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

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

Disaster Management: A State of Emergency

Before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979, over 100 agencies had to work together to help people during and after major disasters (Smith).  The result was a conglomerate of uncoordinated efforts that didn’t work very well.  FEMA was created after a series of major natural disasters.  Ironically, after FEMA was created, less severe disasters happened and FEMA didn’t seem quite so important.  Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush used FEMA to make appointments as political favors and the people they appointed to head FEMA had no experience, training, or background in emergency management (Smith).  When a severe storm finally struck, FEMA was unprepared.  After a category 5 hurricane hit Florida City in 1992, it took 5 days for troops to show up to assist.  Over 125,000 homes were destroyed and thousands of people were left without federal assistance or necessities, like water or food (Smith).  Jane Bullock, former C...
Post a Comment
Read more

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

The United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) international agreement.   According to the National Women’s Law Center, only the United States and six other countries have not ratified this agreement ("Issues").   The Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center testified that CEDAW protects basic human rights and aims to stop gender based discrimination against girls and women.   Nearly 200 countries have adopted CEDAW.   The main tenets of CEDAW are to: 1) prevent crimes of sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking and other forced physical and sexual acts primarily experience by women worldwide; 2) give girls and women equal access to education and job training; 3) improve access for women to healthcare and improve maternal mortality rates; and 4) provide critical legal support and legislation to families, mothers and their children (Greenberger). CEDAW seems like a no brain...
Post a Comment
Read more