Not ago, in the nineteenth century, the words that our forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "that all men were created equal," held little value. Human equality was far from a reality. Therefore, if you were not born of white male decent, than that phrase did not apply to you. During this period many great leaders and reformers emerged, fighting both for the rights of African Americans and for the rights of women. One of these great leaders was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton dedicated her entire life to the women's movement; despite the opposition, she received, from both her family and friends. In the course of this paper, I will be taking a critical look at three ...view middle of the document...
After that, she studied law with her father, who was a New York Supreme Court Judge. It is through the training that her awareness was raised about the discrimination that women were subjected to. In 1840, Elizabeth married an abolitionist organizer named Henry Stanton, much to her family's dismay. After their marriage, Elizabeth and her husband traveled to London for a worldwide antislavery convention. It was here that she met Lucretia Mott, another well-know women's rights reformist, who was chosen as an American delegate to the convention. They were both outraged that the female delegates that were attending this convention were denied participation because of their sex. It was at this convention that their fire was ignited and they became allies in the war against the discrimination of women's rights. (Ware 34)The first wave of the women's movement is said to have begun roughly in the year 1840, and lasted through the year 1925. While the convention in London sparked the fire in 1840, it was not until 1845, that the fire was a full blaze. The signature event that is believed to be the official starting point of the women's suffrage movement was in 1848 when a group of women met in Seneca Falls, New York (Wood 66). The Senaca Falls Convention was organized by a group of women, including Stanton, that was fed up with the mistreatment of women in the antislavery battle. They were now going to primarily place their focus on the rights of women. Consequently, the movement became almost entirely white, in both interest and involvement (Wood 68). It was at this first convention that Stanton delivered the Speech the "Declaration of Sentiments" which addressed the grievances that women had suffered under the "unjust government of men". I will go into much detail concerning the specifics of this speech, later in the paper. In the beginning, the women's movement was not just a single-issue movement. Stanton realized that women were being oppressed in every aspect of their lives.Among the causes that she advocated are as follows: coeducation, girls' sports, job training, equal wages, labor unions, birth control, cooperative nurseries and kitchens, property rights for wives, child custody rights for mothers, and reform of divorce laws (Wood 67). Many women did not find a problem with fighting for these grievances, they were, however, fearful of the suffrage issue. (Ware, 20) They felt that it was just too radical. Stanton, however, recognized the importance of the politics, due to the influence of her father, during the early years of her life. She knew that without the right to vote, or political recognition, women had little chance of advancement. Stanton and the other women like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth, who organized the Seneca Falls convention, had great hopes that this convention would trigger "a series of conventions embracing every part of the country." That is exactly what happened. Women's rights conventions were h...
