Women’s Rights The legacy of women’s struggle to earn equality in a world turned against them. By Kennedy Dorman

Seneca Falls Convention  The Seneca Falls Convention was the first major meeting focusing on women’s rights held in the United States. It took place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on  On July 19 th two hundred women showed up at the chapel to discuss women’s social, civil, and religious rights.  The convention spanned over two days. On the second day men were invited to attend, about 40 men showed up.  On that same day, the Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances was adopted and signed by the assembly. Twelve resolutions were passed.

New Opportunities for Women  The Seneca Falls Convention launched the women’s rights movement in the US.  The women’s rights movement was an organized effort to improve the political, legal, and economic status of women in American society  In 1821, Emma Willard started the Troy Female Seminary, a school which gave girls a chance to receive better education. It became a model for girl schools everywhere.  As people realized that girls could achieve an education more and more women were being hired to work more prestigious careers.

Sojourner Truth  Sojourner Truth, born in New York city 1797 was an African American abolitionist and an important women’s rights activist.  She was born a slave and had multiple children while in slavery. She managed to escape with her infant daughter Sophia.  Soon after her escape, Truth found out her 5 year old son Peter had been illegally sold to a man in Alabama. She took the issue to court and eventually secured Peter’s return to the North. This is one of the first cases of a black woman ever successfully challenging a white man in a US court.

Lucretia Mott  Lucretia Mott ( ) was a Quaker woman who was one of the leading voices of the abolitionist and feminist movements.  In 1833, Mott helped form the Anti-Slavery Society, and later helped to found the American women’s rights movement.  At the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, Mott was denied a seat on account of her gender. Mott then preached her female equality doctrine outside the conference hall.  Mott’s feminist views were outlined in her writing ‘Discourse on Women’ (1850) where she preached women’s potential to be equal to men through quality education.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton  Born in Johnston, New York on November 12, 1815, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leading figure in the early women’s movement. She was also an abolitionist.  Stanton was a skilled writer and her Declaration of Sentiments was a revolutionary call for women’s rights on multiple categories.  For 20 years Stanton was the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony.  Stanton joined with other women to protest their exclusion from the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London.

Susan B. Anthony  Born in Massachusetts in 1820, Susan B. Anthony was raised in a Quaker family with deep-rooted activist traditions.  After becoming acquainted with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and facing discrimination at temperance rallies, Anthony, in 1852, joined the women’s rights movement.  Anthony later traveled, canvassed, and lectured across the nation for the vote, facing opposition and abuse along the way.  She also campaigned for the end of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and eventually in 1900 convinced the University of Rochester to accept female students.