Illustration shows a torch-bearing female labeled "Votes for Women", symbolizing the awakening of the nation's women to the desire for suffrage, striding across the western states, where women already had the right to vote, toward the east where women are reaching out to her.
Formally beginning in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, the first wave of feminism emerged “out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics” (Rampton). It is considered to be the first large-scale feminist surge with the goal of opening up new opportunities for women, and it largely focused on gaining the right to vote. At the time, many women in the movement believed that , in order to achieve other feminist goals in the future, the right to vote was essential. As women protested, spoke at conventions, and became leaders of this political movement, the male-dominated society of the time and the gender spheres it propagated were heavily threatened. Although this first wave did not end in complete equality for women by any means, it began an awakening and alerted women and men alike that women were capable of much more than being wives and mothers (Margaret D. Kamitsuka).
