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Seneca Falls Convention Research Paper

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The exact beginning of feminism cannot be known as it was a movement sparked in many parts of the United States by women that had finally reached the threshold of their patience with their maltreatment. Many believe feminism did not truly begin until the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, but women had been resisting their lack of control far before then. Since the technical emergence of feminism in 1848, the goals of those women and men who have been and still are fighting have developed and adapted to fit into the societal norms of each respective time period.

Women have always been oppressed in society. This was a widely accepted social norm throughout history until 1848 when scattered protests of women were erected after Margaret Brent …show more content…

Stanton referenced the Declaration of Independence to write the Declaration of Sentiments. (what the Seneca Falls convention was centered around). The announcement of the convention was published in the Seneca County Courier on July 14. Men and women alike were invited to the convention to display gender equality. Approximately forty men attended the Seneca Falls Convention which was held at the wesleyan chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. The women at the convention were too nervous to chair it, so Lucretia Mott’s husband volunteered to do it. Despite this, Elizabeth Cady Stanton boldly stated at the convention, “[I] poured out the torrent of my long-accumulating discontent with such vehemence and indignation that I stirred myself…” Out of the roughly three hundred people that attended, sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the Declaration. The Worcester Telegraph called the women who signed, “amazon.” There was much controversy over the suffrage resolution in the …show more content…

“It is the state of mind of women who realize that their whole position in the social order is antiquated…made of old materials, worn out laws, customs, conventions, fetishes, traditions, and taboos.” This was said by Rheta Childe Dorr, an American journalist, suffragist newspaper editor, writer, and political activist who was ready to divulge the beauty of feminism to the rest of the United States men and women. The term, feminist, is derived from the French term, “feminisme” meaning feminism. Past movements had placed their respective focuses on the authority of women outside of their own homes, but feminism focused more on changing women’s private lives which would then affect the role of women in the public. Feminists were irritated about American society using their femininity and their “maternal service” as a justification for their enduring oppression. Before feminism’s influence, a “pure” woman was one that demonstrated submissiveness, domesticity, piety, and purity. Working class women were faced with many frightening accusations if they were caught on the streets; instead of harboring this fear of being associated with prostitution or other corruption and being restrained to their homes and work, working class women were anxious to use amenities like dance halls, amusement parks, and skating rinks under the influence

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