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The Fight For Women's Rights: Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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The Fight For Women’s Rights
The fight for women’s rights has been going on for many decades and has expanded to many places throughout the world. Through first, second and third wave feminists many gender inequalities have been erased in the United States. Since the late 1840’s, women’s rights have played a big role in shaping American history. A discussion over tea involving many of the most influential women in history started the whole movement. Women would come together and talk about gender inequality through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking and non-violent resistance (History of the Women’s Rights Movement, nwhp.org). The one woman we have to thank for it all is Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
At thirty-three years old Mrs. …show more content…

Her along with many other First Wave Feminist paved the way so we could live as equals in the world. The first wave of feminism began with the Women’s Suffrage movement and the struggle to extend the right to vote to women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the first known feminist works, was a treatises written by Mary Wollstonecraft. In the exposition she writes about the social and moral equality of the sexes, stating that all men and women are created equally and neither should be treated higher than the other. Susan B. Anthony, a very notable woman during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, helped Stanton and many others during the time period with gaining the right to vote. The First Wave Feminists accomplished many things and paved the way for other waves of feminism to get stuff …show more content…

Second Wave Feminists created safe-havens for women and children, homeless shelters, rape crisis hotlines, women’s newspapers, books and bookstores, cafes, provided contraceptive and child planning centers. They talked about issues like reproductive rights, women’s enrollment into the military, affirmative action, sexual harassment, surrogate motherhood and social security benefits. In 1960, the average female made 68 cents for every dollar made by a male. Betty Friedan’s book “The Feminine Mystique” is often credited with igniting the fire that lead to the beginning of the second wave of feminism. Controversy over women using contraceptives was a huge problem in the sixties and seventies. The court case Griswold vs Connecticut (1965) dealt with a law that banned the use of contraceptive which led to the infamous Pro-Choice Movement that is still going on today. Contraceptives are used by many women to prevent pregnancy but it is not its only benefit. Birth control can help prevent Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, anemia, reduce period flow and menstrual cycles, protect from ovarian and uterine cancer, protect from ovarian cysts and decrease acne (Contraception: Pros and Cons of Different Contraceptive Methods, youngwomenshealth.org). Abortion was another topic that caused loads of controversy. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by,

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