The front pages of news outlets are constantly littered with battles of the rights to abortion, closing the wage-gap, and female equality. In today’s society, the rights of women are readily the subject of some of the world’s greatest political issues. However, the rise of feminism and the fight for women’s equality had a beginning much like all international social movements. Women all around the globe took it upon themselves to demand equal societal status through rights to education, voting, a place in the workforce, and liberation from the binds of man’s superiority and their roles in the home.

The 19th and early twentieth century is credited as the first wave of feminism, a global movement that found women in all societies fighting for equality and simple liberties, taking the first steps towards the breadth of gender equality of today. This period gave birth to female revolutionaries such as Anna Howard Shaw of the United States who fought for women’s place in the workforce and against the “male fear” of women’s prosperity. Bahithat al-Badiya of the Middle East campaigned for female education and challenged male superiority while staying within the confounds of female modesty and male dominance of her more traditionalist society. Qiu Jin of China challenged the traditional practices of altering female bodies and the idea of female ownership by men. These women and many more joined the ever growing movement of the first wave of feminism. As their methods and degrees of extremism varied, their shared message remained clear. The days of female submission and silence was over. A new call for justice rang clear through the hearts of many women worldwide, signaling the rise of feminism. 

The rise of activism, industrialization, professionalization, and the victories of previously oppressed groups fueled a women’s desire for equality. The Battle of Tsushima, in May of 1905, had effectively terminated the Russo-Japanese War with Japanese victory. This rare and unexpected demonstration of Asian dominance over the unbeatable European powers lit a “worldwide eruption of ‘colored pride’” naming Japan ‘The Rising Sun’, rising from inferiority to champions. Such a profound and unexpected victory demonstrated the possibility of triumph of the under-dog, and in the case of female activism, women. Turkish novelist and secular-minded feminist Halide Edip named her newborn son after the Japanese admiral Tōgō. Young Turk exile writer Abdullah Cevdet wrote of “Japan as the carrier of the sword, for the oppressors, for the insolent invaders; the torch for the oppressed, for those that shine unto themselves”. Japan was a torch for the silent but ever present ember of feminism. 

While Japan and her victory set the example of triumph for those living as subject to Western colonizers, it also inspired females all over the world. The speedy growth of industrialization and professionalization in all four continents effectively pushed women out of their homes and into the workforce. The inventions of man transformed products that had once been part of a women’s work in the home (such as making clothes and tending to the garden) to a machines work in a factory, one that is run and overseen by none other than men. As women’s work in the household dwindled, what else is she supposed to occupy herself with? It is from this question that first stemmed women’s desire to enter the workforce. 

Professionalism also contributed to the campaign of women’s rights. Women for centuries were regarded as society's natural caretakers which would have made them society’s natural doctors and nurses. However, men in government began to systematically exclude women from professions in medicine through power plays such as requiring licensing that is only granted to males. This led women to fight for a return to their historically assigned positions in society, which through the course of the modernization of society have been moved outside of the home and into the workforce. How can women be blamed for chasing positions in their natural talents and instincts that have been pushed away from them by men?

These factors together contributed to heating the burning embers of many women globally who finally decided it was time to fight back. 

Leaders of the first feminist movement arose in all corners of the globe. However, the degree of extremism and the extent at which they advocated for female liberation varied based upon the willingness of their society to accept change and adapt to modernity.

The basis of the American dream (equality, liberty, democracy, prosperity, and free speech) allowed female rights activists in the United States to be more progressive and demanding, earlier on in the ‘first wave’. The suffragettes were outspoken on a variety of injustices. They argued that women should not be blamed for neglecting their role of mother, but instead men should be blamed for neglecting their duty to bring positive change to households and the streets through the betterment of infrastructure, education, nutrition, and medicine in their roles of public officials and citizens. Women have begun to leave their roles in the household behind not because of their own ‘greed’ but “because changed economic conditions through inventive genius and industrial centralization have laid their hands upon the isolated labors and products of woman’s toil, and brought them forth from the tent, the cottage, and the farm house, to the shop, the factory, and the marketplace”. American suffragettes contended that “which is desirable is not that the greatest possible number of children should be born into the world; the need is for more intelligent motherhood and fatherhood, and for better born and better educated children'', the priority of education and quality of life over high birth rate. Women educated and in the workplace drew on the ‘male fear’ of loss of femininity and a decreased birth rate. A fear that suffragettes worked to better  prove illegitimate. 

