delicate truce was arrived at when the First World War began in 1914. By the end of this war, women from the age of 30 years were granted voting right in Britain. However, the legal voting age was brought down to 21 by the beginning of 1928.
The Women’s Rights Convention held in 1848 in the United States marked a serious beginning in the fight for the rights of women. The convention took place at Seneca Falls, N.Y. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the leader of this convention.
It is vital to note that women’s rights took a definitive position immediately after the convention came to an end. The movement was also triggered by the anti-slavery issues. Hence, the women’s rights and the aspect of anti-slavery were the main agenda of the Seneca Falls Declaration.
Lucy Stone took over the leadership of the National Women’s Rights Convention in 1850. She was one of the earliest women activists in the United States. Susan B. Anthony later presented an amendment to the laws so that women could be granted additional voting rights. As a result, women’s suffrage was first enjoyed in the state of Wyoming in 1890.
It is interesting to mention that the feminist movements also triggered the desire for the American abolition of the slave trade. Since the latter was a humanity issue, the civil rights movements also came into force during the same time when the fight for women’s rights was on course.
For instance, the National Council of Negro Women and the League of Women Voters were key movements that pushed for liberal reforms such as the Civil War Amendments and the suffrage movements.
During the new wave feminism in the 1960s, the US experienced yet another phase of women’s movements. For example, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique. She explored antidiscrimination movements and minority rights in her publication.
Her approach was similar to that of Germaine Greer since both of them laid a lot of emphasis on both the rights of women and the disadvantaged minority groups. This objective was different from that of Azar Nafisi, who was instrumental in post-revolution Iran. Nafisi critiqued the mandatory wearing of the veil and bad political governance in Iran.