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Declaration of Sentiments

Decent Essays

Declaration of Sentiments

The Declarations of sentiments was arguably the most significant document in

history for the advancement of women in the nineteenth century America. It was made

famous at the first Woman’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York, in July

of 1848. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the declaration outlined a series of

grievances resulting from the unfair treatment of women and proposed eleven resolutions

arguing that women had the right to equality in all aspects of their lives, including the

right to vote. Despite the declarations significance, however, it would be seventy-two

years later that women finally won the right to vote.

In early societies, women bore …show more content…

It also

protested unequal employment opportunities. Stanton read the declaration paragraph by

paragraph, and over the two-days of discussion, the Declaration of Sentiments and 12

resolutions received agreement endorsement, one by one, with a few amendments.

The only resolution that did not pass unanimously was the call for women’s

authorization.

The Seneca Falls convention generated widespread ridicule and even hostility,

primarily from religious leaders and the press. An article in the Philadelphia Public

Ledger and Daily Transcript (September 1848) opined that, unlike the Seneca Falls

women, the women of Philadelphia were “celebrated for discretion, modesty, and

unfeigned diffidence” rather than “standing out for woman’s rights.” After all, the writer

reasoned, “A woman is nobody. A wife is everything. A pretty girl is equal to ten

thousand men, and a mother is, next to God, all powerful……The ladies of Philadelphia,

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therefore…..are resolved to maintain their rights as wives, belles, virgins, and mothers,

and not as women” (Stanton, Anthony, and Gage, p. 804).

Women’s rights conventions were held on a regular basis until the start of the

Civil War. Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled the country lecturing and organizing for

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