History of feminism
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met in 1840 while en route to London where they were shunned as women by the male leadership of the first World's Anti-Slavery Convention. In 1848, Mott and Stanton held a woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where a declaration of independence for women was drafted. Lucy Stone helped to organize the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850, a much larger event at which Sojourner Truth, Abby Kelley Foster, and others spoke sparked Susan B. Anthony to take up the cause of women's rights. In December 1851, Sojourner Truth contributed to the feminist movement when she spoke at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. She delivered her powerful “Ain’t I a Woman” speech in an effort to promote women’s rights by demonstrating their ability to accomplish tasks that have been traditionally associated with men. Barbara Leigh Smith met with Mott in 1858, strengthening the link between the transatlantic feminist movements.
Who Stole Feminism?
According to Sommers, many feminist theorists and researchers have dealt with male critics by calling them "sexist" or "reactionary", and female critics by calling them "traitors" or "collaborators", and that such tactics have "alienated and silenced women and men alike." In her view, gender feminism began to develop in the middle of the 1960s, due to "the antiwar and antigovernment mood" and the influence of thinkers such as Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Herbert Marcuse, and Frantz Fanon. Sommers writes that Kate Millett's "Sexual Politics" (1969) "was critical in moving feminism in this new direction", teaching women that politics is "essentially sexual" and that "even the so-called democracies" are "male hegemonies." Sommers points to philosopher Michel Foucault and his "Discipline and Punish" (1975) as influences on Wolf and Susan Faludi, author of "" (1991). She argues that Foucault's work is overrated. Discussing the influence of feminists on college campuses, she writes that in many cases feminist "consciousness-raisers are driving out the scholars". She adds that, "The gender feminists have proved very adroit in getting financial support from governmental and private sources" and "hold the keys to many bureaucratic fiefdoms, research centers, women's studies programs, tenure committees, and para-academic organizations. It is now virtually impossible to be appointed to high administrative office in any university system without having passed muster with the gender feminist".