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Mar 8, 2012 · 8 March 2012. Women’s voices and their participation in all aspects of society are more important than ever, as witnessed last year in the context of the global economic crisis, political...
- Overview
- Abolition to the beginning of women's rights
- Seneca Falls and The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments
- The Republican Motherhood
- What do you think?
The first women's rights movement advocated equal rights for white women by leveraging abolitionist and Second Great Awakening sentiment.
Women lead the charges in many antebellum reforms, from transcendentalism to temperance to abolition. While leading these reforms, women gained the political traction to begin the first wave of US feminism. Paradoxically, the cult of domesticity—the view that women should remain relegated to the household—played a role in encouraging women’s participation in public movements. Women who rallied for temperance, for example, highlighted their role as moral guardians of the home to advocate against intoxication. Some women argued for a much more expansive role—educating children and men in solid republican principles, like liberty and justice.
Feminist appeals of the early 19th century drew heavily on religion, spurred by the spiritual revivals of the Second Great Awakening. But it was work in antislavery efforts that served as a springboard for women to take action against gender inequality. Northern women particularly came to the conclusion that they, like enslaved people, were held in shackles in a society dominated by men.
Two leading abolitionist women, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, played major roles in combining the fight to end slavery with the struggle to achieve female equality. The Grimké sisters had been born into a prosperous slaveholding family in South Carolina. Both were caught up in the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, and they moved to the North.
In the mid-1830s, the sisters joined the abolitionist movement, and in 1837, they embarked on a public lecture tour, during which they promoted abolition to audiences of both women and men, known as promiscuous assemblies. This public action thoroughly scandalized respectable society, where it was unheard of for women to lecture to men. William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the famous abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator endorsed the Grimké sisters’ public lectures, but other abolitionists did not. Their lecture tour served as a turning point—the reaction against them propelled the question of women’s proper sphere in society to the forefront of public debate.
Participation in the abolitionist movement led many women to rally for the cause of their own subjugation, which was compared to—but unequal to—that of African Americans at the time. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony lead the movement. Anthony left such a legacy for the feminist cause that progressive women everywhere were called Suzy Bs. The public considered Elizabeth Cady Stanton quite radical for suggesting that women should have the right to vote in the 1840s.
In 1848, about 300 male and female feminists, many of them veterans of the abolition campaign, gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York for a conference on women’s rights that was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It was the first of what became annual meetings that have continued to the present day. Attendees agreed to a Declaration of Rights and Sentiments based on the Declaration of Independence. It declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” “The history of mankind,” the document continued, “is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.”
Some northern female reformers saw new and vital roles for their sex in the realm of education. They believed in traditional gender roles, viewing women as inherently more moral and nurturing than men. Because of these attributes, the feminists argued, women were uniquely qualified to take up the roles of educators of children. This idea began in the late 1700s but was codified and gained support during the mid-1800s with the rise of the first women's rights movement.
Catherine Beecher, the daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, pushed for women’s roles as educators. In her 1845 book, The Duty of American Women to Their Country, she argued that the United States had lost its moral compass due to democratic excess. Both “intelligence and virtue” were imperiled in an age of riots and disorder. Women, she argued, could restore the moral center by instilling in children a sense of right and wrong. Beecher represented a northern, middle-class female sensibility. The home, especially the parlor, became the site of northern female authority. This can be seen in James Peale's The artist and his family. The mother is the subject in the foreground, while the man is physically blocked by her figure, signifying the dominant role she plays caring for the children.
Compare and contrast the mid-19th century women’s rights movement and the abolition movement.
How did the beginning of the women’s rights movement challenge gender norms? How did it reinforce them?
Which feminine racial identities were represented by the first women's rights movements? Which were not?
[Notes and attributions]
A critical mass of these rebellious women first emerged among those who had already enlisted in the radical struggle to end slavery. When abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke faced efforts to silence them because they were women, they saw parallels between their own situation and that of the slaves.
Feb 26, 2019 · Sandra Day O'Connor, Sally Ride. July 7, 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She retires in 2006, after ...
In general, women's rights in Mesopotamia were not equal to those of men. But in early periods women were free to go out to the marketplaces, buy and sell, attend to legal matters for their absent men, own their own property, borrow and lend, and engage in business for themselves. High status women, such as priestesses and members of royal ...
Chronicles of American Women: Your History Makers is a means to honor the lives and legacies of women, living and dead, whose individual and collective contributions have enriched our lives. With narrative and pictures you can create a lasting memorial to a special woman in your life. Explore topics and articles about women in American history.
Mar 8, 2019 · Development Impact, Reaching Children's Potential. The Global Role of Women – Caregivers, Conscience, Farmers, Educators and Entrepreneurs. Throughout history, the central role of women in society has ensured the stability, progress and long-term development of nations.
