The Evolution of Feminist Movements in New York: From the First Wave to the Era of #MeToo represents a remarkable journey spanning over 175 years of feminist activism, thought, and social change centered in one of America’s most influential states. From the rural setting of Seneca Falls where the first women’s rights convention was held in 1848, to the bustling streets of Manhattan where contemporary #MeToo protests now confront powerful political figures, New York has consistently served as both birthplace and battleground for many of the most significant advances in gender equality. The state’s unique characteristics—its diverse population, concentration of media and financial institutions, vibrant intellectual communities, and political significance—have profoundly shaped feminist organizing and thought through each successive wave. As we examine this evolution, we witness not only how feminist movements have transformed in response to changing social conditions, but also how they have maintained certain core commitments while developing increasingly sophisticated understandings of oppression, identity, and liberation. This historical progression reveals both tremendous achievements and ongoing struggles that continue to define feminist activism in New York today.
The Foundations: First Wave Feminism in New York
First Wave Feminism is formally defined as the period from 1848 to 1920, though its roots draw inspiration from earlier movements including the French Revolution and the Abolitionist Movement1. The watershed moment that launched organized feminism in America took place at the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. It was here that over 300 women and male supporters gathered to sign the “Declaration of Sentiments,” a revolutionary document modeled after the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed all men and women were equal and outlined women’s demands for equality in education, property rights, and suffrage1.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a pivotal figure in this inaugural moment, brought unique qualifications to her role as a feminist leader. Born in 1815 in Johnstown, New York, Stanton grew up in a family with significant legal influence—her father was a prominent judge—and received an education that was exceptional for women of her era. This background provided her with distinctive insights into legal systems that would inform her advocacy for women’s rights throughout her life. Stanton was particularly motivated by the dismissive attitudes she observed toward women’s legal standing, including from her own father1.
As the primary author of the “Declaration of Sentiments,” Stanton crafted a document that listed 16 grievances and 11 resolutions concerning women’s civil, social, political, and religious rights. Her keynote speech at the convention firmly positioned the pursuit of women’s rights within America’s democratic ideals, arguing that women’s subjugation fundamentally violated the founding principles of American democracy1. This strategic framing would prove influential throughout the first wave, as suffragists consistently appealed to American notions of liberty and equality.
While the Seneca Falls Convention established upstate New York as the birthplace of organized American feminism, the movement’s center of gravity would gradually shift toward New York City, particularly as the struggle for suffrage intensified in the early 20th century. By 1910, New York City had emerged as a crucial battleground for the national suffrage movement, as evidenced by the massive demonstration in Union Square on May 21, 1910, where approximately 10,000 people gathered to demand voting rights for women the largest woman suffrage demonstration held in the country up to that point2.
The significance of New York to the national movement was explicitly acknowledged by suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt, who declared in 1909, “New York is the battleground of the whole nation”2. This recognition reflected both New York’s political importance and its unique resources for movement building. Urban suffragists strategically utilized the city’s diverse population, media industry, and financial resources to develop innovative organizing and publicity approaches. Middle-class activists formed effective coalitions with working-class and elite women, creating a broad-based movement that transcended class boundaries while leveraging different types of social capital2.
However, it’s important to acknowledge that racial divisions persisted within the suffrage movement, reflecting broader patterns of segregation and discrimination in American society. Black women in New York, often excluded from or marginalized within white suffrage organizations, formed their own groups to fight for the vote2. This early pattern of exclusion and separate organizing would continue through subsequent waves of feminism, eventually contributing to the development of more intersectional approaches in later feminist movements.
After an initial defeat when woman suffrage first appeared on the New York State ballot in 1915, the movement regrouped and ultimately succeeded in 1917 when male voters granted women the right to vote2. This victory in New York proved crucial for the national movement, helping to set the stage for the passage of the 19th Amendment by Congress in 1919 and its ratification in 19202. The achievement of suffrage represented both the culmination of the first wave’s primary goal and a foundation for future feminist organizing that would address a broader range of gender inequalities.
