Women’s Rights Movement Written by Annaliese Patenge

In the early days of the United States, women did not have the same rights as men. Women finally decided that they had had enough in 1848. They held conventions and protests, organized organizations, and wrote petitions along with many other things. This began the era of the Women’s Rights Movement.

Women’s Rights are the rights that promote a position of legal and social equality of women with men. This was happening around 1848 because women wanted equal voice in the government and wanted say in what they could do. They started the movement with the Seneca Falls Convention.

The Seneca Falls Convention was held on July 19 and 20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. It was the first gathering devoted to women’s rights in the U.S, which was held to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition of women. About one hundred people attended the convention; two thirds of the people being women. Elizabeth Cody Stanton was the principal organizer of the convention.

Susan B. Anthony was another major fighter in the Women’s Rights Movement. She was born February 15, 1830, in Adams, Massachusetts, and was raised a Quaker. She joined the Women’s Rights Movement when she met Elizabeth Cody Stanton in 1852. They both founded the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890 to promote the cause of women’s suffrage.

She dedicated her life to Women’s Suffrage, the right for women to vote. She even created The Revolution newspaper in 1868, which talked about the Women’s Rights Movement. She also persuaded universities, such as the University of Rochester, to admit women.

Women were fed up with their lack of rights because they weren’t able to vote, own land, keep their own wages, sign a contract, and were looked down upon if they wanted to attend college and have a career. In 1870, only about twenty percent of students in college were women, but in 1910 that number doubled because of the Women’s Rights Movement.

Women began attending colleges, such as Smith College in Massachusetts and Vassar College in New York. Graduates entered work fields such as social work and teaching, because they found it difficult to enter jobs in law or medicine since they were male-dominate jobs. Some women even went on to become active in reform, or change.

Women’s clubs campaigned for causes such as temperance, women’s suffrage, child welfare, and political reform. Women were treated unfairly along with not having the same rights. They were seen as second class citizens. Some were even beat by their husbands, or were forced to have inappropriate relations with strangers.

All of the hard work of the women in this time paid off, however All of the hard work of the women in this time paid off, however. In 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment; granting women right to vote. This amendment not only gave them the right to vote, but it also gave them more confidence. They felt like they were finally able to do something with their life, instead of just being a mother with no voice. This was an important milestone in woman history.

The next time a woman goes to vote, goes to her job, or goes to school, she should think about how amazing her life is now compared to how it could be. She should think of all the amazing women that helped her get to where she is today. She should think about all of the women who fought for her right, and all of the women who stayed up preparing for the work of the day ahead. She should think about that.

Sources: The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848-1920, http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ Biography of Susan B. Anthony, http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/her-story/biography.php United States History, Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 2007, Section 3 The Rights of Women and Minorities, Pages 675-677