Introduction

What’s in a name? – feminism, womanism, women’s liberation, gender social justice, the women’s movement, woman suffrage, and so many others. This undecided naming of pro-women activism is just one indication of a fraught and simultaneously energizing phenomenon that is centuries old. The pages that follow trace the complex, often hotly debated history of these names as ideas, political undertakings, ideologies, and everyday practices across the globe. Almost from the beginning of oral and written history, records exist worldwide of feminist-like thought and active behavior on women’s behalf. The aims of these were to advance the cause of women by eliminating both legal inequity and women’s everyday exclusions from rights and power. Amid restrictions and even in the face of violence, women nonetheless achieved distinction, faithfully executed their social responsibilities, and wielded power. This anthology presents both macro- and micro-evidence of the wide-ranging and ever-changing contours of feminism as an idea and feminist activism around the world and across time. It also considers multiple visions and multiply named dreams of future worlds and the development of almost uncountable feminist programs for change.