Jeanette Corbiere Lavell Challenges

The activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her essay, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848” emphasizes the importance of equality between women and men. Stanton’s purpose is to outline the inequality that existed between men and women and make points that will lead to inequalities ending. She adopts a straightforward and factual tone to get her point across without sounding biased or being disrespectful towards anyone who may disagree with her.

In conclusion the oppression of Native Americans is an often overlooked subject. It's important to learn about this and be aware of it because many Native Americans still live on reservations. Their oppression has not yet dissipated completely and not until recently, as recently as 1962, were they allowed to vote in every state. So we must be well informed in order to continue to dissipate Native American oppression and try to correct the mistakes of the

She focuses on how women's rights were removed and backs that information with proof: "Women were totally excluded from voting… [,]…their right to divorce were violated in the 1876 Indian Act. [And it] also undermined female authority by denying them the right to participate in decisions concerning the disposition of reserve lands," (Stevenson, 1999, 71-3). These arguments strongly back up her proposal, which makes her statements very hard to disagree with.

Stanton is known for speaking about women's rights at the Seneca Falls Declaration on August 2, 1848 (doc I). Stanton argued that is equality was a democratic ideal of the United States then why were women not granted equality. While men had the right to chastise and imprison their wives (doc I), yet women were not even allowed in the voting booths to represent themselves in “the government under which we (they) live” (doc I). This was not equality in fact Stanton and many other women worked hard in order to shorten this gap, Stanton was seeking to expand the core democratic value of equality specifically equality of the sexes. Although Stanton's efforts were not effectively introduced to the nation until later the efforts shown in this particular reform movement proves the validity of the statement ““Reform movements in the United States sought to expand democratic ideals”.” During the same time period as Stanton a man named Samuel F.B Morse was trying to lessen equality specifically the equal rights of

Women who live in a matriarch society are equal to men due to the respect they receive. Men in a matriarch sort of become `the other.' The respect and equality can be seen in Native Americans. By examining Native American women's roles will show their equality with men. Women have "knowledge of weaving, agriculture, and animal husbandry" (9). They also look after children and the household. Therefore, "Navajo women are central forces in their families and communities" (1). They are important with

‘’As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country’’. (Page 114) Women during the 1700’s were absent in politics, they’re to go with the flow, and accept the laws wheatear they like it or not. They felt no one considered their feelings, as if their voice didn’t make a difference. In today’s generation women are even free to run for president, we are pretty much all treated equally in politics, work field and so forth.

First Generations: Women in Colonial America by Carol Berkin, explains to us how different seventeenth century women’s lives were from what we know today. The seventeenth century women didn’t have many civil liberties. Carol Berkin gives us a view of life experience that these Colonial women and Native American women went through. This helps us perceive why many Colonial women may have chosen to stay with their Native American captors. Seventeenth century colonial women had little civil rights, especially after being married.

Between the article written by Sarah Stickney Ellis and the article from the Ohio Women’s Convention, two competing perspectives of women’s rights and gender equality are displayed. From opinions provided by Sarah Stickney Ellis, women should not be involved in politics, men are entitled to women treating them as superior, women have certain obligations to their husbands, and men and women have different natures, which is why they should be treated differently. Her article regularly expresses the belief that women and men are not equals with the latter superior to the former. In almost complete discrepancy to what Sarah Stickney Ellis said, the Ohio Women’s Convention believes that women should be involved in politics and the government,

Of all the issues that were in the middle of reformation mid 1800’s, antislavery, education, intemperance, prison reform, and world peace, women’s rights was the most radical idea proposed. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a rally held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the common goal to eventually achieve equal rights among all citizens. Frederick Douglass, who became an acclaimed activist in the African American Equal Rights movement, accompanied the movement. Moreover, The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, reiterating the sentiment from the Bible that “all men [and women] are created equal.” Concurrent to the publication of this document, for the first time, women insisted that they were men’s equals in every way. The Declaration of Sentiments was pivotal in Women’s history, although it was not given credit until the late 20th century. However, immediately after the Declaration of Sentiments was published, women and activist groups were inspired to take action towards rights for all underprivileged American citizens. The convention took place in a small town in upstate New York, which was home to four of the five people who organized the gathering. (DuBois, 1999, p. 45) This was the first time female equality was discussed in a public place. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was one of the most important events in women’s rights history.

