The Beginnings of the Women’s
Rights Movement
Based on
yesterday’s
discussion what
does this cartoon
suggest about the
role of women in
1800’s society?
What is the difference in the cartoon on the top and the one on
the bottom?
What was the role of women in society
prior to 1800?
•
•
•
•
Women could not vote
Women could not hold public office
Women could not serve on juries
Few women received a higher
education
• Women could not work in most trades
or professions
What was the role of women in society
prior to 1800?
• When they did work, women were
paid less than men doing the same
jobs, and their fathers or husbands
often took what money they did earn
• Married women lost legal control of
any money or property they owned
before marriage to their husbands.
What was the role of women in society
prior to 1800?
• Married women could not testify
against their husbands in court, sue for
divorce, or gain custody of their
children
What was happening in the early
1800’s that caused a desired shift in
women’s role?
• The Second Great Awakening led
women to take on more active roles in
public life.
What was happening in the early
1800’s that caused a desired shift
in women’s role?
• Women Enter the workplace
• New mills and factories needed
workers and women answered
the call.
What was happening in the early
1800’s that caused a desired shift
in women’s role?
• Many urban middle-class northern
women begin to hire poor women
to do their housework.
• Allows the middle-class
women more time to think
about the society in which they
wanted to raise their children
Social Issues of the 1800’s
• Abolition
• There are parallels to the
rights of slaves and the rights
of women.
• The issue of slavery becomes
an Ah-ha moment for
women.
Women
shared the
same “lack
of power”
and “lack
of rights”
like slaves
“It's a matter of taking the
side of the weak against
the strong, something the
best people have always
done.”
― Harriet Beecher Stowe
“The investigation of the rights of the
slave has led me to a better
understanding of my own…Human
beings have rights, because they are
moral beings…If rights are founded on
the nature of our moral being, then the
mere circumstance of sex does not give
to man higher rights and responsibilities,
than to woman.”– Angelina Grimké
What did the women’s rights
movement aim to achieve?
The women’s rights
movement worked for
two things:
• Greater rights for
women
• Opportunities for
women
Social Issues of the 1800’s
• Temperance
• How did male use of alcohol
affect women?
Two women that begin
to call for change
Lucretia Mott
Elizabeth
Cady
Stanton
Seneca Falls Convention
Seneca Falls Convention
The Declaration of Sentiments
• The document was modeled in the
same language as the Declaration of
Independence
• It was ridiculed
• The convention itself resulted in few
concrete improvements in women’s
rights…
• But it marked the beginning of the
Women’s rights movement in the
United States
Key ladies in the early women’s rights
movement
Margaret Fuller
A transcendentalist that believed women’s
powers of intellect were equal to those of men.
Any woman should be able to pursue any
career they choose. She believed what women
needed was “as a soul to live freely and
unimpeded.”
Key ladies in the early women’s rights
movement
Amelia Bloomer
A young woman inspired by the Seneca Falls
convention. She published a newspaper, The
Lily. She advocated for equality of women in
all things; including the right to wear pants!
Key ladies in the early women’s rights
movement
Susan B. Anthony
Anthony would help lead the charge to win a
single, critical right for women: the right to
vote!