ABSTRACT
This essay analyzes the emergence, globalization, and transformation of European-origin feminist movements over the long twentieth century (1880–1995). The essay recognizes two dominant modes of feminist internationalism: so-called social feminism and egalitarian feminism. Social feminism endeavored to address gender-specific problems and improve the welfare and status of women through collective action. Egalitarian feminism sought individual political, legal, and social rights for women so they could achieve equality with men. Using examples from around the world, but with a special focus on Pacific Rim countries and the Global South, this essay charts how these two lines of feminist movements contended, negotiated, and collaborated with each other to get intergovernmental organizations to recognize women’s issues. Over the 115 years studied in this essay, both social and egalitarian feminist movements diversified from their Euro-American, Christian, and bourgeois base, attempting to become culturally and socially representative in order to improve the status of women around the world.