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).

She also talks about the Native feminist ethics, which brings understanding of the cultural perspectives of leadership under the spotlight. In this respect, I think understanding of Native women’s traditional gender functions, roles and responsibilities is crucial in perceiving Indigenous feminism. This is because I think in many tribal societies such as the Pashtun tribal societies in the northwestern FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) perceive gender roles and responsibilities as complementary. The FATA areas and the colonial government system were creation of the British colonizers. This example is very much relevant to the case of Native societies that were/are colonized in North America because the British colonial rulers applied the similar methods to control and regulate Pashtun tribes in the FATA areas. In comparison to the CFR Courts to implement the Code of Indian Offences in Canada, the colonizers introduced and enforced the FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulations) in the FATA areas on the Pakistani side of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this colonial structure, the Political Agent system implemented the FCR in which, for example, because of one tribal individual the entire tribe was punished. Unfortunately, the FCR is still very much alive and is being used the way many colonial laws are currently implemented in Canada and

While the Indian Act was damaging for all Indigenous people in Canada, it was particularly harmful to Indigenous women. The inherent sexism of the Indian Act created severe consequences for women and its legacy continues to be seen today. In 1869, the Gradual Enfranchisement Act was passed (Lawrence, 2003). This act ruled that if an Indigenous women were to marry a white man, she and all her descendants would lose their Indian status (Lawrence, 2003). The Gradual Enfranchisement Act rendered non-status Indigenous women unable to retain membership in their bands and unable to own property (Bourassa et al., 2004).

“What Came out of the Takeovers: Women’s Activism and the Indian Community School of Milwaukee”

(Goldfield, 338) Since the cult of domesticity was making women inferior to men, women decided to do as the slaves did and fight for their own freedom. The women’s rights movement began in the mid-1800s. Female and male abolitionist found it necessary that women should be able to have the same rights as men. Just because biologically they are different, it does not mean they do not deserve the same rights. Women were denied the right to vote, property and a right to an education or job. (Goldfield, 338) At first the women’s movement was slow. Many women were afraid to speak out in fear of being shunned by their community. This was a brand new scary task that Women for the first time were going to deal with. A women speaking out against the norms of society was seen as a terrible thing to do. When you have many women speaking out for the same thing a change must be done. When the first national convention for women’s rights was called in Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were able to successfully use the Declaration of Independence as a model for their own Declaration of Sentiments. (Goldfield, 339) In their Declaration they branded that “male patriarchy as the source of women’s oppression” (Goldfield, 339) Stanton and Mott called for full women’s rights and to become independent citizens. Although the fight for women’s rights was always an important issue, most abolitionists deemed it less important

Since she is trying to get the men who are listening to understand what women are going through, she uses examples to which they would comprehend. Her first comparison to males begins when she puts men into the same position that women are in at the time as Pankhurst says, “Suppose the men of Hartford had a grievance, and they laid that grievance before their legislature, and the legislature obstinately refused to listen to them, or to remove their grievance”(Pankhurst). As she says this, she’s trying to get people to understand that women are treated unfairly. In doing this, she is establishing the gap between how women and men are treated, which allows for some divergent ways in attacking their issue. She does this by saying that if males were in our shoes, the men would decide to do something about it, when she later states, “Well, it is perfectly obvious… the men of Hartford would turn out that legislature and elect a new one. But let the men of Hartford imagine that they were not in the position of being voters at all”(Pankhurst). When she says this, she points out two important things that contrast women’s and men’s rights: a woman’s inability to vote, and their inability to get to a peaceful solution since their problem is disregarded. Comparing the possible actions taken to fix their injustice supported her claim by saying that the women are unable to