The Declaration Of Independence And The Suffrage Movement

The declaration of Independence is what shaped and provided the freedom the United States of America has today. The Declaration of Independence today is looked at a symbol for America to reflect on as it paved the way for most of the rights we have today. This document has been fundamental to american history longer than any other text because it was the first text to use “The United States of America” and in a sense the Declaration was the birth certificate of the American nation. It embodied what came to be viewed as the most memorable and clear statement of the ideals on which America was founded: the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, while also the first successful declaration of independence in world history.

For decades, women struggled to gain their suffrage, or right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement started in the decades before the Civil War, and eventually accomplished its goal in the year of 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified into the U.S. Constitution. After the U.S. Civil War, the women’s suffrage movement gained popularity and challenged traditional values and sexism in the country; the increase of progressive social values benefited the women suffragists by allowing them to succeed in passing the 19th Amendment which changed the role of women in society, guaranteed them a voice in politics, and encouraged future generations to struggle for women’s equal rights.

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).

The sometimes-fractions suffrage movement that grew out of the Seneca Falls meeting proceeded in successive waves. Initially, women reformers addressed social and institutional barriers that limited women’s rights; including family responsibilities, a lack of educational and economic opportunities and the absence of a voice in political debates. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Massachusetts teacher, met in 1850 and forged a lifetime alliance as women’s right’s activists. For much of the 1850’s,

The first major point made by Woolf in A Room of One’s Own is synonymous with the essay’s thesis. Woolf first introduces this theme in the beginning of her essay: “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (4). The concept of a woman needing to possess finances and an individual space is recurrent throughout the book. To Woolf, this idea is tantamount to obtaining freedom. During the era in which Woolf lived and set A Room of One’s Own, women faced various limitations that stripped them of their ability to find true creative liberation. With so much of their time spent in the house and no access to finances, women struggled to find separation from the home. Thus, Woolf’s emphasis on money and a room symbolizes the separation and freedom

The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.

Therefore, this is how she thought the life for women would be like in the sixteenth century, any women born with a talent would end up being laughed up, mocked and ending their lives like the fictional character Judith. “A highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty” (Woolf).

This passage emphasizes on the amount of inequality that existed between the two genders as Woolf creates the character of Judith, Shakespeare’s supposed “gifted sister”. The author envisions Judith as being equally talented as her brother, but being treated in a completely different

In an excerpt from her 1929 novel A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf presents an interesting question: With all the amazing literature of Elizabethan times, how could none of it have been written by women? She admits that there are not many hard facts from that age, but one can imagine that women did not have as many opportunities as men did, especially in the arts. Woolf invents a sister for the famed William Shakespeare and calls her Judith, supposing that Judith had the same literary talents and ambitions as her brother. Woolf writes Judith’s life story, chronicling Judith’s drab existence, daring escape, and tragic end, deciding that women of Shakespeare’s time couldn’t possibly write as Shakespeare did due to restrictions placed on them by society. The author intends to call attention to yet another injustice suffered by women in history, but one that is often overlooked: women’s influence, or lack thereof, in the arts. It is this unique facet of the classic women’s rights argument that makes Woolf’s piece effective.

Judith (Shakespeare’s sister) was trapped by the stereotypes and notions of her time. Everyone believed because she was woman trapped her as well as any cage and to have greatness trapped inside of you is curse. I can think of no other more unbearable burden than knowing you are meant for more, knowing that you could be more, and being unable to do anything about it. It is enough to drive anyone insane and Woolf says it well, “Any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at.” (Woolf,

In her essay, Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf’s thesis is centered around women writers and their role in fiction. She examines famous women writers during that century and their struggle to succeed as writers in a society that views women as inferior. Woolf’s central idea in the beginning of the essay is that in order for a woman to be a successful writer she must have money. Money is important because it would grant a woman the freedom to have a room of her own where she can write without distractions. Woolf argues that this is a key factor limiting the amount of successful women writers during her time.

In Woolf’s essay, [Shakespeare’s Sister] A Room of One’s Own generally observe women’s capability and limitation of being great authors like William Shakespeare with an educational background. Woolf’s essay approach was appointing a frictional character name Judith Shakespeare, Shakespeare sister, a woman with the same abilities as Shakespeare's may be refused the same opportunities as Shakespeare to arise because women had no access to those opportunities. Virginia Woolf’s conceive of a woman was true womanhood with ideas about the role of women and her conception of self-hood. Women struggle to find their identity outside the definition that’s a man portrayal of women. In [Shakespeare’s Sister] A Room of One’s Own, Woolf’s quote: “killed herself one winter’s night and lies buried at some cross-roads

In Shakespeare’s Sister by Virginia Woolf, the author investigates the misogynistic society’s effect on women, specifically artists, during the Elizabethan era. Woolf implies how women were deemed no value beyond the home or childbearing. The passage explains how women were inferior in areas like education, social status, and wage. Women were constrained by domestic responsibilities that hinder their freedom for art. Women are not less artistic than men, instead they receive inferior training and are viewed negatively. Determined to challenge society’s conventional ideals of women, Woolf provides a fictional narrative of a female character – Shakespeare’s equally gifted sister. The author uses ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the entirety of her work to reveal the truth concerning women’s poverty in the Elizabethan era.

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is a key feminist text that explores the relationship between literature and women. It is based on a time when very few female authors were actually considered reputable, or known for publishing their work. Woolf’s writing illustrates the importance of women and fiction. Woolf’s writing is mainly focused on the writer’s sex and its implications in society. Throughout her writing, Woolf urges for the understanding of each identity as equal. Woolf tries to convey that every woman deserves her own space, a room of her own, just as a man. Woolf argues that in order for a woman to be considered independent, intellectual, and artistic, she must have wealth and the ability to retrieve into her own space to be who she is and not be required to conform to a man’s built society.

Most of the women are remained silent to the system that constituted their social subordination. In “Shakespeare’s Sister”, Woolf describes the conditions of women who being prejudge for pursuing their dreams of being actresses in the Shakespearean era. Judith, an imaginary Shakespeare’s sister that Woolf described in her short story, is under the double standard for her actress dream. She has the same talent as her brother Shakespeare does, but her family neglect her acting talent since the women are prohibited to act in the public. Women are supposed to do the housework rather than spending time to gain the knowledges that they interested in. “She picked up a book now and then, one of her brother’s perhaps, and read a few pages. But then her parents came in and told her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and papers.” (Woolf 45-48). Judith’s parents discourage her from reading books so she can spend time to do the housework, while her brother is allowed