Bridging the Waves: From Suffrage to Liberation
The period between the achievement of suffrage and the emergence of second-wave feminism in the 1960s is often overlooked in popular narratives of feminist history. Yet these decades saw continued feminist activism and the development of ideas and organizations that would later inform second-wave feminism.
Having secured the vote, women’s organizations in New York shifted their focus to a range of social and economic issues. In New York City, women were particularly active in labor organizing, especially in the garment industry, where female workers fought for better wages and working conditions. The Women’s Trade Union League, with a strong presence in New York, brought together working-class and middle-class women in support of women’s labor rights, demonstrating an early model of cross-class feminist organizing.
During the Great Depression, feminists in New York advocated for women’s economic security, pushing for women’s inclusion in New Deal programs and protections. The economic crisis highlighted gender inequalities in employment and compensation, issues that would later become central to second-wave feminist concerns. Women’s organizations also addressed housing, healthcare, and social welfare policies during this period, often working in coalition with other progressive movements.
World War II temporarily expanded employment opportunities for women, including in New York’s defense industries. The postwar period, however, saw intensified pressure for women to return to domestic roles. This “feminine mystique,” as Betty Friedan would later call it, created tensions for women who had experienced greater economic independence during the war years. In New York’s intellectual circles, critiques of domesticity and gender conformity were beginning to emerge, laying groundwork for the feminist resurgence of the 1960s.
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and early 1960s provided both inspiration and organizing experience for many women who would become second-wave feminists. In New York, women’s participation in civil rights activism, anti-war protests, and New Left politics often led to frustration with the sexism they encountered within these movements, motivating them to form autonomous women’s liberation groups. These experiences highlighted the need for feminist spaces where women could develop analysis and strategy specifically addressing gender oppression.
Radical Transformations: Second Wave Feminism in New York
New York City became an epicenter of second-wave feminist organizing in the late 1960s, with the formation of numerous women’s liberation groups representing different ideological tendencies within the movement. Among the most significant of these groups was New York Radical Women (NYRW), founded in 1967 by former television child star Robin Morgan, Carol Hanisch, Shulamith Firestone, and Pam Allen3.
NYRW’s members were primarily young women in their twenties who had been active in the New Left but had grown frustrated with male-dominated civil rights and anti-war movements, and with men who they saw as still preferring their female counterparts to stay at home3. The group secured meeting space at the offices of the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF), where Carol Hanisch headed the New York office, and held weekly gatherings to develop feminist theory and plan actions3.
New York Radical Women drew nationwide media attention in 1968 when they unfurled a banner inside the Miss America pageant displaying the words “Women’s Liberation”3. This action, along with their protest outside the pageant, became one of the most iconic moments of the women’s liberation movement, often misrepresented in media accounts that focused on a purported “bra burning” that never actually occurred.
The group’s first public action had come earlier that year at the convocation of the Jeannette Rankin Brigade, where they staged an alternative protest event—a “burial of traditional womanhood” held in Arlington National Cemetery3. The liturgy for this creative protest was written and recited by founding member Peggy Dobbins. During this event, Kathie Sarachild coined the phrase “Sisterhood is powerful” in a flier she wrote for her keynote speech3, a slogan that would become central to the women’s liberation movement.
Beyond NYRW, New York City was home to numerous other feminist organizations representing different ideological strands of the movement. Liberal feminists founded the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, focusing on legal and economic equality through institutional channels. Radical feminists formed groups like Redstockings and WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell), engaging in provocative direct actions and developing critiques of patriarchy, sexuality, and reproduction that challenged fundamental social structures. Socialist feminists in New York connected gender oppression to capitalism and class exploitation, arguing that women’s liberation required economic transformation.
