During the First Wave of the women's suffrage movement there wasn't much jailing and physical harm, especially when compared to that of the movement in Britain. However, tactics such as picketing and hunger-strikes were used sparingly. The activists participating in these were arrested, jailed, and force-fed. I do not think that these strategies would be effective for feminist activists today because this is how opponents of feminism picture feminists. By picketing and participating in hunger-strikes, feminists would just be reinforcing the negative thoughts that anti-feminists have about them.
I don't think that issues like racism still divides feminist movements today-at least I haven't heard of any examples of this. I think it would have been better if the suffragists would have remained a part of the Black Rights Movement. It's better to have one big group fighting together than two smaller groups that somewhat disagree with each other. If they would have remained together, I think that women's suffrage would have come much sooner after black men suffrage than it did. To be a successful activist during the First Wave, you would have to be very determined and be able to rebound after failure. You would have to be able to stand by your platform even when it seems that no one else agrees or is willing to fight with you. Activists also had to be very educated so that they would know how to best go about getting things done. Having connections is also a huge part of activism because if you don't know the right people it's hard to accomplish your goals, especially on capital hill.
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Although I agree with you that there wasn't a lot of physical harm, I think that there was still some. I think that when these women were force-fed, it actually did cause them a bit of physical pain as well as emotional pain.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that opponents of feminism would probably just use the activities as more ammo for discrediting feminists.
I also agree with you about there not being racism in feminist movements today. Although I've never heard of any such incidents either, I do not know if there have been small incidents of racism or not. However, I would like to think that - as a society - we've matured and grown past racism.
I agree with your comments about women's suffrage coming sooner if the two groups had stayed together. That entire situation was ridiculous. I also very much agree with your statements on the qualities of a first wave feminism activist!