Simone de Beauvoir said Christine de Pizan was the first woman to "take up her pen in defense of her sex." She was the first woman who made a living by writing. She lived in France in the 15th century.

Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Feminist Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 1993) is a classic. She traces the earliest stages of women resisting patriarchal ideas from the Middle Ages to the 18th century in Western Europe and the United States. She mentions a nun in the 10th century named Hrosvitha of Gandersheim who wrote plays but suffered social condemnation for expressing herself.

Thank you very much@Catherine Standford

Both Aristophanes (Lysistrata) and Xenophon (Oeconomicus) have been described as protofeminists. One idea mentioned by both is that women’s financial management of the household qualified them to manage the finances of the city state. Plato also advocated political equality between women and men (cf. Gregory Vlastos, "Was Plato a feminist?) The key qualification here is "proto", since these men were also products of their time.

Eve

I agree with Karl Pfeifer

Thank you very much.

In response to Eve being the first feminist, I would add a counter: Lilith from the Jewish tradition who is described as the rebellious first wife of Adam.

I think men can have feminist consciousness, but it takes a woman who is defining herself to be a feminist, i.e., someone acting from her own consciousness of autonomy (albeit in a social context, since no human being is an island, thanks John Donne, "No man is an island entire of itself").

Paternalism is not liberation but may open up a space for women to develop their autonomy, by which I mean a sense of agency, both desire and power to make a contribution in life. Authority comes when a social movement has won the right for women to act on their sense of autonomy as a human being. Feminism being defined as "that radical notion that women are human beings" (attributed to Cheris Kramarae, A Feminist Dictionary, 1991) and a famous bumper-sticker/ T-shirt message!

Thank you very much.

Eve and Lilith feminists? This is getting ridiculous. One may as well argue that australopithecus Lucy was a feminist because she walked upright. At least Lucy was real.

@ Catherine Stanford

RE: I think men can have feminist consciousness, but it takes a woman who is defining herself to be a feminist

Ah yes, the old you have to be a bird to be an ornithologist argument. So not even John Stuart Mill qualifies as a feminist?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subjection_of_Women

During second-wave feminism in the US, Jewish feminists started using the legend of Lilith as a symbol of an independent woman to counter the stories about her that were used for gender socialization. They are using the well-known interpretative method known as midrash.

Lilith stories appear in the Talmud as midrash and hint at women resisting gender norms, even as the male rabbis were writing about that with negative, prescriptive intent. In historical analysis, such writing often means those with religious and educational authority are warning about ongoing behavior they want to control. Even women without modern feminist consciousness were not always meekly obedient in a patriarchal household.

See Dame, Enid (ed) Which Lilith?: Feminist Writers Re-Create the World's First Woman (Jason Aronson, 1998)

Also see this entry about the Jewish feminist magazine called "Lilith": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_%28magazine%29

@ Catherine Stanford

RE: Lilith and the like

Myths, legends, fictions, and symbols are fine, but how is that relevant to the question that was asked, namely who was the first feminist in history? In any case, if you want to go that route there are lots of competitors, such as Draupadi and Mami Wata, that feminists have also given their imprimatur. I personally favor more recent symbolic fictions such as Xena and Wonder Woman.

The kind of arguments that Eve uses especially in order to persuade Adam to allow her to work independently in the Garden of Eden in Milton's Paradise Lost Book IX are arguments that a feminist of contemporary times could use.

@ Nazir Ali RE: "the kind of arguments that Eve uses ... in the Garden of Eden in Milton's Paradise Lost Book IX"

Then it is Milton who is the (proto)feminist, his Eve being his literary device symbolic of feminism.

I'm glad we are able to agree that Milton is a feminist because he also been accused of rank male chauvinism.However, to argue the case, sometimes characters created epitomise certain traits, Malapropism, for example.

@ Catherine Stanford

Will surprises never cease? 🙆 Looks like I was too hasty; some feminists are beginning to take up Lucy Australopithecus Afarensis's cause after all. Lucy may yet benefit from a secular midrash that ensures her a seat in the pantheon of earliest female feminists:

• http://articles.latimes.com/1997-03-11/news/mn-37003_1_early-huma
• Robin Morgan, The Word of a Woman: Feminist Dispatches —— https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sZiWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT134&dq=The+Word+of+a+Woman:+Feminist+Dispatches+%22lucy%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIlc2O_qXdAhXPBIgKHcWsBAYQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Word%20of%20a%20Woman%3A%20Feminist%20Dispatches%20%22lucy%22&f=false

Dear Nazir. Some people wonder....

Is John Milton a Misogynist, a Feminist, or a Sexist?

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Milton-Misogynist-Feminist-or-Sexis

Dear Esma,

A poet of such 'epic' dimensions will speak through polyphonic voices. To call him a feminist or misogynist is a sort of reductionism. He is more than the sum of his parts. Nazir

Dear Nazir,

You are right. Can't he be all of them because as you said he is poet. And poets are different than others?

I have just seen your another question on Feminism. Since, I could not write in details about it. I did my procedure to find an answer and the easiest method is to GOOGLE the question. And here are few answers. I hope it would work for you.

History of Feminism.

Wilhelmina Drucker (1847–1925) was a politician, a prolific writer and a peace activist, who fought for the vote and equal rights through political and feminist organisations she founded. In 1917–1919 her goal of women's suffrage was reached.

Who invented feminism?

The Man Who Coined "Feminism" In 1837, radical French philosopher Charles Fourier invented feminisme in writing about the indelible link between women's status and social progress ("Liberty, unless enjoyed by all, is unreal and illusory. . ." he wrote). But a true feminist Fourier was not.Jan 5, 2015.

Who started feminist movement?

The first gathering devoted to women's rights in the United States was held July 19–20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. The principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a mother of four from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott.

Who invented the word feminism?

The term “feminism” originated from the French word “feminisme,” coined by the utopian socialist Charles Fourier, and was first used in English in the 1890s, in association with the movement for equal political and legal rights for women.Apr 5, 2017

What are the three types of feminism?

As with every social movement, feminism encompasses a variety of political tendencies. There are three main types of feminism: socialist, reformist, and radical/separatist.

Dear Esma,

A poet or a playwright has to speak through a multiplicity of voices if he has to create authentic characters. He is a chameleon adopting various disguises and this is where he differs from others.

It depends on what you mean by “feminist”:

I would say the first feminist was Christine de Pizan, a 15th-century French writer who advocated for equality in society for men and women. She was particularly keen on giving women equal access to education.

Now the first person to argue that women should have the right to vote was Marquis Nicolas de Condorcet (1743–1794), who was a French philsopher during the Enlightenment.

Best Regards Esma Mustafa

Christine de Pizan a french 25th c writer was the first feminist in the Renaissance who advocate for equal access to educa tion. however i believe that Debra Ruth and Esther on the Bible were the first feminist. Devra was a judge and Esther stop up for her people and Édith engagés in field work not tradutionally accessible to females.

Dr Réagan Lorraine Lavorata PhD

Éli Manning

What are the empirical articles that prove who started feminist theory?