One of the first single working women was noted to be Novelist Christene De Pizan of Venice, Italy; (1363) In the early 15th Century she was identified as the first feminist to be recorded, she worked towards equality in the way women were treated. “God has... ordained man and woman to serve him in different offices… each in their ordained task” her contribution to questioning traditions are recognised. (she worked for the French court as a writer and was noted to be the first working single parent supporting not only her 3 children but her mum and sister as both her husband and father had died)
In 1850 - Kate Chopin was born; she is the author of “The Awakening” which is considered a landmark Feminist Literary piece. (National Women's History Museum)
It is a heavy novel based on the limitations for a woman in society at that time and instead of being able to act on desires which would mean social death. And not happy to return to the life of mother or wife, she decides on an escape that is either seen as cowardice or a final triumph.
But the evolutions of Feminism in literature began before Chopin, it was paved by greats.
Feminism thought was said to have begun in Ancient Greek as far back as 570BCE.
But it was writers of the medieval world such as Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) and Christine de Pizan then Olympes de Gouge (d. 1791), Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797), and Jane Austen (d. 1817) known as the 'foremothers of the modern women's movement' who built upon the actions of those before them. All of these people advocated for the dignity, intelligence, and basic human potential of the female sex which was recognised moreso when literature was taken out of the religious context and women were seen to be individuals and not property.
Though, it was not until the late 19th century that the efforts for women's equal rights coalesced into a clearly identifiable and self-conscious movement, or what is seen as a series of movements.
Feminine period: writers used a male pseudonym; 1840's t0 1880
The feminist period; from 1880 - 1920 once the women won the right to vote after WWI
The Female period; from 1920's with the new sense of self awareness in the 60's
There is some heavy and not so heavy explanations of the evolutions of literature which makes sense of how women gradually paved their way to the independence that we are building on today.
References
Christine de Pizan; http://www.nwhm.org/media/category/support/depizan/christine.jpg
Kate Chopin; http://www.shrdocs.com/pars_docs/refs/30/29316/img1.jpg
