This module will examine the history of women's activism and feminism in Ireland and Britain from the beginnings of the suffrage campaign in the late nineteenth century, to the repeal of the eighth amendment in Ireland in 2016. Looking chronologically and regionally, it will provide the context for the first wave of feminist activism and the connections between this and subsequent waves. Placed in the social, economic, and political context of the time, it will highlight the importance of gender, social class, education and rising expectations.