Skip to main content

Declaration of Sentiments - The Beginning of the Women's Rights Movement

The “Declaration of Sentiments” came out of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Its goal was to show how women were treated unequally and to fight for equal treatment, including the following: voting rights; access to education; equal access to divorce and child custody; employment, including within the ministry; rights to her own property and wages; and for males and females to be judged and upheld to the same moral standards. Elizabeth Cady Stanton used the Declaration of Independence as a guide in writing the “Declaration of Sentiments,” showing the ironic need for women to get rights denied to her by men in the same way that Americans were denied their rights by the king of England. A main point made in the “Declaration of Sentiments” is that women were represented without the right to vote. If a single woman owned property, which was the only way a woman could own her own property, she would be taxed without representation. Stanton is clearly plagiarizing the Declaration of Independence, showing exactly how hypocritical it was for the United States citizens and government to treat women in much of the same ways that the colonies were treated and had fought against England to secure their freedoms.
            It is clear that these sentiments of the unequal treatment of women were accurate. Women were not allowed to vote, run for political office or work outside the home in most cases. They certainly weren’t able to have access to higher education. Women were expected to take care of the family and stay at home. Any wages earned from small jobs were not her own to keep. The man in a woman’s life, whether it be her father or her husband, basically owned her as well as anything she owned. This took many years to start to change in society. Women only gained the right to vote in 1920, a full 50 years after freed black men were given the right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Women are still striving towards equality. Many women are still paid less than men for many of the same jobs in the United States. Women are held to higher sexual moral standards than men. Another thing women have had to fight for is the right to be treated equally as a member of the military. Women are still disproportionately the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by male offenders. When these battles come in front of a judge, often the women are forced to defend themselves in the courtroom against allegations about their mental state or sexual past. It is only this year that a female has been a leading candidate for president of the United States. There are still some men and women in the United States that didn’t vote for the female candidate simply because of her sex.
Works Cited


Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. "Declaration of Sentiments." 1848. To 1877, edited by Michael P. Johnson, 5th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012, pp. 239-42. 2 vols.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Male or Female? Issues Transgender People Face

            In “Aligning Bodies,” Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore bring to light the burdens endured by people in our society that don’t necessarily fit into preconceived notions of sex and gender.   On a daily basis there are issues they must consider:   when filling out forms that ask for their sex, when going to the restroom and when showing legal documents that may not match the gender they identify with.   Transgender people may or may not have surgery on their chest and/or genitalia and/or face or other surgery and may choose to use hormone therapy.   Some people are born with ambiguous genitalia or with genitals or chromosomes of both sexes.   Yet others may identify as a gender different than their birth sex and choose to not alter their body physically.   There is a wide spectrum of people in our world that don’t neatly fit into the “F” and “M” boxes.   Society and individuals need to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Emmett Till

I think the most important event in African American history since Reconstruction is the aftermath of the murder of Emmett Till.  Till was only 14 years old when he was tortured and killed by two white men in Money, Mississippi after flirting with a white woman at a store.  Till was beaten severely, shot and dumped into the Tallahatchie River, tied to a cotton gin fan.  African Americans were killed often in the South, many times by lynching.  The violence in the South towards African Americans was so prevalent that the two men that killed Till felt they were in the right and had no fear of being punished for this horrific crime.  When Till’s body was sent back to his mother in Chicago, she was shocked and horrified at how horrible her son’s body looked, due to the savage way Till was treated before and after he was killed.  Mamie Till Bradley made the decision to have an open casket funeral and to allow media to photograph his body before and during the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Somewhere in the Smoky Mountain Range

A wildfire is raging across the Appalachian area in Tennessee, leaving a trail of devastation of nature, homes and lives in its wake.  Jason Howard speaks to the lack of media coverage of this devastation of the Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg to this uniquely beautiful part of the country in his article “Appalachia Burning.”  Tennessee is a state known for country music.  Country music artists have dedicated many a song to the Smoky Mountain Range and the country settings of Tennessee.  The first time I ever heard of the Smoky Mountains or Gatlinburg was through country songs.  The songs that come from this area of the country are full of love for family, nature, and the simple ways of life.  Howard tells us how he feels about the people in the Appalachian mountains and the great blaze that is tearing this region apart.  Howards begins his descriptions of the Appalachia people with his own parents’ modest wedding.  Howard tells us that his par...
Post a Comment
Read more