1. AMERICAN HISTORY

2.  A combination of legal, economic, and cultural factors limited what American women could do and achieve in the early 1800s  LEGAL LIMITS  Women COULD NOT vote, hold public office, enter into legal contracts (except marriage)  If married women with children divorced, custody was awarded to the father

3.  ECONOMIC LIMITS  Married women were not allowed to own property, such as land or buildings.  Household goods were owned by the husband  Women worked for low wages  Women’s wages were the property of the husband  Single women were expected to turn their wages over to their families

4.  CULTURAL LIMITS  Women, most men believed, should attend only to household and family duties—and to their husbands  “A women’s place was in the home”  CULT OF DOMESTICITY—Books and magazines praised the virtues of women staying at home, caring for their families, and obeying their husbands

5.  Despite limits, American women took the lead in reshaping life in the nation  All reform movements were rooted to some degree in the Second Great Awakening  REFORM SOCIETIES  Reform Societies were groups that were organized to promote social reforms  Tens of Thousands of women joined groups throughout the Northeast

6.  Moral reform—promote good behavior  Women would visit poor neighborhoods, almshouses, jails, etc.  Provide religious instruction  Homes were established for orphaned girls, homeless young women, and others  EDUCATION REFORM  Catharine Beecher ran school for women— The Hartford Female Seminary

7.  Beecher worked to create normal schools and to send teachers out west to educate frontier children  Oberlin College (OH)—first college to admit men and women in 1833  1837—First Women’s college—Mount Holyoke College(MA)—Mary Lyon

8.  OTHER REFORMS  Urban reforms implemented largely by female reform societies  1850—225,000 women at work in mills and factories  THE SENECA FALLS CONVENTION  Held July 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY  First women’s rights convention in USA

9.  A DESIRE FOR POLITICAL POWER  Women fought for many types of reform but were limited by governmental rules and regulations  THE CONVENTION  Seneca Falls Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott  Stanton and Mott attended World Anti- Slavery Convention in London in 1840

10.  Lucretia Mott and Henry Stanton were official delegates  Mott couldn’t participate in debates because she was a woman.  Seneca Falls Convention was attended by about 300 people  “Declaration of Sentiments”—written by Stanton  “All men and women are created equal”  The struggle for equality had begun  The End