During the early history of the United States there was little, if
any respect for the principle of women's rights. In an intensely
patriarchal society a man "†virtually owned his wife and children as he
did his material possessions. If a poor man chose to send his children to
the poorhouse, the mother was legally defenseless to object". [1] The
history of the women's movements in the United States is largely a reaction
to this system of exclusion and male-dominance.
The start of the history of the fight for women's rights begins with a
tea party hosted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in New York. Mrs. Stanton
expressed her feelings of discontent at the situation of women in society,
Stanton poured out her discontent with the limitations placed on her
own situation under America's new democracy. Hadn't the American
Revolution been fought just 70 years earlier to win the patriots
freedom from tyranny' But women had not gained freedom even though
they'd taken equally tremendous risks through those dangerous years.
Surely the new republic would benefit from having its women play more
active roles throughout society. Stanton's friends agreed with her,
This meeting led to the first Convention on Women's Rights, which took
place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls in 1848. While this was a
comparatively small meeting it was to have repercussions and affect the
future of women in America. In an insightful move Stanton used the
principles of the Declaration of Independence as a framework for her
"Declaration of Sentiments." In so doing she succeeded in giving the idea
of women's right legitimacy by associating these rights with a powerful
symbol of freedom and liberty. In her declaration Stanton mentions eighteen
areas of dis...