Ch. 14.5– Women’s Rights

Terms:

Seneca Falls Convention – first public meeting about women’s rights in the US

Declaration of Sentiments – document (based on Declaration of Independence) that detailed beliefs about

social injustice toward women

1. Recreate the chart in your notes and fill it in as you read.

Person or Group & Leaders / Concern or Goal / Accomplishments/Effects
Sarah and Angelina Grimke / Women’s rights, equal educational opportunities, equal pay for equal work, property rights / SG – Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women
Margaret Fuller / Used democratic and transcendentalist principles to stress importance of individualism of all people / Book – Women in the Ninteenth Century – explained role of women in society and influenced many leaders in the movement
Sojourner Truth / Former slave who spread truth about abolition and women’s rights / Could not read or write but impressed many people – confident speaker “Ain’t I a Woman”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton / She and Lucretia Mott organized Seneca Falls Convention after not being allowed to participate in World Anti-Slavery Convention / Seneca Falls, NY
Produced the Declaration of Sentiments –
Convention attended by 240
With Susan B. Anthony, organized national Woman Suffrage Association
Lucretia Mott / See above / See above
Lucy Stone / Well-known spokesperson in Anti-Slavery Society – gifted speaker
Susan B. Anthony / Equal pay for equal work, allow women to enter traditionally male professions, property rights / Strong organizational skills, helped turn fight into a political movement – led a campaign to change laws about property rights  NY gave married women property rights
With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, organized national Woman Suffrage Association

2. How were the abolitionist and women’s rights movements linked?

Female abolitionists found they were denied some rights – could not sit on juries or vote, married women had little control over own property, sometimes weren’t allowed to speak at meetings about women’s rights (only men could speak at some meetings)

sometimes attacked by men in their audiences

3. What limitations on women’s lives did many activists find unacceptable?

Lacked right to vote, married women lost control of money and property, limited educational opportunities, pan inequalities

4. Why did some oppose the women’s rights movement?

Some women said they weren’t unequal to men, only different – only look for change within own home, not society as a whole

Some thought women lacked the physical and mental strength to survive without men’s protection and couldn’t cope with outside world

Thought it would harm families and communities

5. Why would women want to use the Declaration of Independence as the source of the Declaration of Sentiments? How are the documents similar/different?

It was an important and respected document that implied equality for all people, even though it only mentioned men

Self-evident truths and unalienable rights, “all men created equal”

Grievances against society like grievances against George III, etc.