The Women's Rights Movement
What would you have done if an important woman in your life couldn't have her voice be heard? Would you help fight for her rights? Would you be okay that her voice wasn't heard, and continued on with your life? Would you be against her having any rights that you would try to maintain the imbalance in society instead? Women in the 1840s had no rights. They could not vote, own property, receive an education or participate in any professions such as a doctor, lawyer, or politician. It was time that they finally took a stand when in 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first national women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. It would take about 72 years for the United States to
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grant women's suffrage. The debate over whether or not to give women the right to vote had been between suffragists (those who supported women's rights to vote) and anti-suffragists (those who opposed women's rights to vote). Both sides made a compelling argument that they were right, using various different environments where women's suffrage would affect them. These environments included the workforce, government, and at home. During the time that women were looking to obtain the same rights as men, suffragists and anti-suffragists used the subject of how it would affect the home to convey that their opinion was right.
Those who were against giving women equal rights said that there would be a complete role reversal in what a man and woman would do at home. In the political cartoon "Election Day!" by E.W Gustin (1909), the drawing features a woman who is going to vote and dropping her crying children to her husband so that way he can take care of the house. The man looks very distressed while the woman did not look apologetic. This is supposed to portray that with a woman gaining more rights, the house will become terrible. On the contrary, suffragists believed that there would be no change in the home environment. In the document "Senator Robert Owen Supports Women" (1910) it states, "...Women are better formed about house government with as much facility as much as he can learn to instruct children, properly feed and clothe the household, care for the sick...or make a house beautiful." This evidence explains that suffragists believed men could do anything that women could, meaning that they could run the house just as well as their
counterpart. Additionally, suffragists and anti-suffragists used the subject of the workforce to present their arguments. Anti-suffragists saw women being able to work as a hindrance. In the document "A Woman Assails Women Suffrage" (1910) by Mrs. Gilbert E. Jones it states, "Women are not trained and often very deficient and unskilled in most occupations. Married women should keep out of the industry...The average woman has half of the physical strength of the average man, and the price she must pay when in competition with him is too great for her ultimate help and her hope of motherhood." This means that if a woman works as much as any man does, she eventually cannot take care of her family or her house. Anti-suffragists are afraid that women will become too invested in their work to do her actual "job" in society. Suffragists, however, believed that it would help everyone if women were able to work in more jobs. Senator Robert Owen states, "Working women receive a smaller wage for equal work than men do that the smaller wage and harder conditions imposed on the woman worker are due to lack of ballot." With the United States granting suffrage to women, the work conditions given to them can improve. Also, with the wage and conditions improving, more women would be employed, which helps all family since they will have two sources of income on average. Lastly, the subject of how the government would alter after granting suffrage to women was a large topic amongst opponents. Anti-suffragists made it seem like too many voices in a democracy such as the United States would lead to trouble. In the document "Man's Government by Man" (1915) by the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage it states, "Unless there exists behind the ballot the power to enforce its mandate, the ballot degenerates from power to weakness and weakness spells anarchy and ruin in government." This evidence explains now that with more opinions being brought into the government it will create a state of disorder. The opposing view is that bringing a woman's perspective on how the government should be run would benefit everyone. The document "Women Suffrage" states, "Because women are consumers and consumers need fuller representation in politics, they should vote equally with men...Because women are citizens of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and women are people." Women are people as well, meaning that they should be able to be represented in all forms of government. Without a woman's opinion, there seems to be an imbalance that suffragists do not like. In conclusion, the fight for women's rights created a large amount of conversation and debate between suffragists and anti-suffragists. The effects at home would question where a woman's role in the house would change for better or for worse. The workforce would have a new wave of employees if there was women's suffrage and working conditions that pay well would help the economy, according to suffragists. Most importantly, how allowing women to vote would affect the government was a conversation wondering if it would be better off or not with the opinion of women. Ultimately, the 72 year long argument would come to a screeching halt when in 1920, the United States granted all women the right to vote.
However, the writers of the Constitution had omitted women in that pivotal statement which left women to be denied these “unalienable” rights given to every countryman. Gaining the support of many, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement declared at Seneca Falls that women had the same rights as men including the right to vote and be a part of government. The Women’s Rights movement gained support due to the years of abuse women endured. For years, men had “the power to chastise and imprison his wife…” and they were tired of suffering (Doc I). The new concept of the cult of domesticity supported women’s roles in society but created greater divisions between men and women.
