ABSTRACT
Liberal feminism originated during the 'first wave' of feminist activity, roughly from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1950s; came into full flower in the so-called 'second wave' of feminist activity, roughly from the 1960s through the 1980s; and began to transform and restructure itself at the start of the so-called 'third wave' of feminist activity, approximately from the 1990s to the present. In Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Alison Jaggar observed that liberal political thought generally locates our uniqueness as human beings in our capacity for rationality. Classical liberals think the state should limit its intrusions or interventions to protecting civil liberties or fundamental rights (e.g., property and voting rights; freedom of speech, religion, and association). Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1799) wrote at a time when the economic and social position of bourgeois (upper- and middle-class) European women was in decline. Writing approximately one hundred years later, Harriet Taylor and John Stuart Mill joined Wollstonecraft in celebrating rationality.
