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====Summary====
Admin moved page What was the First Wave Feminist Movement? to What was the First Wave Feminist Movement
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[[File:800px-Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie (c. 1797).jpg|thumb|left|250px|Figure 1. Mary Wollstonecraft arguably was one of the first modern writers advocating for feminist causes.]]
While there is no clear consensus as to when 'first wave' feminism occurred, most accept that in the 19th century, as industrialization progressed, 1st Wave feminism emerged. The term itself was only coined in 1968 by Martha Lear, who also coined the term [[What was the Second Wave Feminist Movement?|Second Wave Feminism]]. There is also a [[What was the Third Wave Feminist Movement?|Third Wave Feminist Movement]] that began in the 1990s. First Wave feminism focused on what we now consider basic issues of inequality in light of more recent developments.
== What were the Origins of 1st the First Wave Feminism Feminist Movement? ==
Although feminism can be argued to have its roots in many ancient periods, modern feminism begins around the late 17th and 18th centuries, during the Enlightenment in Europe. One of the early feminists was Mary Wollstonecraft, who mostly wrote in the late 18th century (Figure 1). She was heavily influenced by Rousseau and French political thinkers who began to advocate that societies, and individuals specifically, should have rights that the state provides. Individual rights, separate from teaching from the church, began to become a key focus for philosophers during this period. Individual liberty, as argued, was to be upheld by the state. Similarly, English philosophers, such as John Locke living earlier, had taken up similar ideas.
== When was the Birth of the Social Reform Movement? ==
[[File:Suffragettes-1921.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Figure 2. The suffrage movement and suffragettes helped create momentum for the right to vote for women.]]
In the United States, early 19th century women emerged advocating emancipation for slaves, temperance, and greater freedom for women compared to men. These campaigns were a direct outgrowth of the [[What was the Second Great AwakeningWave Feminist Movement?|Second Great Awakening]]. The Second Great Awakening in the United States (1790-1830) was a religious revival that not only brought in new converts to Christianity, but it inspired female reformers in the United States.
The leaders of this Christian movement argued that people had control over their lives and salvation in opposition to views of the existing Calvinist churches. As part of this movement, women were encouraged to build new churches and push for moral reforms in the United States. Fairly quickly women became moral advocates, while most women joined the Temperance Movement others were attracted to the abolition of slavery and expanding rights for women.
In the UK, women gained the right to vote in 1918, although their rights were not fully equal to men until 1928. The suffragettes were often notorious for their militancy in trying to achieve their goals. Perhaps the most prominent agitator was Sylvia Pankhurst, a famous socialist who helped campaign for women equality and many other causes she considered part of social injustice. By the 1910s, society in the UK had also increasingly saw that it was natural to have women be given the right to vote. The UK also had other restrictive laws, such as prohibition from wealthy women from controlling their property, that was not fully removed until the late 1890s. In the 1850s, divorce became an issue that was moved to the civil courts rather than requiring the Church to be responsible for.<ref>For more on the suffragettes and suffrage movement in the UK, see: Pankhurst, E. S. (2015). <i>SUFFRAGETTE: the history of the women’s militant suffrage movement</i>. Dover Children's.</ref>
====Later What was the Significance==of the First Wave Feminist Movement? ==First wave feminism was instrumental in giving women basic rights such as to vote and even administer their property. World War II and the recovery period that saw men retaking many of their old jobs, in some ways, slowed down the feminist movement. However, by the 1960s the political climate in the West began to change and accept more liberal ideals. While first wave feminists achieved their key goals, it was evident in countries such as the UK and the US that equality in voting did not translate to equality in the workplace or aspects of social acceptance such as marriage. Communist states emerged as early countries that embraced more equality, but in the West, this took time as social norms began to change in the context of major wars and increasingly greater roles women played in society, both in a civil and political sense. Nevertheless, the key foundation for second wave feminism required the rights earned by first wave feminists, mainly in giving women political power through the vote.
First wave feminism was critical in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in giving women the right to vote and basic rights such as property. While the roots of this feminism are not clear, new movements from the Enlightenment and industrialization began to focus on female rights and individuality. The 19th century was a time where people questioned basic rights and who had access to them. It emerged that both sexes, as well as different races, should have basic given rights such as emancipation, rights to vote, and rights to own property, even though the battles for equality continued into the 20th century. Achieving the right to vote was generally seen as the major achievement for first-wave feminists.
