"Women are told from their infancy...that...cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives...How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us only to render ourselves gentle, domestic brutes!"
~ Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
~ Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
Revolution at Seneca Falls
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Efforts in favor of women's rights before 1848 were sought by individuals. While women's groups were not unheard of, there were no national or state-wide organizations. Many male supporters of women's rights felt that their energies would be better spent supporting abolition.
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The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights meeting to accept women's suffrage. In it, the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments was presented, serving as an outline for future reformers. The ideas of the Convention strongly influenced existing reformers, and redirected the path of women's rights activists toward suffrage.
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Tribute to Seneca Falls Convention's leaders