1848 Women's Rights Convention Essay

The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was the first spark to women's rights movements in Antebellum America. Without this meeting, life for women today could be entirely different. Rights that seem obligatory to women today, like being able to vote, and occupational diversity for women. Women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Coffin Mott helped to kickstart the innovative ideas produced before and through the convention.

The Seneca Convention was held in Wesleyan Chapel in New York on July 19th, of 1848 and lasted until the next day, July 20th. Nearly three hundred women- and men- attended this convention, which surprised the organizers because they had only published a single advertisement about it in the local newspaper. (Lusted 12) At the end of the two-day convention, all points from both the Declaration of Sentiments and the resolutions had been approved by the women in attendance and the first major step in the fight for women’s suffrage was complete.

The American women’s rights movement started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention when 100 people, 32 male and 68 female signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The inequality was no longer acceptable. During the civil war, women began to fill the work, mainly

The Women's Rights Movement was a significant crusade for women that began in the late nineteenth century and flourished throughout Europe and the United States for the rest of the twentieth century. Advocates for women's rights initiated this movement as they yearned for equality and equal participation and representation in society. Throughout all of history, the jobs of women ranged from housewives to factory workers, yet oppression by society, particularly men, accompanied them in their everyday lives. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did women begin to voice their frustrations about the inequalities among men and women, and these new proclamations would be the basis for a society with opportunities starting to open for

Women have always been fighting for their rights for voting, the right to have an abortion, equal pay as men, being able to joined the armed forces just to name a few. The most notable women’s rights movement was headed in Seneca Falls, New York. The movement came to be known as the Seneca Falls convention and it was lead by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton during July 19th and 20th in 1848. Stanton created this convention in New York because of a visit from Lucretia Mott from Boston. Mott was a Quaker who was an excellent public speaker, abolitionist and social reformer. She was a proponent of women’s rights. The meeting lasted for only two days and was compiled of six sessions, which included lectures on law, humorous

Over the history of time women were not allowed to have prominent roles and rights in society. Through history and time women have fought for the right to vote, to work for equal pay, the women’s suffrage, gaining property rights, and much more. The first women’s right movement in the United States of America, which started in the 1830s, arose from the campaign too end slavery. Many things such as evangelical Christianity, the abolitionist critique to slavery, and debates about the place of women in the abolitionist movement played valuable roles in the development of the antebellum women’s right movement. These efforts and large steps that women took to destroy and tear down the walls that limited them from having a voice still resonates today.

The first women’s right convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY with about 300 attendees which include women and men, such as Frederick Douglas. Whereas the agenda was clear to abolition all social, economic, and legal discrimination against women.

Women’s rights and equalities have always been an issue. Women first began their fight for equality in 1776, when the Congress was working on the Declaration of Independence. During the late 1840s, women set up the first women’s rights convention, which was the starting point of the women’s rights movement. In 1861, men were getting called off to war, leaving their wives and kids at home to wait patiently and care for the house and children. Women did not take too well to that idea, and they began to take action. Women have always fought for their right to stand alongside men. The three major events for the fight to gain rights and equality for women were the “Remembering the Ladies” declaration, the Civil War, and the Women’s Rights Movement.

After both of the ladies were being denied participation in the convention, they were livid. Stanton and Mott spent most of their extra time coming up with ideas for the Women’s convention that would be the first of its kind. Even though Mott and Stanton discussed of the first women’s convention, it did not take place until eight years after they had came up with an agreement, which made this women convention finally happen from 1840 to 1848 (Adams, Page 14).

A two-day period convention led by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The document that they produced is called the Declaration of Sentiments which was declaring the rights of women modeled on the Declaration of Independence. It listed the grievances that women wanted to address that they didn’t have consent of the governed. They couldn’t earn employment at their own will and couldn’t go to school for higher education. The property they obtained before and during the marriage went to the man. If the man left the woman, they have no rights and divorce at their own wills. They can’t serve on juries. The most controversial issue is that they didn’t have the right to vote. Lucretia Mott was against that as were a lot of women had thought that it was outrageous that women would have the right to vote, there it actually ended up being included. Frederick Douglass, the african-american abolitionist from Rochester New York who ran the North Star, gave a speech at the end of the second day which he eloquently and powerfully argued for women’s right to vote to be included in the

For more than a century, women from all over have deliberately confronted and engaged in numerous protests to destroy all restrictions, control and violations in regards to many prejudices made against their gender. Yet, it was not until the mid 1800’s that powerful women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott passionately fought and publically spoke for the rights that women deserved as American citizens. Essentially, the movement for women’s full entitlement reached out to an enormous audience with the Seneca Falls convention in New York and inspired the creation of a written stand on political requests by Stanton and other activists, named and remembered as The Declaration of Sentiments. At

In 1848 a group of women met at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York and began to formulate a demand for the enfranchisement of American women (Women’s Suffrage, 2011). Elizabeth Cady Stanton composed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, stating that “a man should not withhold a woman's rights, take her property or refuse to allow her to vote” (Kelly, 2011, para.3 ). The convention participants spent two days arguing and refining the content of the Declaration of Sentiments, then voted on its contents; the document received support from about one third of the delegates in attendance. The Seneca Falls Convention was not a resounding success, but it “represented an important first step in the evolving campaign for women’s rights” (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p.374, para.1).

A partial text of the Seneca Falls Declaration Sentiments and Resolutions from July 19, 1948:3

Mott was raised in a Quaker community just like Anthony was. She helped form the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and was the president of the society. Mott boycotted all products of slave labor. When she went to attend the World Anti-Slavery convention in London, she was denied a seat because of her gender. When she was denied a seat, she stood outside of the hall where the convention was being held and preached her doctrine of female equality. When she spent a lot of time in London, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who also believed in fighting for women’s rights. The two became good friends almost instantly. Mott was officially known as a feminist when she argued for equal pay and voting rights. In the summer of 1848, both Stanton and Mott organized a meeting at Seneca Falls, New York where the American Women’s Right Movement was launched. Shortly after, Mott was elected president in 1852. In 1864, she contributed in the establishment of Swarthmore College. As she got older, she served as the head of the American Equal Rights Association. Mott worked hard for everything she did just as Stanton and Anthony had

The women 's suffrage movement, the time when women fought for their rights, began in the year 1848 and continued on all the way through the 1860s. Although women in the new republic had important roles in the family, the house, and other obligations, they were excluded from most rights. These rights included political and legal rights. Due to their gender, they have been held back because they did not have as much opportunities as the men did. The new republic made alterations in the roles of women by disparaging them in society. During this era, men received a higher status than women. Because women were forced to follow laws without being allowed to state their opinions, they tried to resist laws, fight for their freedom and strive to gain equality with men. This leads to feminism, the belief in political, social, and economic equality between men and women. It is the feminist efforts that have successfully tried to give rights that men had, to women who have been denied those rights. Upon the deprivation of those rights, the Seneca Falls convention and the Declaration of Sentiments helped women gain the privileges and opportunities to accomplish the task of equality that they have been striving for.