New York-based feminists made significant theoretical contributions to second-wave feminism. Kate Millett’s “Sexual Politics” (1970), written while she was a doctoral student at Columbia University, introduced the concept of patriarchy as a system of oppression to a wide audience. Shulamith Firestone’s “The Dialectic of Sex” (1970), written in New York, offered a radical analysis of women’s biological role in reproduction as a root cause of their oppression. These works, among others, helped define the intellectual framework of second-wave feminism, demonstrating New York’s role as an incubator for feminist theory.
The second wave achieved significant legislative and policy changes in New York State. In 1970, New York liberalized its abortion law, three years before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal nationwide. Feminist activists also established crucial services such as women’s health clinics, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters throughout the state, creating alternative institutions that addressed women’s needs outside mainstream medical and social service systems.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, internal divisions within feminism became increasingly pronounced. Critics pointed to the movement’s failure to adequately address the concerns of women of color, working-class women, and lesbian women. These critiques would prove crucial to the development of third-wave feminism with its greater emphasis on intersectionality and diversity.
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Expanding the Lens: Third Wave Feminism in New York
As the 1990s began, a new wave of feminist thought and activism was emerging, characterized by its emphasis on diversity, intersectionality, and a rejection of essentialist notions of womanhood. This third wave built upon critiques of second-wave feminism’s limitations while continuing to pursue gender equality through new approaches and frameworks.
Intersectionality emerged as a defining feature of third-wave feminism4, offering a framework for understanding how multiple forms of oppression interconnect and cannot be examined separately. Conceptualized by Kimberle Crenshaw, a US black feminist legal scholar, intersectionality denotes the multiple and overlapping layers of oppression that affect an individual’s life4. The concept resonated with work being done by scholars in the UK that sought to explore how certain identities can only be understood within the narratives of other identities4.
This approach presented both theoretical and practical challenges for feminists, requiring them to account for multiple and intersecting points of oppression rather than focusing solely on gender4. New York, with its diverse population and vibrant intellectual communities, became an important site for the development and application of intersectional feminist approaches.
Third-wave feminism embraced complexity and contradiction, recognizing the limitations of binary thinking about gender and other aspects of identity. While some observers noted that third wave feminism sought to reclaim and subvert traditional notions of femininity, others characterized it as a polemical defense of “girlieness”4. This tension reflected broader disagreements about feminist strategies for engaging with gender norms and popular culture.
Although frequently associated with women of color and with an emphasis on diversity amongst women, critics noted that white middle-class heterosexual voices remained dominant in many third-wave feminist spaces and publications4. This contradiction between stated values and actual representation would continue to challenge feminist movements, spurring ongoing efforts to center marginalized voices.
Academic influences on third-wave feminism were significant, despite the wave’s sometimes self-declared anti-academic nature4. Post-structuralist and post-colonial theories shaped third-wave thinking, even as activists worked to translate theoretical insights into accessible language and practical action4. This relationship between academic and activist feminism remained complex, with universities serving as both sites of feminist knowledge production and institutions that reproduced various forms of inequality.
The third wave coincided with the early development of digital technologies that would eventually transform feminist organizing. Early feminist websites, listservs, and online communities created new spaces for feminist discourse and activism, allowing for connections across geographical and social boundaries. However, the full potential of digital feminism would not be realized until the fourth wave, when social media platforms enabled unprecedented sharing of feminist ideas and coordination of feminist actions.
Digital Revolution: Fourth Wave and Online Feminism
The emergence of a fourth wave of feminism in the 2010s marked a significant transformation in how feminist movements organize, communicate, and build power. Characterized by its use of digital platforms, its focus on sexual violence and harassment, and its continued development of intersectional approaches, fourth-wave feminism has both built upon previous waves and introduced distinctive strategies and priorities.
