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Students of United States history, seeking to identify the circumstances
that encouraged the emergence of feminist movements, have thoroughly
investigated the mid-nineteenth-century American economic and social condition
that affected the status of women. These historians, however, have analyzed less
fully the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the
same period. Furthermore, the ideological origins of feminism in the United
State have been obscured because, even when historians did take into account
those feminist ideas and activities occurring within the United States, they
failed to recognize that feminism was then a truly international movement
actually centered in Europe. American feminist activists who have been described
as “solitary” and “individual theorists” were in reality connected to a movement
— utopian socialism — which was already popularizing feminist ideas in Europe
during the two decades that culminated in the first women’s rights conference
held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Thus, a complete understanding of the
origins and development of nineteenth-century feminism in the United States
requires that the geographical focus be widened to include Europe and that the
detailed study already made of social conditions be expanded to include the
ideological development of feminism.
The earliest and most popular of the utopian socialists were the
Saint-Simonians. The specifically feminist part of Saint-Simonianism has,
however, been less studied than the group’s contribution to early socialism.
This is regrettable on two counts. By 1832 feminism was the central concern of
Saint-Simonianism and entirely absorbed its adherents’ energy; hence, by
ignoring its feminism, European historians have misunderstood Saint-Simonianism.
Moreover, since many feminist ideas can be traced to saint-simonianism European
historians’ appreciation of later feminism in France and the United States
remained limited.
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