I am planning on looking at Gender Equality, Womens Rights and Feminism in my exam in response to the freedom and limitations title. I was initially inspired by Instagram accounts that i follow which include and regularly post images of women in a 70’s style of photography which are always tasteful and express the women which are being photographed as strong women who are embracing their sexuality and femininity. I began to consider how prior the 1900’s women were extremely restricted in their rights and ability to be in the workforce and held the stereotypical ‘House mum’ role and were expected to stay at home cook, clean and look after the children. The images which inspired me showed women expressing themselves for who they are and highlights the growing power of ‘The Woman’. For my project i want to focus on how women became more open about their femininity and artist and photographers started creating pieces of work which highlighted the positives of femininity. However there were some negatives with this as actresses in the 70’s were portrayed as only being beautiful and sexy and not intelligent. I want to link these different ideas together in my project to make photographs in the style of 1970’s photographers but put a modern spin on it by using adolescence females and showing femininity and the women in a positive way through the use of strong empowering portraits.

Before just taking these images i wanted to research the feminist movement and look at how it has progressed through time, enhancing the role of the female and improving their rights to bring about gender equality. Below is a mind map of initial ideas, research, artists and ideas for my project.

From my mind map i pinpointed key themes and dates within Feminism including the Suffragist rally and will further explore who the Suffragettes were, whilst exploring the impact they had on improving the lives of women for protesting for their rights.

History of Women

Women's rights -rights that promote a position of legal and social equality of women with men.

Women’s rights were fought for worldwide and formed the basis for the women rights movement in the 19th century and feminist movement during the 20th century. The issues which are commonly associated with womens rights are extensive varying from the right to bodily integrity and autonomy, to have equal rights in family law, too fair wages and the right to education.

Ancient History

Mesopotamia- Women’s rights have always been questionable even since the earliest times periods such as the Mesopotamia. Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell, and inherit property, they could also testify in court as witnesses. However their husbands could divorce them for mild infractions, and a divorced husband could easily remarry another woman, provided that his first wife had borne him no offspring.Divorce in these times left women with little to know rights in the area and power seemed to lie with the husbands.

Egypt – In ancient Egypt women enjoyed the same rights under the law as a men, however rightful entitlements depended upon social class. Landed property descended in the female line from mother to daughter, and women were entitled to administer their own property.

The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848–1920 – The beginning of the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States, which predates Jeannette Rankin’s entry into Congress by nearly 70 years, grew out of a larger women’s rights movement. That reform effort evolved during the 19th century, initially emphasizing a broad spectrum of goals before focusing solely on securing the franchise for women. Women’s suffrage leaders, moreover, often disagreed about the tactics and whether to prioritize federal or state reforms. Ultimately, the suffrage movement provided political training for some of the early women pioneers in Congress, but its internal divisions foreshadowed the persistent disagreements among women in Congress and among women’s rights activists after the passage of the 19th Amendment. The sometimes-fractious suffrage movement that grew out of the Seneca Falls meeting proceeded in successive waves. Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women’s rights, including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and the absence of a voice in political debates. During the 1880s, the two wings of the women’s rights movement struggled to maintain momentum. The AWSA was better funded and the larger of the two groups, but it had only a regional reach. The NWSA, which was based in New York, relied on its statewide network, but also drew recruits from around the nation largely on the basis of the extensive speaking circuits of Stanton and Anthony. Neither group attracted broad support from women or persuaded male politicians or voters to adopt its cause. The turning point came in the late 1880s and early 1890s, when the nation experienced a surge of volunteerism among middle-class women—activists in progressive causes, members of women’s clubs and professional societies, temperance advocates, and participants in local civic and charity organizations. The determination of these women to expand their sphere of activities further outside the home helped legitimize the suffrage movement and provided new momentum for the NWSA and the AWSA. state legislature granted women the right to vote in 1913. This marked the first such victory for women in a state east of the Mississippi River. Women in the NWSA continued to fight for rights in political terms. After this period the Suffragists movement began to be more reguarly photographed with worldwide photographers beginning to photograph their local areas, but not on the protests which the suffragettes carried out but also the evergrowing role of the woman aswell and capturing the feminimity of women became more widely excepted as photographers where pushing the boundaries of photography.

Women’s Suffrage

Women’s suffrage was the right for women to vote in election as limited voting rights were gained by women in Finland, Iceland, Sweden and some Australian colonies and western U.S. states in the late 19th century. Some of the more independent countries such as Canada and Britain interacted in the interwar era. The women’s contribution to the war effort challenged the notion of women’s physical and mental inferiority and made it more difficult to maintain that women were, both by constitution and temperament, unfit to vote. If women could work in munitions factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. Nonetheless the right to vote was to the women a lot more than because of them contributing in war efforts

Womens Suffrage in the UK – Through protests for the right to vote by mass participation of women in great britain, women secured the right to vote through 2 laws which were in 1918 and 1928. The Suffragette campaigns erose when WW1 broke out and political tensions were ever growing.  Along with these suffragist movements and protests came the Feminist movement where women and men thought to establish political, social, and economic equality for women. For my project i want to more narrowly focus on the feminist movement and the rights that were gained for women due to this movement as well as explore the works of artists and photographers throughout the time period and how they portrayed women and the feminist movement through their art. Feminism has been a huge part of every females history and through this project i want to enhance my knowledge and understanding of my history and i thought there was no better time to do it than on the 100th anniversary of women receiving the right to vote.