The Seneca Falls Convention and the birth of the women's rights movement

Women's Rights

During the nineteenth century, many accomplishments in women's rights occurred. As a result of these early efforts, women today enjoy many privileges. They are able to vote and become candidates for political elections, as well as own property and enjoy leadership positions.

During the early nineteenth century, the women's rights movement came into effect. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created many organizations for equality and independence. However, even with these activist groups, victory would not be fast or easy.

Changing social conditions for women during the early nineteenth century, combined with the idea of equality, led to the birth of the woman suffrage movement. For example, women started to receive more education and to take part in reform movements, which involved them in politics. As a result, women started to ask why they were not also allowed to vote.

The Start of the Revolution

In July 13, 1848, the Women's Rights Movement began (Degler). Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a housewife and mother, discussed the status of women during a tea with four female friends. Stanton expressed her dissatisfaction regarding the limitations placed on women under America's new democracy.

She wondered aloud why women did not enjoy the same freedom as men, despite the fact that they had taken equal risks during the American Revolution (Degler, p. 96). Stanton and her friends agreed that the new republic would benefit from having women play greater roles in society. The women create a plan to change things on this day.

A few days later, Stanton and her friends placed an advertisement in the Seneca County Courier inviting women to "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." (p. 99) The convention was held at Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20, 1848. This was the first public meeting for women's rights.

Stanton used the Declaration of Independence to write the "Declaration of Sentiments." She wisely connected the budding campaign for women's rights directly to that powerful symbol of liberty in America.

She used the words of the Declaration of Independence to strengthen her goals: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (p. 101)

In her Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton outlined specifically how women were treated unjustly. She included eighteen ways that women were discriminated against in American society. According to Stanton, "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world." (p. 114)

The Unjust Treatment of Women

During the nineteenth century, there were many areas of life in which women received unjust treatment (Ryan). Basically, married women had few legal rights. They were not allowed to vote and were expected to submit to laws when they had no voice in creating legislation.

Married women were not allowed to own property. They were viewed as the property of their husbands, who were allowed to beat them and keep them at home. Divorce and child custody laws were in the favor of men. In addition, single or divorced women were forced to pay property taxes although they had no representation in how these taxes were formed.

Women were allowed to work but only in certain fields. For example, women could not work in the legal or medical fields. Working women received only a fraction of the pay that men received.

Women were denied education, as well. There were no colleges or universities that would accept women students during the nineteenth century. Additionally, they were not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church

Basically, for most of the nineteenth century, women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect and made completely dependent on men (Pessen). When Stanton wrote her Declaration of Sentiments, she clearly stated these injustices so that women would realize that changes needed to be made.

Declaration of Sentiments

In her declaration, Stanton stated, "Now, in view of this entire disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, -- in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States." (Degler, p. 115) This declaration would later become famous.

During the two-day convention, Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments and twelve resolutions received incredible endorsement, one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution that did not pass unanimously was the call for women's enfranchisement. At the time, the idea that women would have the right to vote in elections was inconceivable. When Stanton suggested this, the attendees were shocked and a heated debate resulted from her words.

At this point, Frederick Douglass, a respected Black abolitionist, argued in support of women's right to liberty. "Suffrage," he stated, "is the power to choose rulers and make laws, and the right by which all others are secured." Finally, the resolution barely won enough votes to carry, but managed to squeeze by. (p. 116)

Stanton ended her Declaration of Sentiments with these words: "In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country." (p. 119)

Ridicule Turns to Power

Stanton expected "misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule" and that is exactly what she got (Welter, p. 42). The media harshly criticized the Declaration of Sentiments as shameless and audacious. At the earliest stages of the Women's Rights Movement, women were subject to the abuse and criticism of American society. Oddly enough, the criticism and ridicule worked to the advantage of women.

The Declaration of Sentiments was frequently published in its entirety, with the names of the signers, as a subject of ridicule. At first, many of the signers were so embarrassed that they withdrew their signatures from the document. However, eventually these publications had a positive impact. People from around the nation became informed of the movement and united in greater numbers than Stanton and her friends could have ever imagined.

As a result of the Seneca Falls Conference, Women's Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the beginning of the Civil War. Often, the large crowds of attendees were unable to be accommodated by the meeting spaces.

In the late nineteenth century, the Women's Rights Movement of the late 19th century began to initiate changes for the issues outlined at the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was joined by many women, including Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone, who traveled around the nation lecturing and organizing plan for change over the next forty years.

During the late 1800's, the right to vote became the central issue of the movement, as the vote would provide the means to achieve many other reforms. However, the campaign for woman suffrage met such powerful opposition that it took 72 years for women's rights to achieve their first great success (Welter).

Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone was another important figure in the Women's Rights Movement of the nineteenth century (Berg). She was the first woman to earn a college degree. She attended Oberlin, an innovative co-educational college. Her study of Greek and Hebrew convinced her that passages in the Bible that declared women to be inferior had been translated inaccurately. So she sought to set the record straight.

Stone was a gifted public speaker and a dedicated abolitionist. Soon she was appointed a lecturer for the American Anti-slavery Society. Her natural eloquence drew large crowds, though she often had to face hostility. She delivered a speech on women's rights that converted Susan B. Anthony to the cause.

When Stone got married, she kept her maiden name, as she discovered there was no law against this. Eve today, the phrase "Lucy Stoner" is used to describe a married women who keeps her maiden name (Berg, p. 89).

Stone was a leader in the organization of the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group, considered the most moderate group of the women suffrage movement, often conflicted with Stanton and Anthony over policy and tactics. Stone and her husband founded and edited the organization's weekly newspaper, The Woman's Journal, which was viewed as "the voice of the woman's movement." (p. 101) Stone spent her lifetime fighting for women's rights and inspiring others to join her cause.

In a speech, Stone summarized her sentiments regarding the women's rights accomplishments she saw in her lifetime. "They (the achievements of the Women's Rights Movement) could not have occurred except as the great movement for women has brought them out and about. They are part of the eternal order, and they have come to stay. Now all we need is to continue to speak the truth fearlessly, and we shall add to our number those who will turn the scale to the side of equal and full justice in all things." (p. 101-102)

Conclusion

Women finally received the right to vote in 1920, and the highly organized Women's Rights Movement continued on in many different directions. While the majority of women who had for woman suffrage looked no further, many others understood that the quest for women's rights would be an ongoing struggle that was only advanced by the vote. The Women's Rights Movement continues today.

While the nineteenth century is not typically characterized as a period of radical feminism, like the 1960s and 1970s, it was definitely an age in which the traditional role of women in American society was questioned and challenged.

The nineteenth-century American woman was seen in society as submissive and dedicated to the home and family. However, as a result of modernization, industrialization, and the accompanying changes in society, women demanded political, social and economic freedom.

The Women's Rights Movement was greatly influenced by involvement by women in the antislavery movement, which opened their eyes to their similarities with blacks in sharing a status of inferiority. As a result, American women became a more visible part of society, fighting for their rights. While it would be decades before women's liberation and suffrage were attained, women were gathering in great numbers in defense of their search for freedom and self-identity, winning the support of contemporary politicians like John Quincy Adams who asked, "Why does it follow that women are fitted for nothing but the cares of domestic life?" (Pessen, 52)