The First Wave Feminists used the strategy of unity and focus on one primary goal to eventually earn the right to vote. The wave began in 1848 when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled overseas to England to attend a world conference and were denied seating because they were women. Fed up with the suppression and inequalities both women came home to Seneca, New York and staged a gathering now famously known as the Seneca Falls Convention. With this, the Declaration of Sentiments was written in model of the Declaration of Independence, both calling for some form of freedom. After this event First Wave Feminists gradually gained momentum on the women’s rights issue, specifically targeting the right to vote. In the 1850s The Equal Rights Association, an organization of suffragists and abolitionists who wanted universal suffrage rights, was created. From this time up until the 1870s the ERA fought state by state. Finally, in 1870 the ERA split and the suffrage issue split into both a state by state as well as national moment. Staying apart for nearly twenty years the forces reunited forming the National American Suffrage Association. From this point forward the First Wave remained on a national level. Eventually, in 1920 the 19th Amendment was ratified and the First Wave Feminists goal was finally reached. Throughout the thirty two year ordeal the suffrage moment was fought together. Starting as a state by state issue, the problem eventually was realized nationwide. With women of all ages, races, and from all areas unified on one issue the woman’s right to vote finally was made a reality.
Today, such a strategy would be affective in the aspect of union of all feminists on one primary goal; however, the issue would have to be taken national in order to accomplish results. Today there are several different types of feminists, all of which have differing views and varying values. If all of these different groups could come together to fight for one common objective the affects would be astonishing. But in order to see progress in this day and age the issue at hand needs to be brought to the federal government to be effective. National attention is more influential today than working at a state level. In additional, national issues persuade a larger majority of the nation to agree with the issue in a shorter period of time. In reality, the First Wave was an excellent model in portrayal of a nation coming together to fight for what they all believed in. If such powerful moments could happen today I believe the world would be a much different, unified place.
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This is a good post, but I think you need to be clearer about what you mean by "union." It seems that you're describing the unity of purpose of the First Wave as an effective strategy, but it's important to note that there were still disagreements, diversity, strife, dichord, disunity, etc. in the First Wave. Also, watch out for typos!
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