ABSTRACT
European feminism as intellectual, artistic, political, and overall cultural and lifestyle movement is rich and complex. My synthesis of how historians have mapped these developments represents a snapshot of an evolving narrative and therefore is incomplete and partial to my own understanding of feminism and the related scholarship. This chapter charts some of the major personalities, moments, ideas, and processes in the long history of how feminism as an idea and feminists as historical actors have changed or tried to change, unsuccessfully in many cases, structural forms of gender inequity in Europe and Russia from antiquity on. Tensions and alliances, contests and dialogues among feminists from various parts of this densely populated landscape are part of this story.
