Beecher And Women's Rights

With the advancement of suffrage to equal pay, over the last century, women’s rights have progressed immensely. Through historic marches and demonstrations across the United States, women protested for their equal place in politics and social progress. Despite the fear-mongering components used in achieving these rights, women’s rights are still thoroughly debated within society today. Over the last century, incredible and unreachable goals have been fulfilled for women, such as the right to vote and a sense of equal state in the “Free World,” and can only improve in the years to come.

Through out history, Americans have fought for the rights of freedom in their country, freedoms that have been passed down through dozen’s of generations. Freedom’s such as religion, speech, press, slavery and the right to vote. Americans, though very aware of their freedoms, often take them for granted and forget the struggles that their ancestors went through to obtain them. One example of this struggle is a woman’s right to be treated and looked upon by the government as equals. This was not an easy battle to win, and it took a strong few to begin to bring the struggle that women had faced for centuries to an end.

Led by a fair number of women, the Second Great Awakening opened new possibilities for women. The idea that women were subordinate to men was slowly becoming a thing of the pass. Women broke the social norm and began to lead reform movements in order to gain rights. The Grimké sisters regularly spoke to coed audiences about abolitionist efforts in order to gain support and spread the idea of abolition (Pastoral Letter to the Liberator, 1837). However, women didn’t fully receive equal legal status and rights until the mid-nineteenth century. The Seneca Falls Convention ultimately paved the way for women’s rights and the Declaration of Sentiments proposed “women’s equality in everything from education and employment to legal rights and voting”(Hewitt, Lawson

I chose this topic because the feminist agenda in the United States today is often ignored because it is mistaken for misandry. I have heard countless men ( and sadly, women) say that they are not “feminists” which completely undermines the countless decades of people fighting for women to merely have the right to vote. Without the work of women like Susan B.Anthony and Cady Elizabeth Stanton,and Jane Addams, women today would still have to turn over their wages to the man of the house, they couldn’t work long term, and they most certainly could not work while their husbands stay home with the kids. I hope that this essay furthers my appreciation and educates me on the progress of women’s rights in the United States.

The United States was founded by the principle that “all men are created equal” but as we struggled for the fight of equality for African Americans, we forgot about the fight for equality for women. It is not until thirty years after the Gilded Age when the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote. A major advocate for women’s suffrage was Elizabeth Cady Stanton who believed that “that the isolation of every human soul… must give each individual the right to choose her own surroundings” (188). Even though women were able to come together during this period, they could not fully unite as African American women were left out of the movement, as illustrated in Live Pryor’s plea for help from Susan B. Anthony, another strong advocate for women’s rights. Ultimately

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

No true words were spoke than those by Ms. Susan B. Anthony, “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.” Those words are still true today. Even though Ms. Susan B. Anthony, Ms. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other activists worked hard to get equal rights for women to allow them the right to have a say in how our government is run there are still places in the world where women and even some men aren’t allowed to vote. Some of those places may actually be surprising, others maybe not so much. Even still some of the trials these women went through to end women’s suffrage and the lack of political equality is worth taking a look at even ninety-one

Between the years of 1972 and 1982, women and other supporters were fighting one of many fights for the Equal Rights Amendment. “Women and supporters lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, as well as, committed acts of civil disobedience.” One of the very first problems for advocacy was the significant difference of equality for men and women. In this time of history, the Constitution only granted rights to the individuals who had all the power of decision-making and influence: white males. Social traditions and ideas of common law were defined for women from an English influence. With English tradition as the biggest influence, many women were denied many legal rights. Some of these rights included: denied

Society has long since considered women the lessor gender and one of the most highly debated topics in society through the years has been that of women’s equality. The debates began over the meaning between a man and woman’s morality and a woman’s rights and obligations in society. After the 19th Amendment was sanctioned around 1920, the ball started rolling on women’s suffrage. Modern times have brought about the union of these causes, but due to the differences between the genetic makeup and socio demographics, the battle over women’s equality issue still continues to exist. While men have always held the covenant role of the dominant sex, it was only since the end of the 19th century that the movement for women’s equality and the

There are many aspects of life that people take for granted in the United States today. A public school system, sewer systems, clean water, electricity, free speech, are perfect examples, and all of which most Americans do not think twice about having. These aspects have not appeared out of thin air in modern America. They have been molded, shaped, and created throughout time. One part of life that is taken for granted at times is women’s rights. Women throughout history have fought for the right to vote, for equal pay, and to be treated as men are. Over time, they have evolved to be included, represented, and accepted into today’s society. There were many contributing factors to help these women achieve their goals. History has extensive amounts

America has roots deeply ingrained in sexism; a great illustration is that fact that it was not until 1920 that women were granted suffrage. To put that in perspective, in the United States, women have been voting for less than 100 years. With Mary Wollstonecraft’s book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects being published in 1792 and launching 19th century feminism and the fight for women’s rights going since then, many would think that equality would be here by now.Unfortunately, it is not. However, women did receive suffrage in the United States on August 26, 1920. The road to getting there, however, was a long and rough one.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century men had more rights than women because they were looked as the weaker sex of the two. A woman’s duties would be taking care of their families while also maintaining their homes, while the men on the other hand had the freedom to further their education and work in order to provide for their families. It wasn’t until a woman by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft argued for women to have better access in education and paid employment. She argued this could empower not only single women to support themselves, but also those who were married to be able to perform more efficiently as both wives and mothers. She believed that women should have the same rights as men have to be represented in government.

“Feminist organizations lobbied for equal pay for equal work, an end to sexual harassment, paid maternity leave, and legalized abortions to eradicate gender discrimination and sexual inequality” (Keene, 862). Not only were there issues in the workplace for women but issues resided in the heart of the feminist movement between the ethnically diverse women with differing views as well. By this point, equal rights had been a problem for decades upon decades and had just begun to start getting fixed. A solution began to submerge when the Equal Rights Amendment was proposed in 1972 stating that rights should not be denied in the United States regardless of gender, but eventually failed when they came up 3 states short of ratification (Keene, 863). The rights movements that have gone on for so long in the United States, although not one hundred percent successful, have proved to help women get the rights they feel they deserve such as voting, working, the ability to have abortions, etc. These social elements provided during the twentieth-century have made a huge statement for the people of America in which for generations to come will show that such movements are made through the perseverance to fight in what we

A struggle for equality has taken place for over 150 years. Women’s rights have been violated and changed. Many large factions have band together in this fight. Through ups and downs we are breaking all the boundaries that were placed before us.

Women’s Rights was one of the major social changes that began to gain attention in the media and to peak in active activity during the twentieth century. Women’s rights had been in the making since the eighteenth century. Some of the earliest documented words for Women’s rights appeared in a letter to John Adams by his wife Abigail Adams. During the making of the United States constitution (from the eighteenth to nineteenth century), she wrote to her husband and asked him to “remember the ladies”. The first state to permit women to vote in the United States (before the nineteenth amendment was drafted) was New Jersey. However, there were restrictions upon who was eligible to vote. Some of these restrictions included