Reaction Paper On Feminism

The women’s suffrage movement began in the mid-nineteenth century. Women began discussing the problems they faced in society and the different ways they wanted to change their lives. The Civil War and World War I also had an enormous effect upon the movement. During both of these wars, women felt a new sense of independence and strength. During this time, the women had to step in

The origin of the women’s rights movement traces back many years to the Seneca Falls Convention. The proposal for Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” occurred at this convention in New York in July 1848. Stanton, along with Lucretia Mott, entertained the idea of such an event during the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. These two women were told that they could not partake in the convention based solely on gender. After African Americans had finally been granted their right to vote, women felt it was unfair that they still could not participate during elections.

The suffrage movement roots go back to the anti-slavery movement before the eruption of the Civil War (19). American women recruited their efforts through political activism to bring slavery to an end. Consequently, joining the antislavery movements was used as a platform where the feminists articulated their claims about women’s rights. Moreover, they gave them the needed experience and self-confidence to launch their own movement. By the end of the Civil War, feminists realized that they need an independent political groundwork to base their movement on since America was going through radical social changes after the end of slavery (19).

After more than 200 years of living under the United States Constitution and despite all of the progress women have made, they still to this day continue to suffer discrimination in employment, insurance, health care, education, the criminal justice system, social security and pensions, and just about any other area you can name.

The exact beginning of feminism cannot be known as it was a movement sparked in many parts of the United States by women that had finally reached the threshold of their patience with their maltreatment. Many believe feminism did not truly begin until the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, but women had been resisting their lack of control far before then. Since the technical emergence of feminism in 1848, the goals of those women and men who have been and still are fighting have developed and adapted to fit into the societal norms of each respective time period.

The woman’s suffrage movement began in the mid-1850’s and went on until 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed. Women wanted to have a say as to what happens in their country because they were involved

July 19,1848, was when Stanton and Mott organized the Seneca Falls convention that had sparked the entire movement. After that several new organizations popped up, educating people and pushing the government to give equal voting rights to women. In 1869, during the Civil War, the rights movements lost some ground. Most people were just concerned about their sons, husbands and friends fighting the war, and freeing the slaves. It wasn’t till four whole years later, after the war ended did the suffrage movement pick up again.

Back in the mid 1800’s the first women’s convention was initiated by Elizabeth Stanton, along with others who founded the Women’s Suffrage Movement. After attending an World Anti-Slavery Society meeting, where the women were required to sit is a separate area away from the men, the women decided that they were little better than slaves and decided to do something about it. (Pearson, 2017)

The Women’s Suffrage Movement was a development of the general Women’s Rights Movement, which began with The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. The Women’s Suffrage Movement was not only displayed in the United States, but all over the world. Back then men and women were not seen as equal; there were certain things that men did that they saw women unfit to do. Women were unified around a number of issues that were seen as rights for all citizens; they included: the right to own their own property, access higher education, and the right to vote.

Women’s Suffrage was a huge movement in the 1800’s and the beginning of the 1900’s. Women fought long and hard to earn the right to vote and the right to be considered equal along with men. “The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognize woman as the equal of man” (Susan B. Anthony). They also earned the right to own property. Many men argued against women’s rights. Women struggled for 50 years against the hate and the repressment by men.

The women’s suffrage movement is thought to have begun with the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. Wollstonecraft is considered the “mother of feminism” and wrote of the sexual double standards between men and

Let us start from perhaps one of the earliest acts of feminism in terms of the Reconstruction Era, Susan B. Anthony. In 1863, Susan B. Anthony co-organized the Women's Loyal League to back the Lincoln administration, specifically on the issue of emancipation. When the 15th Amendment which was passed in 1869, granted the right to vote to black men, but not to women, Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton gathered with many suffragists to oppose the new law. This event may be perhaps one of the earliest in the history of the Feminist Movement. In regards to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton said “In ancient Greece she would have been a Stoic; in the era of the Reformation, a Calvinist; in King Charles's time, a Puritan; but in this nineteenth century, by the very laws of her being, she is a Reformer.” If we look further into what freedom meant at that point in time, the Emancipation Proclamation had just taken place in 1862. People were trying to figure out what freedom meant for former slaves, not white women.

(Davidson). The struggle for women’s right to vote was one key factor in the women’s fight for equality. The woman suffrage movement began in 1848 throughout the years the woman suffrage supporters worked to educate the public about woman suffrage under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many other women’s rights pioneers. Even though the conference for women’s rights was held at Seneca Falls in 1848, women reformers pressed for the right to vote on the grounds for equal opportunity and simple justice. Progressive reformers embraced women’s suffrage by expressing what they felt were the practical outcomes such as reducing political corruption, protecting the home, and increasing the votes of native-born whites.

One of them was Sojourner Truth. Her contribution in both movements was conspicuous. Born into slavery, she managed to escape and become a anti slavery speaker and activist. She was a highly visible figure and spoke at the first national women’s rights convention in 1850, and in 1851 delivered her most famous speech known as “Ain’t i a woman?”4 at the Akron women’s rights convention. Her main assessment was that excluding black women from the suffrage movement would just delay rights achievement for all women. She would also continually remind her allies in the abolitionist movement that black women were half the slave population, and that without changing the conditions of all women’s oppression, there would not be a complete Freedom for African

The women 's suffrage movement, the time when women fought for their rights, began in the year 1848 and continued on all the way through the 1860s. Although women in the new republic had important roles in the family, the house, and other obligations, they were excluded from most rights. These rights included political and legal rights. Due to their gender, they have been held back because they did not have as much opportunities as the men did. The new republic made alterations in the roles of women by disparaging them in society. During this era, men received a higher status than women. Because women were forced to follow laws without being allowed to state their opinions, they tried to resist laws, fight for their freedom and strive to gain equality with men. This leads to feminism, the belief in political, social, and economic equality between men and women. It is the feminist efforts that have successfully tried to give rights that men had, to women who have been denied those rights. Upon the deprivation of those rights, the Seneca Falls convention and the Declaration of Sentiments helped women gain the privileges and opportunities to accomplish the task of equality that they have been striving for.