1. Women’s Movement By: Ms. Astle
Picture from: American Memory: By Potepular Demand: “Vos for Women” Suffrage Pictures : The Apotheosis of Suffrage
By: Ms. Astle

2. Reform for Women
Women abolitionists were the first to also campaign for women’s rights, to improve women’s lives, and win equal rights.
Lucretia Mott, a Quaker, gave lectures in Philadelphia, helped fugitive slaves, and organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Mott at a world anti-slavery convention held in London, England in The two found they also shared an interest in women’s rights.

3. Seneca Falls Convention
In July 1848 Stanton and Mott helped organize the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. About 300 people, including 40 men, attended.
A highlight on the convention was a debate over a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions modeled after the Declaration of Independence. These resolutions called for an end to laws that discriminated against women.
It issued a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions that called for women’s equality and the following:
An end to all laws that discriminated against women.
Right to speak publicly
Right to run for office
Entrance into the all-male worlds of trade, professions, and business.
Suffrage, or the right to vote.

4. The Women’s Movement Grows
The Seneca Falls Convention launched a wider movement. In years to come, reformers held several national conventions with the first being held in Worchester, MA in Both male and female reformers joined the cause. Susan B. Anthony was among the movement leaders.
Lucy Stone—became a teacher who was not paid the same as the male teachers, which she felt was unfair. In 1847 she began speaking publicly for women’s rights. She became known as the “morning star of the women’s rights movement.”
Susan B. Anthony---grew up a Quaker and became a teacher. She worked for the American Anti-Slavery Society. She became president of the American Women Suffrage Association and worked tirelessly to win other rights for women. She called for equal pay and college training for women and co-education in schools.

5. The Women’s Movement Grows
Susan B. Anthony organized the countries first Women’s Temperance Association called the Daughters of Temperance. She meet Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a temperance meeting in they became lifelong friends and worked together in the women’s rights movement.
She was the first to urge full participation of African Americans in women suffrage.
Sojourner Truth—Spoke against slavery and in defense of women’s rights. Often attending meets and gave some speeches.
Opportunities for women increased in the late 1800s. In 1890 Wyoming gave all women in the state the suffrage (right to vote.) Not until 1920 and the 19th Amendment did all women have the right to vote.

6. Women Make Gains
Women worked toward establishing educational opportunities, changing marriage and family laws that were unfavorable to them, and breaking barriers in careers. The early feminists made some progress but had only just begun the struggle.
Women did not have advanced institutions they could attend, so they were prevented from becoming doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.

7. Women Make Gains
Before the 1830s, no university or college would accept women. Some people thought women could be trained to be capable teachers and to fill other professional roles.
Emma Willard educated herself in subjects considered only suitable for males such as science math. In 1821 she established the Troy Female Seminary in upstate New York. The school taught math, history, geography, physics, as well as the homemaking subjects.
Mary Lyon worked as a teacher for 20 years and began raising funds to open a women’s college. She established Mount Holyoake Female Seminary in 1837

8. Marriage and the Family
Prior to the mid-1800s women had few rights. They depended on me for support. Anything a woman owned became the property of her husband if she married. Women also had few options if they were unhappy or in an abusive relationship.
In the mid-1800s women made some gains in marriage and property laws. New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Mississippi, and California recognized the right of married women to own property.
Some states passed laws permitting divorced women to share guardianship of their children with their former husbands. Indiana was the first state to allow divorce to a woman if her husband abused alcohol.

9. Breaking Barriers
In the 1800s women had few career choices. They could become elementary teachers—at lower wages than males. Women struggled to become doctors or workers in the ministry.
Elizabeth Blackwell—was finally accepted by Geneva College in NY after being turned down by many colleges. She graduated first in her class and became a well-known and famed female doctor.
Maria Mitchell—received her education from her father. In 1847 she became the first person to discover a comet with a telescope. The next year she became the first woman elected to the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

10. Resources
American History Picture Packs Collection D: Expansion, Development, Sectionalism, and Division, CD-Rom (2002) History Pictures at URL:
American History Picture Packs Collection C: The American Revolution and the Early Republic, CD-Rom (2002) History Pictures at URL:
Wikipedia: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Lucy Stone (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Susan B. Anthony (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Sojourner Truth (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Lucretia Coffin Mott (2008) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
American Memory: By Popular Demand: “Votes for Women” Suffrage Pictures : The Apotheosis of Suffrage ( 1998) Library of Congress at URL:
Freedom A History of US: Episode 9 Working for Freedom (2008) Utah Education Network (eMedia)
American Treasures of the Library of Congress (2002) Library of Congress at URL:
Wikipedia: Emma Willard (2009) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL:
Wikipedia: Women’s Suffrage in the United States (2009) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. at URL: