First, women’s equality meant having the right to vote. In the 1850s, women like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were sick of living as second-class citizens in their own country.

Feminism has to change as our political environment changes. If women are still fighting for basic equal rights all these years later, we have to put our heads together and unite to find a definition of equality that works for everyone.

Soon enough, however, voting wasn’t enough. Women were still unable to be financially independent from men. In the 20th century, finding a job, an apartment, and even a doctor’s appointment was hard to do without some kind of help from a man. Women could have their say politically, but when it came to living full, independent lives, they had a long way to go. The third wave feminism movement borrowed from, and grew up alongside, the Civil Rights movement of the same era.

Feminism has to change as our political environment changes. If women are still fighting for basic equal rights all these years later, we have to put our heads together and unite to find a definition of equality that works for everyone.