Digital technologies have fundamentally altered feminist organizing, creating new possibilities for connection, education, and mobilization. Social media platforms have enabled the rapid sharing of feminist ideas and experiences, allowing movements to grow and adapt quickly in response to events. Hashtag activism has become a powerful tool, with campaigns like #YesAllWomen and later #MeToo creating spaces for sharing experiences of harassment and assault while building consciousness about the pervasiveness of gender-based violence.
Beyond social media activism, feminist digital methods have evolved to include more sophisticated forms of digital collaboration and knowledge production. The Feminist Digital Methods Research Cluster exemplifies this development, fostering “communities of practice around feminist digital methods among practitioners, learners, and researchers across disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields”6. This initiative explores areas including feminist ethics, digital tools and infrastructure, feminist digital pedagogies, and intersectional approaches to feminist digital methods6, demonstrating the ongoing evolution of feminist engagement with technology.
The fourth wave’s commitment to intersectionality has built upon third-wave foundations while responding to evolving understandings of gender, sexuality, and identity. Contemporary feminism is defined by its inclusivity, recognizing that “our gender, our race, disability, class, sexuality, and more – all of these pieces of ourselves generate different lived experiences and also help us understand that no one of us is just one thing”7. This inclusive vision has become “a powerful and integral part of feminism”7, though tensions and contradictions around inclusion and representation persist within feminist movements.
The concept that “the personal is political” remains central to fourth-wave feminism, with a recognition that “our personal experiences are shaped by political realities that may be situated far from us or close to us”7. This understanding informs approaches to activism that connect individual experiences to systemic issues, using personal narratives as a basis for political analysis and action. In this way, fourth-wave feminism continues a tradition established in earlier waves while adapting it to contemporary contexts.
As the fourth wave has evolved, increasing attention has focused on issues of sexual violence and harassment, creating the conditions for the explosive growth of the #MeToo movement. While the phrase “Me Too” was first used by activist Tarana Burke in 2006 as part of her work supporting survivors of sexual violence, it gained unprecedented visibility in 2017 following revelations about sexual misconduct by powerful men in entertainment, media, politics, and other fields. This movement would have profound implications for gender politics in New York and beyond.
Accountability and Resistance: The #MeToo Era in New York
The #MeToo movement emerged as a watershed moment in feminist history, catalyzing a reckoning with sexual harassment and assault across industries and institutions. While the hashtag went viral nationally in October 2017 following allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, New York—as home to major media, entertainment, fashion, and financial industries—became a crucial battleground for the movement.
In New York politics, the movement’s impact has been particularly significant. In 2021, multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Governor Andrew Cuomo led to an investigation by the state attorney general Letitia James. The findings of this investigation ultimately contributed to Cuomo’s resignation in August 20215. Similarly, former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer saw his 2021 mayoral campaign derailed after two women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment from decades earlier5.
By 2025, the #MeToo movement’s influence on New York politics remains evident in the dynamics of the current mayoral race. Three Democratic contenders—Andrew Cuomo, Scott Stringer, and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams—all face allegations of sexual misconduct, creating what observers describe as “a litmus test for the #MeToo movement within New York’s political arena”5. While all three candidates deny the allegations and contest their accusers in court, the presence of these issues in the campaign reflects changed expectations around accountability for sexual misconduct.
Organized efforts to keep these allegations in public view demonstrate the movement’s ongoing commitment to accountability. Groups like “Women Against Cuomo” stage demonstrations at campaign events, confronting supporters with chants like “You are endorsing a sexual harasser!”5. As one activist stated during a rally, “We’re here to remind everyone who thinks they’re supporting a man who will advocate for them about who he truly is”5. These actions reflect a determination to ensure that allegations of sexual misconduct are not dismissed or forgotten in political discourse.
Despite these efforts, significant challenges to accountability persist. Many women who have accused powerful figures like Cuomo are “reluctant to come forward due to fears of retaliation”5. Supporters of accused politicians often question accusers’ credibility, as seen in the case of Mayor Adams, whose allies have challenged the credibility of Lorna Beach-Mathura, who filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault from 19935. These dynamics highlight the continued challenges faced by those who come forward with allegations against powerful individuals.
