In July of 1848, a women’s rights convention was held in Seneca falls in an attempt to start a women’s suffrage movement. Led by Elizabeth Stanton, she began the convention with a speech about the oppression women face from their husbands. Stanton was inspired to fight for women’s rights after she and Lucretia Mott (anti-slavery and religious reform activist) had been denied access to an anti-slavery convention due to their sex. As the question of women’s rights was becoming more popular around the world, Stanton and four other women (Mott, Martha Wright, Mary M’Clintock and Jane Hunt) had drafted the Declaration of Sentiments as a list of rights they demanded.
Stanton argued that without the right to vote, women were denied education and public office positions. This declaration also addressed the fact that women had no representation in government which caused a biased on men’s governmental decisions over the conflict of women’s rights. Along with property and wages, divorce was also brought up to convey how men were given more authority over women in these situations. These issues along with others made up the famous 11 resolutions created during this convention. The 11 resolutions were demands that Stanton along with these women had drafted to gain the rights and privileges they had not had access to before. All the demands were met and passed except for the ninth resolution, which was the right to vote; this right was not granted to women by congress until 1920. As a result of Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments, she had illustrated the idea that if one truly valued the ideals of the constitution, then women should be able to attain equal rights to that of men.
Written by Ragan Krames, P4
Thank you for highlighting the important roles Stanton and Mott played in providing women with more social and political rights! The Seneca Falls Convention was not only a convention advocating for women's rights, but also one advocating for African American rights. Stanton and Mott and the other three women who organized the convention were active in the abolitionist movement, working with Frederick Douglas to ban slavery and to promote and protect the rights of free African Americans. It really was an amazing dynamic in which the female rights activists worked with abolitionists to gain more rights for the minorities in America.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.historynet.com/seneca-falls-convention
https://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention
Great job on your blog post and highlighting the significance of the Seneca Falls Convention. This is really the start of the women's suffrage movement and easily one of the most significant events in the push for women's suffrage. Not only was it significant for the women's suffrage movement but it was played a large part in the push to secure rights for minorities and slaves.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog post, I have an immense appreciation for the Stanton and the other women behind the Convention for their bravery in standing up for more similar rights to those of men at the time. Being the first formal women's rights convention, it had various long and short term effects. Directly following the Convention at Seneca Falls, many other national women's rights conventions were created and organized annually. Roughly 70 years after the start of the women's suffrage movement at the Convention, the 19th amendment was passed by Congress. It granted women the right to vote, but also sparked conversation about other important issues like reproductive rights, immigration, and gender equality. Now, a park in Seneca Falls named "The Women's Rights National Historic Park" serves as a reminder of incredible impact the Convention had on women's rights in the United States.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.biography.com/news/seneca-falls-convention-leaders