Early Women's Movement
Cult of Domesticity

Prior to the
market
revolution,
many goods
were
produced at
home.
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Industrial Revolution moved industry from homes to
factories.
Hence, poor women often left farms to work in large
factories
Wealthy
women were
not expected
to go to work
or get
educations.
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As middle class families
became wealthier, they
were able to hire domestic
servants to perform
household chores that
women previously did.
It became expected of
middle class women to stay
home and endow children
with 'republican values.'
Some women became
active church members.
“Cult of Domesticity”
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Women expected too be
“submissive, selfless, and
emotional.”
Men expected to be “rational,
aggressive, and domineering.”
Women thought unfit for
participation in government.
Not allowed to vote
The property of married
women belonged to their
husbands.
Public Avenues


Literacy among women
doubled between 1780 and
1840.
Barred from higher
education

Factory work

Teaching

Staying at home
Lucy Stone
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Gave lectures beginning in 1847 in
Gardner Massachusetts.
Her lectures dealt primarily with
women's rights
Attacked by audience many times
Refused to pay taxes because she
was not represented in the
government.
Lucy Stone
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First Woman in Massachusetts to earn a college
degree.
First woman in United States not to change her name
when she was married.
She and her husband, Henry Blackwell, published a
protest, enumerating marriage laws granting unequal
the husband “injurious and unnatural superiority...
which no man should possess”.
Amelia Bloomer

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Owner and editor of, “The Lily,”
the 1st newspaper who's audience
was specifically women.
Invented 'bloomers' with the idea
that women could work while
wearing them
Submitted a petition to congress
asking either that women be
represented in the government,
or not pay taxes.
Sarah Ripley
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Born in 1793, Boston Massachusetts
Self educated scholar (spoke English, Latin, Greek,
French, Italian, and German)
Teacher and Lecturer
First all Women Strike
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In New York, in 1925, seamstresses organized 1st all
women strike, asking for fair wages, good working
conditions, and equal job opportunities
Inspired many
future strikes
in following
years.
1840 World Anti-Slavery Society
Convention

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Large abolitionist
convention held
in London
Women excluded
from speaking.
Required to be
behind a curtain
so no one could
see them.
1840 World Anti-Slavery Society
Convention

The abolitionists
who were not
allowed to speak
complained that
they were not
being treated
equally.
Seneca Falls Convention

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First women’s
rights convention
Attended by
about 300
women and
some men
Created
“Declaration of
Sentiments and
Resolutions”
Seneca Falls Convention
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Organized by Lucretia Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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Led to
numerous other
conventions in
other parts of
the country.
Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions
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Used wording from the
Declaration of Independence,
saying “all men and women are
created equal.”
List of Grievances: No voting
rights, no right for married
women to wages or property, no
rights in divorce, unequal
employment opportunities..
Bibliography
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Howard Zinn, A People's History of The United
States
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!
Christopher Clark, Nancy Hewitt, Joshua Brown,
David Jaffee, Who Built America?
http://www25-temp.uua.org
http://www2.kenyon.edu/khistory/frontier/ameliablo
omer.htm
Bibliography
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments
and Resolutions” Seneca Falls Convention
Marriage Protest of Lucy Stone and Henry
Blackwell (May 1, 1855)