The beginning of change, also known as the antebellum era started in the 1840s and lasted till the Civil War began. This was the opportunity women have been waiting for, a chance to fight for the freedom of all women’s rights and be equal citizens. Before the women’s rights movement, women were seen less superior than to men and looked down upon politically, socially and economically. Cult of Domesticity also known as true womanhood is what society believed a women’s sole purpose in life was. Politically, women had little to no rights at all, they could not even vote. Socially, people believed that women should stay home, to take care of the kids and be submissive to their husbands. Economically, women were not given many educational opportunities …show more content…
One of the largest moral reforms of its time was the temperance movement in Antebellum Era. More than 1/3 of temperance supporters were women. American husbands were heavy drinkers during that time, and it severely affected their families and work. Women fought for the prohibition of alcohol, they used many persuasion techniques to get their points across, for example; banishing alcohol from their homes and teaching their children to shun alcohol and so forth. Women and children suffered the consequences of their husband’s alcoholism and because they had no rights they had to fully depend on their husbands for support. Nonetheless, women did not want to be looked as victims so instead, they formed their own temperance societies and became active supporters of temperate living. During the Temperance movement, many women began their reform careers within the temperance movements due to their husband’s inability to care or provide for their families. “After the Civil war, women’s temperance activism continued to grow until it led to the most important women’s organization of the Gilded Age, the Woman’s Christian Temperance …show more content…
Abolition reform was a movement against chattel slavery, it had an enormous impact on American history and caused a lot of social and political tension between the people. Abolitionism ascended out of the religious belief that slavery was a sin and it must be stopped by those who truly feared God. Social protestors including women divided the abolition movement from the women’s rights role. This began a more focused approach where the people worked more into the political methods of abolishing slavery. Even though women had little influence on the political scene and they had no vote, they played a vital role in the abolition of slavery. Women played an active role in gaining public support, they began gathering signatures on petitions to end slavery and slave trades. Congress tried to ignore these petitions, yet the women were motivated and just fought harder. The women’s societies never gave up for what they believed, they were known to be more courageous than men. Despite their limited rights, women continued to persuade the public to support their movements and even hired public speakers to give lectures. Women kept the abolitionist movement
Gaining woman 's rights and establishing woman suffrage were the obstacles that woman activists of the nineteenth century faced back then. Women 's rights are said to be universal and that means that it concerns all women. Most of the policies and laws in the nineteenth century highlighted the importance of men and their rights. However, women strived and struggled to fight for their rights. There was a similar group of people who fought for their rights who were African Americans. Voting rights and worker recognition was the main focus of women, as well as African Americans. Moreover, women 's rights and abolition often clashed together, but both events worked together as women were supporters of abolition. There were numerous rights that
Women played a huge role in the reform movements. Black women were probably the worst treated at the time (Document C). Women who were immigrants or in the poorer class also had it bad. But all women were not allowed the right to vote and there was barely any property rights for them. A movement to expand the democratic ideal of equality was the Seneca Falls Convention. (Document
During these times, domestic violence was commonplace and many blamed alcohol as the culprit. Reformers also noticed that alcohol decreased efficiency of labor and thought of alcohol as a menace to society because it left men irresponsible and lacking self control. One reformer, named Lyman Beecher, argued that the act of alcohol consumption was immoral and will destroy the nation. Document H depicts the progression of becoming a drunkard from a common m...
Women were not encouraged to get a job or go to school women were taught pretty much that they were just property owned by men women stayed home and cleaned while men went out and worked, went to school, also went to college. Women were not allowed to have custody of her kids or own land all of it went to the man women were not even allowed to vote Can you imagine life being told your just there to serve men and carry your kids for nine months just to get told they are not yours they are your husbands . So women decided they were done with that and put there foot down and some women created some kind of groups which are the NAWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association).
Up until and during the mid -1800’s, women were stereotyped and not given the same rights that men had. Women were not allowed to vote, speak publically, stand for office and had no influence in public affairs. They received poorer education than men did and there was not one church, except for the Quakers, that allowed women to have a say in church affairs. Women also did not have any legal rights and were not permitted to own property. Overall, people believed that a woman only belonged in the home and that the only rule she may ever obtain was over her children. However, during the pre- Civil war era, woman began to stand up for what they believed in and to change the way that people viewed society (Lerner, 1971). Two of the most famous pioneers in the women’s rights movement, as well as abolition, were two sisters from South Carolina: Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
For over centuries, society had established the societal standard of the women. This societal standard pictured the ideal American woman running the household and taking care of the children while her husband provided for the family. However, between 1770 and 1860, this societal standard began to tear at the seams. Throughout this time period, women began to search for a new ideal of American womanhood by questioning and breaking the barriers society had placed upon them.
Temperance reformers were mostly women and religious leaders. Lyman Beecher, a well known preacher and temperance leader during this time, talked about how intemperance was destroying our nation. He stated that intemperance was,”…continually transferring larger and larger bodies of men, from the class of contributors to the national income, to the class of worthless consumers...,” which meant that more men were taking away from the national then putting in. Some reformers even went as far as making illustrations showing how starting at a simple glass of this “demon rum” could lead to death or even suicide. Reformers such as Henry Clay Work wrote songs that at times placed a young daughter asking her father to come home to take care of their family. Women also played a very important role in the temperance movement by protesting to government to make alcohol illegal.