Through the 20th century, the communist movement advocated greatly for women's’ rights. Despite this, women still struggled for equality.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Kale Reed, In previous times, the equality between men and women was at a dramatic difference. It is frequently believed that women's suffrage was desired and fought for only in England and the United States during the 19th century. Though these movements changed in their reasons and tactics, the battle for female suffrage, along with other women's rights concerns, cut through many national boundaries. Women's rights and suffrage changed drastically from the 1890s until the time of Nixon's Administration. During this time, women were treated poorly, and they felt as if they weren't equal to other citizens of the world, especially men.
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
Sixty- nine years after the Declaration of Independence, one group of women gathered together and formed the Seneca Falls Convention. Prior and subsequent to the convention, women were not allowed to vote because they were not considered equal to men. During the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered the “Declaration of Sentiments.” It intentionally resembles the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal…” (Stanton, 466). She replaced the “men” with “men and women” to represent that women and men should be treated equally. Stanton and the other women in the convention tried to fight for voting rights. Dismally, when the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to the Congress, the act failed to be passed. Even though women voiced their opinions out and urged for justice, they could not get 2/3 of the states to agree to pass the amendment. Women wanted to tackle on the voting inequalities, but was resulted with more inequalities because people failed to listen to them. One reason why women did not achieve their goals was because the image of the traditional roles of women was difficult to break through. During this time period, many people believed that women should remain as traditional housewives.
Women began standing up for more rights and realizing that they could be treated better. 1840 the World Anti-slavery Convention in London showed a great example of inferiority of women. Women were denied a seat at the convention because they were women. Women like Elizabeth C. Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott were enraged and inspired to launch the women’s rights movement. Elizabeth Stanton promoted women’s right to vote. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
Before 1920 women did not have the right to vote. They were known as “second class citizens”. Women were to stay home to help and organize the family’s necessities. Having any other higher power was said to be way out of their limitations. Mainly because women weren’t fully exposed to the happenings outside of the home, which led to the male figure believing that it was impossible for women to vote if they didn’t know the facts. Men thought that if women were able to vote that they would reach a power, that they could not take away and they didn’t want that. Men wanted to be head of the household and everything else in between.
Women had limited rights during the 19th Century. The Seneca Falls convention was a woman’s rights convention located in Seneca Falls in what is today known as Finger Lakes District (Page 3). This convention paved the road to help women gain rights and to stop being so dependent on men. At this time period women were not allowed to vote, own land, have a professional career, they only received minor education, etc. In an interesting book, Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement, by Sally G. McMillen she explains the widespread significance of the convention that changed women’s history. From 1840 to 1890, over the course of 50 years. Four astonishing women; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony and Lucy
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
The Women’s Suffrage Movement was successful in that it achieved its original goal of earning voting rights for women. This movement officially began in the United States in 1848 at the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. They drafted 12 resolutions calling for voting rights for women and overall equal treatment of women. This historic conference created a primary goal of obtaining voting rights for women. The first national women’s rights convention was held two years later in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts. This convention held over 1,000 participants and started an annual national convention.
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our
In the past, many people believed that women’s exclusive responsibilities were to serve their husband, to be great mothers and to be the perfect wives. Those people considered women to be more appropriate for homemaking rather than to be involved in business or politics. This meant that women were not allowed to have a job, to own property or to enjoy the same major rights as men. The world is changing and so is the role of women in society. In today’s society, women have rights that they never had before and higher opportunities to succeed.
In an advertisement published in Vogue Paris in February 2009, Steven Klein photographs fashion model Lara Stone in a manner that brought much controversy to the world about women and violence. In the photograph, a fashionably clad woman in lingerie is forcibly held down by a naked man, while a police officer poses suggestively on her legs and points a gun in her face. This advertisement seems excessively violent for a fashion magazine that young girls and the majority of the mainstream world idolize. By condoning and making the type of violence that is popular in fashion magazines ‘cool’, people begin to recreate the scenes in these photographs in real life because they are constantly exposed to it. Furthermore, this constant exposure to violence
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be