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Geena Sajeevan
Freshman English 101
Professor Teddy Chocos
November 15, 2011
Formal Assignment 2
Change Over Time: Women’s Struggle
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The New York Herald, Frederick Douglass, and Betty Freidan
have influenced the movement for equality of woman over the years. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
began in the eighteen hundreds and Betty Freidan in the late nineteen hundreds. Stanton
expressed herself through The Declaration of Sentiments. The New York Herald spread word of
the Women’s Rights Convention. Frederick Douglass supported not only The Abolitionist
Movement but also The Suffrage Movement. Betty Freidan wrote the book The Feminine
Mystique that started a modern women’s movement.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls
Convention in July 1848. The Declaration of Sentiments motivated women to fight for their
rights. In the Declaration she writes
“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the
part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over her.” (The Declaration of Sentiments 1)
In this quote Stanton clearly states that change is needed because injustice to women has
been repeated throughout history for too long. She continues on in her speech to give examples
of how women are treated unjustly. Some examples are: woman not having the right to vote, to
own private property after marriage, and to own private wages after marriage. She addresses the
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problem directly unlike others at the time. She made the movement much stronger and played a
key role at the Seneca Falls Convention.
The New York Herald spread word of the Seneca Falls Convention. In 1852 the article,
“The Woman’s Rights Convention: The Last Act of the Drama” was published.
“… And man shall be consigned to his proper sphere – nursing the babies,
washing the dishes, mending stockings, and sweeping the house.” (The New York
Herald)
In this article the author obviously did not support the convention but it did spread the
word of the movement to other women. The author was mocking the idea of what women
wanted as a complete switch of the set roles but he did bring some good through his article. The
quote also depicts what the expected role of women was at the time. Mending stockings and just
being a housewife was an expected norm for all women.
Frederick Douglass was mainly involved in the abolitionist movement. Even though that
was his main focus he did not fail to support the suffrage movement. Douglass wrote in the
Editorials on Women’s Rights:
“The speaking, addresses, and resolutions of this extraordinary meeting was
wholly conducted by women” (Rights of Women 2)
Douglass wrote with great respect for the Women’s rights convention. Through his
writing we can infer that Douglass respected the speakers and other women that ran the
convention. He spread word of the convention, the movement, and his support through his
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writings. Douglass and his wife helped spread the word of the two movements, abolitionist and
suffrage, through writing articles.
Betty Freidan wrote the book “The Feminine Mystique.” This book started a modern
women’s rights movement. In her writings she spoke of how women are still not treated equal to
men. She wrote:
“For over fifteen years there was no word of this yearning in the millions of
words written about women, for women, in all the columns, books and articles by experts
telling women their role was to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers.” (The Feminine
Mystique 1)
She tells us that even in the nineteen hundreds women were still looked down upon and
none of them questioned why. Sure women had some more rights but they still had the same
expectations in life: to be a mother and a housewife. Freidan was not against women being
mothers or housewives but she wanted more options available to them. A woman was looked
down upon if they did not get married or if they did not have any children.
In Stanton’s lifetime women had no rights, in Freidan’s lifetime women had some rights,
and in my lifetime women have most of the rights. Stanton was fighting for the most basic rights
in America. She wanted the right to private property, to vote, and many others. Freidan wanted
the right to have an equal lifestyle as men. She did not want to just be a housewife. She wanted
to have jobs and education like men. She also wanted to not because of what she was but because
of who she was.
I believe the problem of women not having equal rights as men was their fault. I believe
Freidan would agree that women did not fight for their rights and simply accepted that they were
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housewives. I believe women today have many more rights because of women like Freidan that
kept up the persistence to gain equal rights.
Even though women have many of the same rights as men we still are judged differently
just because we are women. Sometimes this benefits us but it still causes inequality between men
and women. This can benefit women because we are often judged as more intellectual and poised
then men. However, it can be a negative because it is assumed that women are easily taken
control of. I believe that even over time this is an inequality that cannot be fixed. I think that
even with more people like Freidan in today’s times we cannot change what is left of the huge
inequality we had before.
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Bibliography
"Declaration of Sentiments." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
"The Woman's Rights Convention: The Last Act of the Drama." New York
Herald Sept.-Oct. 1852. Print.
Frederick Douglass, “The Rights of Women,” The North Star, July 28,1848.
“Woman’s Rights Convention at Worcester, Mass.,” Frederick Douglass Paper, Octo 30,
1851.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, 1963. Print.