Meaning

noun a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women

noun the movement aimed at equal rights for women

originFrom French féminisme circa 1837, ultimately from Latin fēminīnus, from fēmina (“woman”). In the original sense of “women's movement or advocacy”, the French word was probably directly derived from fēmina, as if from Neo-Latin feminismus. First recorded in English in 1851, originally meaning “the state of being feminine”. Sense of “advocacy of women's rights” is from 1895.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0