Beyond politics, the #MeToo movement has transformed workplace policies and practices across New York. Many organizations have implemented more robust sexual harassment prevention training, revised reporting procedures, and addressed power imbalances that enable misconduct. New York State passed strengthened workplace harassment laws in 2018 and 2019, removing the “severe or pervasive” standard for harassment claims and extending protections to independent contractors, domestic workers, and other previously excluded workers.
The movement has also fostered community-based responses to sexual violence. Survivor-led organizations throughout New York have developed innovative approaches to healing and justice outside of criminal legal systems that often fail survivors. These initiatives reflect feminist commitments to transformative justice and community accountability while acknowledging the limitations of existing institutions.
Contemporary Feminist Digital Methods and Intersectionality
As feminist movements in New York and beyond navigate the complex landscape of 2025, digital methods have become increasingly sophisticated, moving beyond social media activism to encompass a range of feminist approaches to technology, research, and knowledge production.
The Feminist Digital Methods Research Cluster exemplifies this evolution, creating intentional space for “dialogues, knowledge sharing, workshops, showcases, and presentations” around feminist digital practices6. This initiative centers early career scholars while welcoming all feminist digital methods practitioners and learners, fostering communities of practice across disciplinary boundaries and levels of expertise6.
The research areas addressed by contemporary feminist digital methods are diverse and interconnected, including feminist ethics, digital tools and infrastructure, feminist digital pedagogies, knowledge production and mobilization, social media and online social networks, online work and labor, performance and activism in digital space, design and content development, collaborative and transnational feminist digital projects, and intersectional approaches to feminist digital methods6. This range demonstrates the breadth and depth of feminist engagement with digital technologies and methodologies.
Intersectionality remains a core principle of contemporary feminist movements, with increasing recognition of how multiple aspects of identity shape lived experiences of gender. As one analysis of modern feminism explains, “Our gender, our race, disability, class, sexuality, and more – all of these pieces of ourselves generate different lived experiences and also help us understand that no one of us is just one thing”7. This understanding informs approaches to organizing that aim to address multiple, interconnected forms of oppression rather than focusing narrowly on gender in isolation.
Contemporary feminism is defined by its inclusivity, actively incorporating and uplifting “the voices of people who have typically been left out of past mainstream feminist movements”7. This includes women of color as well as gender diverse people, reflecting an expansion of feminist analysis beyond binary understandings of gender. This inclusive vision is described as “a powerful and integral part of feminism”7, though tensions and contradictions around inclusion and representation continue to be worked through in feminist movements.
The principle that “the personal is political” continues to inform feminist analysis and organizing, providing “a way of understanding that our personal experiences are shaped by political realities that may be situated far from us or close to us”7. This connection between individual experience and structural analysis allows personal narratives to inform and lead to political solutions, creating bridges between everyday life and broader social transformation.
Challenges and Future Directions for New York Feminism
As feminist movements in New York look toward the future, they face both persistent challenges and emerging opportunities. The accumulated gains of previous waves have created significant changes in law, policy, and social attitudes, yet substantial inequalities remain and new threats continue to emerge.
Economic inequality persists as a central concern, with women—particularly women of color—continuing to face wage gaps, occupational segregation, and barriers to advancement. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these inequalities, with women bearing disproportionate burdens of unemployment, caregiving responsibilities, and essential worker risks. Feminist economic justice initiatives in New York increasingly focus on intersectional approaches that address how gender inequality interacts with race, class, immigration status, and other factors.
Reproductive rights face ongoing challenges, with abortion access under threat nationally even as New York has strengthened protections at the state level. New York feminists work to establish the state as a haven for reproductive healthcare while addressing remaining barriers of cost, accessibility, and stigma. Reproductive justice frameworks, developed by women of color activists, have gained increased prominence, emphasizing the right not only to abortion but to have children and raise them in safe, supportive environments.
