Feminist News Media

First-Wave Feminist News Media (1848–1920)

Women committed to improving their gender's legal, political, social, and economic status in America in the nineteenth century faced formidable obstacles. Under the English common law principle of femme coverte, upon marriage women suffered a legal death. Wives had no right to own property, sign contracts, or retain custody of their children in the event of a legal separation. Divorces were rarely granted. Social customs also placed women at a disadvantage. Under the cult of domesticity that developed in the early nineteenth century, women and men occupied different spheres—men within business/industry and women within the home. Nonetheless, certain women were involved in the temperance and abolitionist reform movements of the antebellum period. It was at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 that the seeds of America's women's rights movement were sown. The American delegation to the convention included women, yet only men were seated. Women delegates and witnesses sat in the galleries; among them were [Page 576]activists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who would organize the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The two would also play a role in developing the feminist news media of the first wave.

All reform organizations need communication vehicles to update members and to foster a sense of community. The first wave of the feminist (women's rights) movement in America was no exception. Like many other reforms of the time, women's rights advocates relied on conventions as their primary organizational, informational, and support structure. Letter writing also served as an important means of communication. However, these two methods reached a relatively small number of women's rights supporters. How to reach other supporters became a key question for the women's rights movement during the antebellum period.

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