Women 's Rights Movement And Abolitionist Movements

First, let’s talk about what caused the women’s rights movement and how it not only paved the way for the abolitionist movement but, how powerful the campaigns were when combined. In the nineteenth century, the women’s main role was to be a house wife. Women were often stuck at home doing chores and taking care of the children. They were not allowed to vote, hold a title in public office, work, own property, or even get an education (Women 's Rights. (n.d.), 2016). The women of the nineteenth century wanted to change those rules so they fought for equality. There were many women who were brave enough to stand up for their rights and publicly speak about their thoughts and civil liberties towards equality between men and women. In

Whereas the women’s suffrage movements focused mainly on overturning legal obstacles to equality, the feminist movements successfully addressed a broad range of other feminist issues. The first dealt primarily with voting rights and the latter dealt with inequalities such as equal pay and reproductive rights. Both movements made vast gains to the social and legal status of women. One reached its goals while the other continues to fight for women’s rights.

The Women's Rights Movement was a significant crusade for women that began in the late nineteenth century and flourished throughout Europe and the United States for the rest of the twentieth century. Advocates for women's rights initiated this movement as they yearned for equality and equal participation and representation in society. Throughout all of history, the jobs of women ranged from housewives to factory workers, yet oppression by society, particularly men, accompanied them in their everyday lives. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did women begin to voice their frustrations about the inequalities among men and women, and these new proclamations would be the basis for a society with opportunities starting to open for

Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.

Women did not have a voice at all nor were they able to speak on important government matters. They were restricted solely to their activities within the domestic sphere, expected to be good house wives, mothers, and care only for the home and children. Standing up firmly for women, Angelia and Sarah Grimke held distinct positions in the antislavery movement because they were the daughters of a Southern Slaveowner. The ideals about women rights began with these two women, but it did not stop with them. Despite the debate about the place of women in the abolitionist movement, abolitionism did provide women with some sympathetic male allies like Fredrick Douglass, who took them serious and publicized their causes.

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.

The main supporters of equality during the 19th century were woman. A main believer of equality during this time was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was known for leading the Seneca Falls Convention. The purpose of Document I, is to argue that woman should have the same equal rights as man. Woman also argued for suffrage because they believed that they should have the right to vote as well which they weren’t granted, so they established the Declaration of Sentiments. The women's right movement demonstrated the expansion of democratic ideals because, it shows that woman have an important place when it comes to society, and they should be heard about spreading democratic ideals involving equality within the both genders. During the 19th century, the topic of slavery was still being discussed because many people wanted to abolition it due to the fact that it was causing inequality. The audience of Document C appeals to abolitionist woman, at this time the abolition movement was lead by woman fighting for equality for everyone. Democratic ideals were expanding due to equality since, abolitionist wanted to spread the idea of equality for everyone mainly slaves, because they believed they were being taken from their freedom of

In the antebellum period, came the movement of transcendentalism which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and self-discipline. It transcended people to choose morality over prosperity. Looking at the idea of transcendentalism, communities began to stand up for their rights, thus started the reform movements of abolitionism and equality for women in the society. The abolition movement started in 1820’s in the upper south, its goal was end slavery in the United States (Abolitionist Movement). The women’s rights reform began in 1848 and fought for gender equality, such as the idea of equal property rights, and the right of women to vote(“Women’s Rights). Although the abolitionist and the women rights movement were different as both had different ways to express their opposition towards societal norms, they had more similarities because they both impacted the society by emphasizing the meaning of idealism and both portrayed social reform that included right to liberty and equality of education.

Women have always been fighting for the rights of others and rights for themselves; they’ve stated time after time that everyone should be equal. Equality in America meant everything to women; equality between whites and blacks, Native Americans and whites, and women and all of America. “There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women,” (DuPont 12; Lewis). Passages such as the pervious sentence are just a few of many that express women’s feelings towards women’s rights and suffrage. However, women did want changes in rights for all people, but with women being women

Numerous groups throughout history have wrestled for equal rights and engaged in combat against oppressors. Both the American women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were examples of an oppressed group grappling with those above them for equality. Each group had to press for legislation that would protect them against inequality. Although the time periods of the women’s suffragette struggle and the African American Civil Rights endeavor were separate in history, the goals and methods of each were immensely similar.

For many years, women have not experienced the same freedoms as men. Being a woman, I am extremely grateful to those women who, many years ago, fought against social standards that were so constricting to women. Today, women can vote, own property instead of being property, live anywhere and have any career which she may choose.

Women differed though because during the Women’s Rights Movements, women started to take a bigger stance in promoting women’s rights. Since women during the Women’s Rights Movement were not allowed to participate in any organizations, they took a stance by creating their own. Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton created the first Women’s Rights Convention and promote women’s rights by organizing protests and public speakings. This differed from the way women promoted the patriotic cause during the American Revolution Era, because women only protested the way men wanted them to protest. For example, the non-purchasing of British exports was created by men, and women just followed along. Other then not purchasing British goods, women really could not do anymore to promote the patriotic cause, because they could not form their own protests and they could not form their own organizations. During the American Revolution Era, women were dependent on their husbands to promote the patriotic cause, and during the reform movements, women really changed by starting to advocate for themselves, even though during both time periods, women were yet to gain political

The origin of women’s liberation began in the 18th century with the World‘s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 where delegates Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were attending with ones husbands in London (McMillen, 2008). The credential committee ruled that women were unfit for public and business meetings (McMillen, 2008). The ladies were moved to a segregated area which

(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

Both movements were influential in furthering woman’s rights within spheres where women being equal to men were once far-fetched dreams in the minds of both men and women alike.