Rise of first-wave feminism

First-wave feminism was the first large phase of organised campaigning by women for equal rights, which began in the mid-nineteenth century in Britain and the United States and later spread elsewhere. It is often linked to the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in 1848, which demanded among other things votes for women. The main goals were the right to vote, to own property, to receive an education and to enter professions, and the movement included moderates such as Millicent Fawcett and militant suffragettes led by Emmeline Pankhurst. New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893, the first self-governing country to do so. The movement won the vote in many countries in the early twentieth century, and it gave way to a second wave in the 1960s.

Open on the timeline