Women’s Rights Movement
Recently in class we studied reform movements in the 1800s. An important movement was the women’s rights movement. The first convention held to talk about women’s rights was in 1848. It was called the Seneca Falls convention and at the convention many women made and signed a document called the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Through this declaration women were able to make many advances towards the equality of men and women.
In the 1800s women were supposed to be to look pretty but have no impact or use. There job was to keep quiet, look pretty, and take care of the home. At the time people believed that there were two spheres, private and public, and that the women should always remain in the private sphere. The private sphere was the home where the women belongs. She didn't belong in the public sphere because it was a violent place full of temptation and trouble, a place where only men belonged. Society in the 1800s believed that the four features of an ideal women were piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Piety and purity meant that women were expected to be religious and remain pure. The women was also supposed to never argue or put in her opinion, but rather be submissive and let the man walk all over her. The fourth idea of domesticity meant that the women should be happy with her home and family life. The Cult of Domesticity was the idea that women were confined to the home and their proper role was taking care of the house and children, providing comfort and companionship to men, and remaining out of the public eye. Women were confined to these small ridiculous expectations because they were thought to be physically and mentally inferior.
By 1848 tension between men and women had been building, and many women were ready to take a stand to gain more rights. The Seneca Falls convention was the first women’s rights convention held. Its objective was to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman. The convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, on july 19th and 20th of 1848. At the convention 100 of the attendees created and signed the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, a document addressing the problem with women’s current status and what needed to be fixed. The declaration included women’s suffrage, which is the right for women to vote and to run for electoral office. This was a controversial idea and many people thought that it should not be added to the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. No one at the convention did not want women to be able to vote, but they thought that asking for women’s suffrage would be asking for too much and people would ride off their whole declaration because it is too ridiculous. In the end they ended up adding women’s suffrage to the declaration and the declaration was a success. Part of the reason it succeeded was because The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was written to look like the Declaration of Independence. Making people see how the two documents looked similar emphasized the importance of the letter and caught people’s attention making them pay attention to it.
The point of The Seneca Falls convention was to gain equality for women, but at the convention itself women were not treating each other as equals. The only people that were allowed to speak at the convention were middle to upper class white women. African American women, mill workers, women from New Mexico, Cherokee women, and even poor white women, were not permitted to talk at the convention. In class each group focused on the problems of one of these groups. We used the problems from each group of women to brainstorm possible resolutions that we believed needed to take place. My group was assigned to find problems that the mill workers would have advocated to fix. The resolutions we would have said were equal and better wages for men and women, and shortened work days and weeks with better conditions. As a class as a whole we decided the most important resolutions were to get women the right to vote, equal rights for all citizens (including immigrants and women), and for the abolishment of slavery. The actual Declaration of Sentiments did in fact get women the right to vote, but it did no get equality for all citizens of abolish slavery.
The point of The Seneca Falls convention was to gain equality for women, but at the convention itself women were not treating each other as equals. The only people that were allowed to speak at the convention were middle to upper class white women. African American women, mill workers, women from New Mexico, Cherokee women, and even poor white women, were not permitted to talk at the convention. In class each group focused on the problems of one of these groups. We used the problems from each group of women to brainstorm possible resolutions that we believed needed to take place. My group was assigned to find problems that the mill workers would have advocated to fix. The resolutions we would have said were equal and better wages for men and women, and shortened work days and weeks with better conditions. As a class as a whole we decided the most important resolutions were to get women the right to vote, equal rights for all citizens (including immigrants and women), and for the abolishment of slavery. The actual Declaration of Sentiments did in fact get women the right to vote, but it did no get equality for all citizens of abolish slavery.
I think that the most important resolution from the Seneca Falls convention was, “That woman is man’s equal-was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.” I believe that it is most important for women to be recognized as equals to men because all people are created equal and your gender, race, or identity can not change this. In present day American women are still treated unequally. They are paid less than men to do the same job, and are still judged and put down by their gender. Our society has come a long way since the convention, but we have not reached a point where men and women are completely equal yet.
I do not think there will ever be a time in our society where everyone is completely equal, but instead of accepting this we should act like the thousands of women who joined the reform movements to gain more equality for women and fight for our rights. It is important that we continue to work towards equality, because equality is a right that every single person deserves.
