1. Women’s Rights Movement
Written by Annaliese Patenge

2. In the early days of the United States, women did not have the same rights as men. Women finally decided that they had had enough in They held conventions and protests, organized organizations, and wrote petitions along with many other things. This began the era of the Women’s Rights Movement.

3. Women’s Rights are the rights that promote a position of legal and social
equality of women with men.
This was happening around
1848 because women wanted
equal voice in the government
and wanted say in what they
could do. They started the
movement with the Seneca
Falls Convention.

4. The Seneca Falls Convention was held on July 19 and 20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. It was the first gathering devoted to women’s rights in the U.S, which was held to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition of women. About one hundred
people attended the
convention; two thirds
of the people being
women. Elizabeth
Cody Stanton was the
principal organizer of
the convention.

5. Susan B. Anthony was another major fighter in the Women’s Rights Movement. She was born February 15, 1830, in Adams, Massachusetts, and was raised a Quaker. She joined the Women’s Rights Movement
when she met Elizabeth
Cody Stanton in 1852.
They both founded the
National American Women’s
Suffrage Association
(NAWSA) in 1890
to promote the cause of
women’s suffrage.

6. She dedicated her life to Women’s Suffrage, the right for women to vote. She even created The Revolution newspaper in 1868, which talked about the Women’s Rights
Movement. She also
persuaded universities,
such as the University of
Rochester, to admit
women.

7. Women were fed up with their lack of rights because they weren’t able to vote, own land, keep their own wages, sign a contract, and were looked down upon if they wanted to attend college and have a
career. In 1870,
only about twenty
percent of students
in college were
women, but in 1910
that number doubled because of the Women’s Rights Movement.

8. Women began attending colleges, such as Smith College in Massachusetts and Vassar College in New York. Graduates entered work fields such as social work and teaching, because they found it difficult to enter jobs in law or medicine since they were male-dominate jobs. Some women
even went on to
become active in
reform, or change.

9. Women’s clubs campaigned for causes such as temperance, women’s suffrage, child welfare, and political reform. Women were treated unfairly along with not having the same rights. They were seen as second class citizens. Some were even beat by their husbands, or were forced to have inappropriate relations with strangers.

10. All of the hard work of the women in this time paid off, however
All of the hard work of the women in this time paid off, however. In 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment; granting women right to vote. This amendment not only gave them the right to vote,
but it also gave them more
confidence. They felt like they
were finally able to do
something with their life,
instead of just being a mother
with no voice. This was an
important milestone in woman history.

11. The next time a woman goes to vote, goes to her job, or goes to school, she should think about how amazing her life is now compared to how it could be. She should think of all the amazing women that helped her get to where she is today. She should
think about all of the
women who fought for
her right, and all of the
women who stayed up
preparing for the work
of the day ahead. She should think about that.

12. Sources:
The Women’s Rights Movement, ,
Biography of Susan B. Anthony,
United States History, Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 2007, Section 3 The Rights of Women and Minorities, Pages