The Role of Women/ Women’s Rights Movement
This theme explores the role of women in American society and the gains women have
made in securing their full rights as American citizens.
Irma Aceves
Aryelle Escobedo
Jessica Henderson
Andrew Oliveira
Grisel Vargas
1600s
Women in the 1600s faced many situations that they were not able to fix
themselves. Anne Hutchinson was a woman who was not afraid to follow what she
believes in. Her participation in public events was rare for women to participate in.
Puritans’ patriarchal society long for a God, they wanted to establish an ordered society
of their own, since so many religions were being spread out across the world. By having
this women’s roles in church would change by providing extraordinary opportunities for
individual advancement but often at a high personal cost. All this opportunities led to
dramatic accusations on women and men known as the Salem Witch Trails of 1692. Two
girls had became ill with no doctor to cure them until a man diagnosis them to be
bewitched. Nineteen men and women were hanged for relations with witch acts.
1700s
Women had limited rights in the 1700s by not being able to vote, own land, or be
in control of any of the income being made. Women were seen as merely object that men
had. But the idea of republicanism motherhood was born in this period and reflects the
importance of Republicanism as the American ideology. Women had the essential role of
instilling their children with values conducive to a healthy republic. During this period,
the wife's relationship with her husband also became more liberal, as love and affection
instead of obedience and subservience. In addition, the role of women in American
Revolution contributed through fundraising and running family businesses in the absence
of husbands. Whatever gains they had made, however, women still found themselves
subordinated, legally and socially, to their husbands, disenfranchised and with only the
role of motherhood open to them. Women had became left out of the Declaration of
Independence by not having equal rights. The Declaration of Independence stated that all
men were created equal but in reality they were not by not having the same rights as men
did. Abigail Adams was the First lady Liberty to demand change in a new form of
government. She would send letters to her husband John Adams asking to make a change
for women’s rights. Even though she was not able to convince him these letter became
some of the earliest known writings calling for women’s equal rights.
1800-1850
During the Jacksonian Era, the concept of the cult of domesticity is a belief that
family and individual life is most fulfilling when experienced in a private household
where women are chief homemakers and caregivers. Cult of domesticity is also
associated with the idea that women have moral and temperamental qualities that are best
expressed in the personal and domestic sphere of life. Cult of domesticity was supported
in women's magazines, religious journals, newspapers, and fiction and everywhere in
popular culture. According to the Cult of Domesticity or Cult of True Womanhood 'true
women' were expected to possess the virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness, and
domesticity. The Abolitionist movement was part of the Second Great Awakening and
persuaded more and more whites to believe that slavery was evil. Women played a
prominent role in slavery, some of these women include Harriet Tubman, an escaped
slave who came back and returned to the south to help over 300 slaves to escape.
Sojourner Truth was another important woman who was a charismatic speaker who
campaigned for emancipation and women’s rights. An active abolitionist herself,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was outraged when the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in
London, also in 1840, denied official standing to women delegates, including Lucretia
Mott. In 1848, she and Mott called for a women's rights convention to be held in Seneca
Falls, New York. That convention, and the Declaration of Sentiments written by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton which was approved there, is credited with initiating the long
struggle towards women's rights and woman suffrage. After 1851, Stanton worked in
close partnership with Susan B. Anthony. Stanton often served as the writer and Anthony
as the strategist in this effective working relationship While Elizabeth Cady Stanton is
best known for her long contribution to the woman suffrage struggle, she was also active
and effective in winning property rights for married women, equal guardianship of
children, and liberalized divorce laws. These reforms made it possible for women to
leave marriages that were abusive of the wife, the children, and the economic health of
the family. The Declaration of Sentiments included eleven resolutions including one that
asks for the right of women to vote. Ten of the eleven resolutions passed quickly while
the one containing the rights for women’s votes was highly contemplated upon.
1851-1900
During the late 1800s the women’s right movements pushed to gain the right to
vote. In 1868 the 14th Amendment is ratified but does not mention women; thus, they are
continually denied the status of legal citizenship. In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in order to win
the constitutional right to vote. Susan B. Anthony was a strong woman who believed that
men and women were equal. She fought for her rights even though people objected.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a social activist and a leading figure in the women’s right
movement. Women won the right to vote in many state elections and later pushed to the
right to vote in federal elections. In 1889 Jane Addams found Hull House in Chicago. It is
one of the first settlement houses in the United States and the most famous one. The Hull
House was a community center for the poor and immigrants. In had English classes,
counseling and therapy session, as well as daycare centers. Other women built house
similar to the Hull House around the country.
1901-1950
During the early 1900’s, women began to advocate their roles in society and to
stand up for their rights. Many feminists began to join together to spread their beliefs of
equality among men in society. A female advocate, Margaret Sanger, faced defiance on
her promotion of birth control to relieve women from unwanted and repeated
pregnancies. Throughout the Progressive Movement, the 19th Amendment was ratified
by Congress to allow women to vote. This was a major step for women and the path
towards their role in society. The roaring twenties was an era of which, the face of
women began to change drastically. In this era, women started to express themselves a
little more therefore establishing the name flappers. Flappers had their hair short in a bob
hairstyle, wore shorter dresses and began to experience things that young women
wouldn't normally do such as drink and smoke. Throughout the 1920s and the U.S
involvement in World War I, women began working in factories and the home front to
help the soldiers who were over seas. The employment of women in machine factories
was difficult but it made manufacturing easier and faster of the production of war
machinery. Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) was a case for the Supreme Court to
rule out the minimum wage for women in the workplace. The courts decision was that
minimum wage laws violate a citizen’s right to freely contract work.
