Megan Yao L&S Arts & Humanities
No Peace without Equality: Suffragist Journals in Japan and France
As the world is awash with a global wave of women’s rights crises, it has become more crucial than ever for us modern-day feminists to retrospect upon our predecessors’ endeavors, among whom are the First Wave Feminists. When studying the First Wave, textual materials are the most integral of any intellectual discussions. However, current research is largely limited to the individual literary works, while the feminist journals – the main medium through which the most active feminists collectively worded their activism – is profusely under-studied. My project seeks to answer two questions: first, how were the First Wave Feminism ideals channeled through the feminist journals, and second, how was this process conditioned by differing socio-political environments across countries, specifically, those of Japan and France? As such, I aim to bring these journals into their long overdue spotlight, and excavate the reservoirs of feminist ideals, knowledge, and activism they bear.