Feminists in America

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was at the frontier of the feminist movement revolution. Stanton, an upper-class suburban housewife and mother of seven children, spent seventy years advocating for female equality. Stanton had lived through the Civil War and personally witnessed the abolitionist movement and the battle against slavery. Stanton was devoted herself towards the abolitionist movement, as was her husband and fellow abolitionist, Henry Stanton. In fact, the couple was so dedicated towards the eradication of the institution of slavery, that they traveled several thousand miles to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. It was at this conference, that Elizabeth Stanton came to the realization that while she was striving for the pursuit of justice for those enslaved, she and fellow women were being unjustly treated themselves. While at the convention, the female attendees, including Stanton, were forced to sit in a secluded balcony off the convention center floor. In 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton, with the help of other females abolitionists, organized the Seneca Falls Convention. At this convention, Stanton revealed what was known as the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was a variation of the Declaration of Independence, that include provisions for women's rights. Such provisions included the right to vote, the right to retain property, as well as the right to enter any profession.

Since the feminists were radical in thought and were at the forefront of social revolution, they were met with severe hostility by others attempting to hinder their cause. Though the feminists tried to petition for women to be included in the fourteenth amendment that provided for "equality" for African-Americans, they were not successful. It is unfortunate that Elizabeth Stanton passed away in 1902, because she wasn't alive to see women attain the right to vote when the nineteenth amendment was passed in 1920.

There were two significant groups that participated in the feminist movement, and historians refer to them as the "first wave" and "second wave". The first wave partook in the movement during the nineteenth century, and the second wave partook in the late twentieth century. Elizabeth Stanton is often credited with inciting the first wave of the feminist movement, and her counterpart, Betty Friedan is frequently considered to be the "mother" of the second wave of the movement.

Betty Friedan grew up during the early twentieth century and her first witness of feminine sacrifice occurred when her mother gave up a prosperous journalism career in order to assume her role as a full-time homemaker. In 1962, Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, which gave an indication to the general public, what it was like to be a homemaker and to make sacrifices for the sake of your family. Later, in 1965, she would found the National Organization for Women, which led to the second wave of feminism.

Like the first-wave feminist's abolition background, many of the women who participated in the second-wave feminism had experience and a background in participating in the Civil Rights campaign. For many years, the primary objective of the organization was to pass what was known as the "Equal Rights Amendment" through Congress, though they failed in each and every attempt to do so.

The-second wave moment attracted younger women who were motivated for change and who worked vigorously to change the nation's gender status quo. One such woman was Robin Morgan, who participated in the civil rights campaign through the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. While striving for racial justice, she encountered immense amounts of sexism in American society. It was such accounts that ultimately led her to create the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell. The organization gained national publicity when in 1968, they protested the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and began to burn their bras, among other things.

Unlike the first wave feminist movement, the second-wave movement did not have a united platform. Feminist activists disagreed over such issues as capitalism, men, marriage, government, et al. Some activists advocated for full-recognition of gender equality and others sought gender differentiation (i.e. maternity leave).

However, despite their internal disagreements, the feminist movement tended to be united on one issue: the advocation of abortion rights. By the late twentieth century, the feminist movement had forever reshaped American society and had molded a new role for future generations of American women.