The Road Of Equality Between Men And Women

The first meeting to discuss women's rights took place in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. It was there that Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposed equal suffrage for women. At that meeting, they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments which illustrated the oppression American women were facing. Although countless, courageous women would sustain this fight, it would be 1920, 72 years later, before Congress ratified the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote (Timeline of Women's Suffrage). The defining moment in this long battle occurred in 1917 when Carrie C. Catt gave her magnificent speech on women’s suffrage to Congress. Catt’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos, helped persuade Congress to pass the 19th amendment.

Women have always been fighting for their rights for voting, the right to have an abortion, equal pay as men, being able to joined the armed forces just to name a few. The most notable women’s rights movement was headed in Seneca Falls, New York. The movement came to be known as the Seneca Falls convention and it was lead by women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton during July 19th and 20th in 1848. Stanton created this convention in New York because of a visit from Lucretia Mott from Boston. Mott was a Quaker who was an excellent public speaker, abolitionist and social reformer. She was a proponent of women’s rights. The meeting lasted for only two days and was compiled of six sessions, which included lectures on law, humorous

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.

In a similar manner to the slaves, women were motivated by the beliefs preached in camp meetings and churches during the Second Great Awakening. Due to the amount of free time the women had, they attended these churches more often than men, allowing them to absorb the ideas from the sermons. These women not only became motivated to fight for the rights of slaves, but also for their own since human freedom was one of the essential ideas of the Second Great Awakening. During the international anti-slavery convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were denied the right to participate just because of their genders. With the ideas of the Second Great Awakening in their minds, they created the Women’s Right Convention in Seneca Falls, where they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments that listed all of the ways in which males have wronged them by denying equality to them. It marked the beginning of a long struggle to gain equality between men and women. Among the many things that they wanted to have equality in was divorce, inheritance, property, and children. Therefore, the concept of freedom for all Americans from the Second Great Awakening triggered a movement to give women freedom from the bonds of men by means of equality.

Stanton’s most memorable convention was the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 where one hundred men and women gathered for the historic convention. There she introduced her manifesto, the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, which proclaimed that men and women are equal and women need more protection under the law. The document also called for expansion of employment and educational opportunities along with the right to vote for women. Stanton’s manifesto was inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence, The press was not fond with the Seneca Falls Convention and complained that all the women that attended were sour maids and childless women. Although the media did not approve of her remarkable meeting, it brought attention to the women’s rights movement on the political standpoint. (Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Meeting Lucretia Mott lead to one of Stanton’s greatest accomplishments which was the world’s first women’s rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention. “The Seneca Falls Convention, a gathering on behalf of women’s rights held in the upstate New York town where Stanton lived, raised the issue of woman’s suffrage for the first time” (Foner 452). This was a huge milestone to spread the word about women 's equality in the United States. It was the first women’s convention, so it gathered a lot of hype and attention to women’s need of rights. There’s no reason why women should not get the right to vote, or the right of education just because their gender. Thankfully, “the convention was the beginning of the 70 year struggle woman’s suffrage” (Foner 453). Stanton helped spread the voice of women and their own ideas about rights. With the men being dominant in the society, it was difficult to lead the way of women 's rights, but the Seneca Falls Convention started it all.

The 19th Amendment guarantees a vote for women in the United States of America, but how did this constitutional change happen? Many females prior to this accomplishment faced struggles from external forces that denied their rights and capabilities. Feminism and equal rights were and still are prominent in American society. In order to provide women of the future what is rightfully theirs, women during the 1700s have taken control of their opinions and used their strong-will to make the necessary changes in American society. During the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton exclaimed in her address, “The right is ours. The question now is: how shall we get possession of what rightfully belongs to us,” (Stanton). The leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott of the Seneca Falls Convention, along with other female leaders, displayed civil disobedience, provided powerful lectures, and organized conventions that gave a new perspective on gender equality.

For more than a century, women from all over have deliberately confronted and engaged in numerous protests to destroy all restrictions, control and violations in regards to many prejudices made against their gender. Yet, it was not until the mid 1800’s that powerful women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott passionately fought and publically spoke for the rights that women deserved as American citizens. Essentially, the movement for women’s full entitlement reached out to an enormous audience with the Seneca Falls convention in New York and inspired the creation of a written stand on political requests by Stanton and other activists, named and remembered as The Declaration of Sentiments. At

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.

Elizabeth had the opportunity to meet many people at the conference, further fueling her flame. Stanton met Lucretia Mott, a leading American in women’s right movement, at the convention. After talking to Lucretia, Elizabeth started to study the Anglo-American women’s rights (Foner and Garraty). The convention kick started Stanton’s career in women’s rights. The next big movement in Stanton’s career was the Seneca Falls Convention. The Seneca Falls Convention was one of the first conventions for women’s rights. At this convention, Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. This talked about what men were doing wrong and how it should be resolved. Several of the points dealt with marriage and politics (Stanton, “Seneca Falls Convention (1848)”). The Seneca Falls Convention helped show the goals of the movement. Following this, several associations were formed with Stanton leading many of them. In 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed by Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a friend and partner of Stanton. This association fought for the neutral divorce laws, the right to serve on juries, etc. The American Woman Suffrage Association, focused mainly on voting rights, merged with the other association, with Stanton as President (Smith). Elizabeth was a leading figure for the whole nation. In brief, Stanton started out as just another fighter, but

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).

One pair of these women fought for suffrage by creating a convention to bring many women and some men together to talk about this important issue. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott made the first ever women’s rights convention called the Seneca Falls convention. An example is, in paragraphs 3 and 4, “...in 1848, when Elizabeth

(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

The rise in poverty, illiteracy and the conservative nature of the post-Taliban Afghanistan has left those uneducated to follow the teachings, or customary laws, of radicalized Mullahs, who teach their own adaptations of the Quran which often assert men’s dominance over women, in various ways including but not limited to: physical abuse, psychological abuse, abuse within the community (i.e. shunning, hearsay and taunting) and honor killings. The policies that have been adapted by the government have not been effective enough to combat violence against women effectively, failing to educate the Afghan people on the principles of Islam that emphasize equality and to move forward as a nation towards a more progressive, accepting society. The afghan government needs to treat women as equal citizens and use the teachings of the Quran which promote peace and equality, to better educate future generations and promote gender equality within the Muslim community.

The equality among genders is a debate that has long been fought in the international realm. Although this is time where women and men are more close to being equal than they have ever been, there are still many areas in which equality falls short. Feminism is a theory based on the rising of women in order to be equal with men. It is a theory that best represents the need for equality among the sexes. Women are often seen in most societies as domestic maternal beings resigned to being home while men go into the real world to provide for their families. In this century it is very important to see that a women’s role is much more than this. A woman is meant to have the same abilities as a man. It is important for women to be seen as independent beings rather than only codependent. The gender equality issue is a basic human rights issue that needs to be continuously fought. The need of gender equality in the international realm can be seen through militarism as well as education.