Women's Movements in E urope

Abstract Women's movements in Europe appeared during the second half of the nineteenth century, a time of nation‐state building and slow progress towards the realization of democratic principles. Women were excluded from the political realm, but they could increasingly organize on behalf of their (constrained) identities as women. Among the various emerging women's organizations, mostly dedicated to philanthropic and social reform work, some sought to challenge women's subordination to men. By the first decades of the twentieth century, a number of these organizations began to identify as “feminist,” after the term coined by French suffragist Hubertine Auclert. While not all women's movements overtly struggled against gender hierarchy and saw themselves as feminist, all addressed women as a constituency and devoted a large part of their energies to work for women.