"While man enjoys all the rights, he preaches all the duties to a woman."
~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton
~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Historical Context
The fight begun by the planners of the Seneca Falls Convention was not a new cause. For over a century before the Convention, bold women had denounced their inferior status in society. Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, wrote to her husband about women's status in America. From Mary Wollstonecraft's book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, to the Grimké sisters' abolitionist speeches to mixed-sex audiences, many activists' ideas and efforts preceded the Seneca Falls Convention.
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“To keep house and grounds in good order, purchase every article for daily use, keep the wardrobes of half a dozen human beings in proper trim, take the children to dentists, shoemakers, and different schools, or find teachers at home, altogether made sufficient work to keep one's brain busy, as well as all the hands I could press into service.... My duties were too numerous and varied, and none sufficiently exhilarating or intellectual to bring into play my higher facilities. I suffered with mental hunger, which, like an empty stomach, is very depressing...”
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton, on her existence as a housewife |
The World Anti-Slavery Convention
In 1840, the World Anti-Slavery Convention was held in London. Two American women, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, traveled to participate in the Convention. Upon arrival, both were told women were barred from speaking. Furious, the two women quickly became friends. Back in America, they vowed to hold a convention on women's rights.
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"[Lucretia Mott] opened to me a new world of thought. As we walked about in the sights of London, I embraced every opportunity to talk with her."
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton |
Kim Gandy:
Women's Exclusion
Women's Rights in 1848
In 1848, the year of the Convention, American women could not vote, divorce their husbands, take most jobs, or even own property. Education opportunities were limited. They were discouraged from voicing their opinions in public. According to the cult of domesticity, an anti-feminist movement of the period, women should not stray from their "spheres", and should remain in the house to nurture their families. The public often violently rejected women's advocating for their legal and social rights.
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"Too much has already been said and written about 'women's sphere'. Leave women, then, to find their sphere."
-Lucy Stone, a 19th-century feminist
-Lucy Stone, a 19th-century feminist
"... the first conscious feminists ... would go to school in the struggle to free the slaves and, in the process, launch their own fight for equality."
-Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States |
"We have good cause to be grateful to the slave, for the benefit we have received to ourselves, in working for him. In striving to strike his irons off, we found most surely that we were manacled ourselves"
-Abby Kelley, a 19th-century feminist |
Abolition and Women's Rights
The birth of the women's rights movement occurred alongside the abolitionist movement. Women's rights activists, many abolitionists themselves, gained political experience in their abolitionist efforts. However, many male abolitionists resented women working for reform alongside men. Ironically, the 15th Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote, was the first part of the Constitution to specifically bar women from voting, by including sex-specific language.