Feminism: where did it all begin?

Meanwhile, British feminists were organising around property rights. From 1860 to around 1930, women were united by the suffragette movement, which pulled British and American feminists in line with the same goal – universal suffrage. Much like the activists of the '70s and '80s, the women who took part in suffragette campaigns marched, picketed, and staged demonstrations. Reactions from the authorities were often violent, and street clashes common.

But by 1920 American women had won the vote, followed by British women in 1928.

Two World Wars and the rise of socialism saw an increase in the number of women in paid work, but the majority of jobs were either as low-paid factory workers or in so-called 'women's fields', such as teachers and clerks. Between 1940 and 1950, the percentage of women who worked doubled, and for the first time married women started taking jobs. It was a tough post-war decade, with women playing an increasingly important economic role, yet still restricted careerwise and expected to manage their homes and children as well as their jobs. The passion of the suffragettes began to fade into the pallor of the suburbs.

But then the '60s and '70s came blowin' in the wind, and along with the leather sandals and the love-ins came a fervent upswing in politicisation on all levels - most importantly, on the personal front. Lower infant-mortality rates, higher adult life expectancy, a more relaxed moral outlook and the Pill gave women greater freedom both sexually and with regard to child-rearing. Traditional societal structures, from the nuclear family to the heterosexual couple, were questioned, and consciousness-raising sessions (which facilitated personal dialogue) replaced kitchen teas. Formative texts by the likes of Mary Daly, Betty Friedan, Kate Millet, Germaine Greer and Adrienne Rich became feminist classics, and the Women’s Liberation Movement made significant gains in the fight for equal pay for equal work, state support for childcare, the legalisation of abortion, and legislation regarding rape and domestic abuse.

It was a heady time, but it was also during this period that the stereotype of the militant feminist was created, mostly by a nervous media and partly by a threatened establishment: the braless, strident, hairy-legged Amazon who – horror of horrors – didn’t want or need a man in her life. Who, in turn, was seen as unattractive and unwanted by men.