Introduction
The word feminism can bring up several images to our minds at once. Some may be of the suffragette women, others of the punk bands Bikini Kill or Huggy Bear from the feminist punk rock bands who promoted women’s liberation through their music (Moakes 2008). Yet others may have a more negative connotation, and this has lead to a development for both sides. While some claim that feminism is nothing but a movement to promote women’s domination instead of liberation, it is difficult to judge without knowing the background and history of a movement.
This essay looks at the beginnings of feminism and the women who brought it through each of its successive stages. First as an idea, then as social action and campaigning, and finally as a movement that has touched the lives of women and men around the world. It will endeavor to examine its roots and calculate the reason that feminism has garnered such a strong argument both for and against itself and why it is more important than ever that society learns to accept feminism not just as a women’s rights movement but as an ongoing endeavor for human rights and equality between the sexes.
The First Wave
The first wave of feminism began in the nineteenth century and carried on till the early twentieth century. The focus of the first wave was to gain political power with the main objective of obtaining the right to vote. The woman suffragette movement began in the United States in 1848 during a women’s rights convention held