The relationship between digital and in-person organizing continues to evolve, with feminist movements developing hybrid approaches that leverage the strengths of both modes. While digital platforms enable rapid mobilization and global connections, they also facilitate harassment and surveillance of feminist activists. New York-based technologists, legal scholars, and organizers are developing feminist approaches to digital security, platform governance, and algorithmic accountability to address these challenges.
The 2025 mayoral race in New York City highlights the ongoing struggle for political accountability regarding sexual misconduct. While the #MeToo movement has created greater awareness and expectation of consequences for such behavior, the presence of three candidates with allegations against them in a major race demonstrates the distance still to be traveled. As women’s groups organize against candidates like former governor Cuomo, stating “You are endorsing a sexual harasser!” to his supporters5, they face the reality that many voters prioritize other issues or dismiss allegations.
Young feminists in New York bring fresh perspectives to longstanding issues while identifying new frontiers for feminist analysis and action. Climate justice, prison abolition, housing rights, and disability justice have emerged as important areas of feminist organizing, reflecting an expansive understanding of gender justice as connected to broader social transformation. These expanding horizons demonstrate feminism’s continuing relevance and adaptability to changing social conditions.
Conclusion
The evolution of feminist movements in New York from the First Wave to the Era of #MeToo reflects a complex, non-linear journey of activism, theory, conflict, and transformation. Throughout this history, New York has served as both birthplace and battlefield for feminist organizing, with its distinctive characteristics making it a crucial site for gender justice struggles.
From the rural setting of Seneca Falls where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others launched the first women’s rights convention in 18481, to the streets of New York City where 10,000 suffragists marched for the vote in 19102, to the protests at Miss America where New York Radical Women unfurled the “Women’s Liberation” banner in 19683, to contemporary demonstrations against politicians accused of sexual misconduct5, New York has consistently been at the forefront of feminist activism and innovation.
Each wave of feminism has built upon previous achievements while responding to limitations and emerging challenges. The first wave established women’s claim to basic rights and citizenship; the second wave expanded feminist analysis into personal relationships and cultural representations; the third wave brought greater attention to diversity and intersectionality; and the fourth wave has utilized digital tools while confronting persistent issues of violence and harassment through movements like #MeToo.
Throughout these evolutions, certain core principles have remained constant: connecting personal experiences with political analysis, recognizing multiple and interconnected systems of oppression, and envisioning social transformation that extends beyond formal equality. As observed in contemporary feminist thought, “The personal is political” remains a fundamental insight, “a way of understanding that our personal experiences are shaped by political realities”7 that can inform collective action for change.
The feminist movements that have emerged in New York over the past 175 years have transformed law, policy, culture, and consciousness in profound ways. From winning the vote to establishing reproductive rights protections to changing workplace policies on sexual harassment, these movements have achieved concrete gains while continuously expanding our understanding of what gender equality means and requires.
As we look toward the future of feminist movements in New York, we can anticipate continued evolution in response to emerging challenges and opportunities. The increasing emphasis on intersectionality and digital methods points toward more inclusive and technologically sophisticated approaches to organizing67. Meanwhile, ongoing efforts to hold powerful figures accountable for sexual misconduct demonstrate both the progress achieved and the work that remains to be done5.
The story of feminism in New York remains unfinished, with each generation building upon, critiquing, and reimagining the work of those who came before. From Seneca Falls to Union Square protests, from consciousness-raising groups to digital activism, from suffrage campaigns to the #MeToo movement, New York’s feminist movements have persistently pursued the radical proposition that gender should not determine one’s rights, opportunities, or safety. This ongoing struggle for gender justice continues to evolve, responding to new conditions while drawing strength from a rich history of feminist resistance, theory, and community-building that has indelibly shaped both New York and the broader landscape of American social movements.
