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.
Women Against Feminism
Major historical movements of women against feminism began in the 19th century. After the “women’s movement” in 1848, created by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who fought for women's right to vote a counterculture, known as first wave antifeminists movements, began. The antifeminists or this era believed the traditional way of life was threatened by the feminist agenda. Antifeminists opposed women's rights in the public and private sphere, labor forces, and anything related to reproductive freedom. During the early 20th century another larger opposition was towards Women's Suffrage. The primary arguments for anti-suffragists were that women have no place in the political world. They believed women's obligations and duties would be diminished if there were to participate and that they would be overburdened.