1951- Present Day
By the 1950’s women had revolutionize their role, now they exchanged the
household for the workplace. They also changed to way the government view them, they
were no longer second-class citizens. In 1963 The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
was published, causing chaos and changing the way women were viewed society.
Women began to create organizations, such as the National Organization for Women
(NOW), which was formed in1966 in order to form legislative changes including the
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). ERA passed both houses of Congress and went straight
to states legislatures for ratification. Another turning point for the Women’s Movement
was the court case of Roe v. Wade; this case gave women the right to obtain an abortion
in all fifty states as long as it happened during the first trimester. Sates argued that they
were obligated to protect the lives of the future kids. This court case is often compared to
Dred Scott due to the fact that they both questioned, “What is a citizen?”
Study Guide
The Role of Women/ Women’s Rights Movement
1600s
Anne Hutchinson - She was a very persuasive and neighbors flocked to her, which made
Puritan leaders angry. She often questioned some of the Puritan teachings
Puritans’ Patriarchal Society - Puritan women focused their primary attentions in the
domestic sphere, many feminist scholars deduce that such women must have empowered
themselves in other outlets or endured repressive male authority.
Roles In Church – Women did not have a big role in churches but when religions started
to spread it gave them more opportunities in church.
Salem Witch Trails of 1692 - From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and
women, all having been convicted of witchcraft and hanged for it. Another man of over
eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on
witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens
languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan
Massachusetts subsided.
1700s
Limited Rights – Women were limited when it comes to their rights by not being able to
vote, control any income that was being mad or having rights to land.
Republicanism Motherhood - Selfless devotion of a mother to her family was often
cited as the very model of proper republican behavior; elevated women to a newly
prestigious role as the special keepers of the nation's conscience.
Role of Women in American Revolution – Would take care of things or home with the
children but would also work at the family business when men were not there.
Continued Subordination to Men – With all the hard work women were doing they
were still not granted the legal and social rights that they deserved.
Left Out of The Declaration of Independence – Declaration of Independence stated
that all men were created equal but not for women
Abigail Adams – Was the wife of second president John Adams. She attempted to get
rights for the "Ladies" from her husband who at the time was on the committee for
designing the Declaration of Independence.
1800-1850
Cult of Domesticity – Belief that men should work and women should keep the house
clean and raise children
Second Great Awakening – A period of religious revival, mainly among Methodist,
Presbyterians, and Baptists
Temperance Societies – Encouraged people to sign a pledge not to drink and also sought
out for the prohibition of liquor, most active members where women.
Underground Railroad – A network of hiding places and safe trails
Harriet Tubman – Escaped slave who returned to the south repeatedly to help free 300+
slaves
Sojourner Truth – A charismatic speaker who campaigned for emancipation &
women’s rights
Seneca Falls Convention – A meeting held in Seneca Falls, NY that had over 300 guests
mainly women and was the place where the Declaration of Sentiments was approved.
1851-1900
Susan B Anthony- Key leader of woman suffrage movement, social reformer who
campaigned for women’s rights, the temperance, and was an abolitionist, helped form the
National Woman Suffrage Association
Elizabeth Cady Stanton- Was the leading figure in the fight for the rights of women,
protested for women’s rights and organized conventions, helped formed the National
American Women Suffrage Association.
National American Women Suffrage Association 1869- An organization that helped
passes women suffrage legislation at the state and local level. The NAWSA was the
largest and most important suffrage organization in the United States. The NAWSA
pushed for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's voting rights
Jane Addams- An American social worker, and reformer. She was also the first
American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and a founder of the Hull House in
Chicago.
Hull House-Its main purposes were to provide social and educational opportunities for
working class people in the neighborhood, many of whom were recent immigrants.
1901-1950
Margaret Sanger- A feminist who invented birth control.
19th Amendment- Allowed women the right to vote.
Flappers- New breed of women that shaped the view of women in the 1920s.
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)- The overturning of minimum wage for women
1951-Present Day
The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan depicted how difficult a woman's life is because
she doesn't think about herself, only her family. It said that middle-class society stifled
women and didn't let them use their talents. Attacked the "cult of domesticity.
National Organization for Women Equal Rights Amendment Era - As supporters of
The Equal Rights Amendment between 1972 and 1982 lobbied, marched, rallied,
petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and committed acts of civil disobedience, it
is probable that many of them were not aware of their place in the long historical
continuum of women's struggle for constitutional equality in the United States.
Roe VS Wade - Was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared a
pregnant woman is entitled to have an abortion until the end of the first trimester of
pregnancy without any interference by the state.