“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today – and alcohol abuse (primarily by men) was wreaking havoc on the lives of many.” In the 1800s millions of Americans took a pledge to refrain from drinking alcohol. This was known as the Temperance Movement. The temperance movement was a reaction to the increase of alcohol consumption throughout the nation. The opposition to drinking originally stemmed from heath and religious reformers. These groups were crucial to American society for their efforts to tighten social controls. During this era, there were multiple citizens who believed some individuals were living unethically. “These people feared that God would no longer bless the United States and that these ungodly and unscrupulous people posed a threat to America's political system. To survive, the American republic, these people believed, needed virtuous citizens.” Due to these
This movement which was inspired by the ideologies of courageous women and fueled by their enthusiasm and sacrifice is often unacknowledged by most historians in the chronicles of American History. Today the movement is often misunderstood as a passive, white upper class, naive cause. But a deeper study would reveal that the women’s suffrage movement was the one that brought together the best and brightest women in America, which not only changed the lives of half the citizens of United States but also changed the social attitudes of millions of Americans.
In the late 1700s after the American revolution there was an industrial revolution and men started the earn money while the women stayed home. All the way through the early 1800s there was a huge deterioration in women's rights. In 1824 the courts voted in favor of " The Rule Of Thumb" which stated that a man could beat his wife if the stick was less thick than the width of his thumb. They also lost their right to vote. The women's dresses had to get more and more elaborate with hoop skirts by the mid 1800s. They became icons of beauty and nothing more.
Women spent majority of their day ironing, washing clothes, baking, sewing clothes and raising their children (page 17). Religion also added to women’s lesser status (page 18). Religion was at the core life of Americans, female submission was decreed to be part of God’s order (page 18). Lucretia Mott soon pointed out that many scriptures celebrated female strength and independence (page 18). As a young girl Elizabeth Cady Stanton learned about laws that limited rights of wives and as an adult found ways to reform marriage and divorce laws (page 23). Things were looking up for women, by 1850 female wage workers made up nearly a quarter of the manufacturing labor work force (page 30). Women were still excluded from occupations such as the military, ministry, law, medicine and jobs felt inappropriate for women (page 32). During this antebellum period women were starting to rise up and realize they deserved to have the same rights and privileges men received. This gave women hope that things could change. By the second quarter of the 19th century few positive changes for women pushed Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony, Lucy Stone and others to challenge injustices and reform efforts (page
In the beginning of the 1840s and into the 1850s, a rather modest women’s reform was in the process. This group was full of visionaries that began a movement that would soon lobby in change and this movement was the groundwork of equality for women and their right to vote within in the United States. Despite their efforts this movement required a length of seventy years to establish this necessarily equality and the right for all women to vote along the side of men. According to the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION “After male organizers excluded women from attending an anti-slavery conference, American abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to call the “First Woman’s Rights Convention.” Held over several days in
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves” – Mary Wollstonecraft. In the 19th century the hot topic was women’s rights everybody had an opinion about it. Of course the expected ones like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had much to say but a few unexpected ones like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass spoke out for women’s rights. The focus will be the responsibilities and roles that the activists played in the Women’s Rights or Feminist Movement. The relevance to the theme is the activists had a very important role toward reaching the ultimate goal of the Women’s Rights Movement. The Women’s Rights Movement was one of the most essential times in American history; it was the fight for women acquiring the same rights as men. Susan B. Anthony was considered the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement after she was denied the right to speak in a temperance convention; she had the responsibility of creating the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) and helping to secure voting rights by her historic court case, the Trials of Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an important women’s rights activist that helped plan the first organized women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York and wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. Lucretia Mott worked along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton to plan the first women’s rights convention and wrote the, “Discourse on Women”. Lucy Stone formed the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA) and convince individual states to join the effort towards women rights. These women had an influence in the National American Women’s Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) achievement of the goals in the Women’s Rights Movement. These women had a profound effect on reaching equal rights between men and women.
The 1920s saw a strong rise in the feminist movement. During this time women challenged their place in society and in doing so completely changed the definition of the common woman from that of the Victorian Era only a few years prior. Women became more independent joining the workforce. In 1930 over twenty-five percent of women over the age of sixteen were part of the workforce. For women who were not members of the workforce and instead were playing the traditional role for women at that time they found their own ways to become independent and change the ways that women were to be viewed nationwide. Thanks to the introduction of electricity in houses and advances in technology that allowed for housework to be completed quicker than ever women found began their fight for equality by becoming politically active in the community. Groups such as the National Women’s Party (NWP) and National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) began to form and helped to create and pass the Nineteenth Amendment granting women’s suffrage (Dumenil 129-130). At the same time women were starting to become independent and free thinking. They began to ditch the Victorian traditions of etiquette and properness and adopted their own way of living, a way that emphasized expressing themselves in a way that is the complete opposite of Victorian code. Women began to express themselves sexually, and became less and less religious.
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality,” this was stated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a very crucial women’s suffragist. Over time, women’s history has evolved due to the fact that women were pushing for equal rights. Women were treated as less than men. They had little to no rights. The Women’s Rights Movement in the 1800’s lead up to the change in women’s rights today. This movement began in 1848 with the Seneca Falls Convention. For the next 72 years, women continually fought for equal rights. In 1920, they gained the right to vote which ended the movement and opened the opportunity for more change in women’s lives. Because of the Women’s Rights Movement, women today are able to vote, receive