The traditional patriarchal culture of much of the Middle East was well known for its image of a woman. Women were seen as intellectually and morally inferior to men. Their lives were closely regulated to protect their chastity and prevent them from tempting men to sin. A strict code of behaviour was expected of a woman which emphasized obedience to men, avoidance of contact with men outside of her family, and modesty. Female activists of the ‘first wave of feminism’ challenged these traditionally Islamic built societal expectations, however they were forced to take a quite kinder and less forward approach (in comparison to suffragettes) to achieve any sort of victory. The intensity of the stringency on the above expected behaviours of women was severe enough to soften the demands and views of outspoken Middle Eastern feminists. Nonetheless brave, these women questioned the origin of ‘man over woman’; “Men say to us categorically, “You women have been created for the house and we have been created to be the breadwinners.” Is this a G-d-given dictate? How are we to know this since no holy book has spelled it out?” These women, similar to suffragettes in America, bring to question the work of the home that has been taken by male inventors and workers; “They [men] gave us rest but at the same time pushed us out of work...” Also in parallel with the demands of suffragettes, Middle Eastern women too wanted education, including basic home and medical education, without restriction. They claimed education would “elevate us in the eyes of men”, seemingly a way to appeal to the male decision makers of their society. Middle Eastern feminists, unlike American suffragettes, campaigned for a more reasonable style of dress. They stressed that “the imprisonment in the home of the Egyptian woman of the past is detrimental while the current freedom of the Europeans is excessive.'' Both extremes should be replaced with the modestly modern covering of the Turkish women, “she falls between two extremes and doe not violate what Islam prescribes.”

Women and young girls in China were treated as things to be traded, as “girls are eventually someone else’s property and therefore are treated with coldness and disdain.” A woman’s sole purpose was for marriage, her “future life is placed in the hands of a couple of shameless matchmakers and a family seeking rich and powerful in-laws.” It was a common practice to bind a girl’s feet from a young age so that her feet would grow small, labeling her as an attractive female and more likely to find a suitor. Chinese feminists of the ‘first wave’  attacked the horrifying nature of the practice and demanded justice and equality for Chinese women. Qiu Jin, a prominent Chinese feminist in the early twentieth century, was particularly radical and passionate compared to her colleagues, especially on the topic of foot binding. Similar to the outspoken American suffragettes and modest Middle Eastern feminists, Chinese feminists insisted on education for women. Qiu spoke to two hundred fellow countrywomen on education; “After your sons are born, send them to schools. You must do the same for your daughters and, whatever you do, don’t bind their feet.”emphasizing the need for gender equality. 

In Chinese society, it is men who have all power, politically, socially, and domestically. Feminism in China was focused on simply gaining the association of women with human, hopefully leading to her gaining independence, self-respect, and a choice in her future. In protection of China, Qiu urged a female audience that they “cannot rely on men anymore because they aren’t even able to protect themselves. If we (women of China) don’t take heart now and shape up, it will be too late when China is destroyed.” Qiu stressed that females must take back their power that they readily allowed men to take from them, effectively transforming their role into slaves of their own making . With women in near slavery, China cannot benefit from the natural abilities and wisdom of the female.

The female leaders of these countries greatly differed in which extremes of equality and liberation of women they demanded. From education (a desire they all shared), to modifications to attire and to the shape of a girl's feet, to ending female ownership, and to earning a place in the workforce; all these were liberties considered radical and unacceptable in their societies. Despite their differences, these brave women from differing backgrounds and corners of the world fought and spoke out for equality and justice for their gender, making them all feminists of the ‘first global wave of feminism’. 

The ‘first wave of feminism’ was a global movement, inciting women all over the world to fight for their rights, for their humanity, and for their liberties. They were headed by brave, outspoken, and radical feminists, some even inspired by Japanese victory over European dominance, fueled by industrialization, tired of injustice, and angered by professionalization and ‘male fear’. Their volume and widespread revolutionary ideas remarkably elicited change on the governmental level of their countries, no matter how strict and traditionalist their societies were known to be. Some countries took longer to convince than others. However, each government one by one surrendered to the demands of their female populations. The willingness of each society to adapt to changing women’s roles by changing their rigidness on the expectations of females eludes to the ability of that society to modernize, or accept modernity. For example, the West was commonly known to be in some ways more accepting of women’s demands and therefore accepted as first to modernize. In 1894, South Australia was the first region to grant women the right to vote. Alternatively, the East, known to be more rigid on female place in society, had Azerbaijan as the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1919, years after the beginnings of female freedoms in the west. 

It has been a long journey from the ‘first global wave of feminism’ to today. However, women all over the world are still fighting for basic rights to education, voting, work outside of the home, and a place out from under the oppression of male dominance and forced male superiority. Feminism is no longer a wave but an ever present battle that will remain for millennia as women will never stop fighting for equality, that unfortunately still remains unobtained.