Women’s Rights
“If we mean to have heroes,
statesmen and philosophers,
we should have learned
women.”
-Abigail Adams
“Remember the Ladies”
• March 31st, 1776 Abigail Adams wrote the following to her husband John,
who was serving as a Massachusetts representative to the Continental
Congress in Philadelphia.
• -“Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands.
Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and
attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a
rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have
no voice, or representation.
• -“Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to
use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages
abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex.”
• She urges her husband to remember the ladies in an age when women
were seen as strictly domestic.
Cult of Domesticity and True
Womanhood
The Average Middle Class family included a working man and a stay
at home mom. When this became common, it fully supported the
view that men alone should support the family.
Women became known as WEAK and DELICATE people.
A woman’s place became in the home alone.
then came the CULT OF DOMESTICITY:
It became seen all around the magazines and newspaperseverywhere in culture. The ideal that provided women a way to live
as stay at home mothers.
For the true woman, a woman's rights were:
The right to love whom others scorn,
The right to comfort and to mourn,
The right to shed new joy on earth,
The right to feel the soul's high worth,
Such woman's rights a God will bless
And crown their champions with success.
Four components:
• PIETY: The woman of the 18th century was thought of as
someone who was pure and passionless in love. They were
supposed to be made of strong religious components.
• PURITY: this was highly revered because without sexual
purity, a woman was no woman and unworthy of a good
man. Women were even supposed to separate male and
female authors on bookcases, unless they were married.
• SUBMISSIVENESS: The most feminine of virtues. Men were
never supposed to be submissive. Women were made to be
passive bystanders, submitting to others.
• DOMESTICITY: Woman’s place was in the home.
Housework was considered an uplifting task.
Importance of Women in College
• Oberlin College was the first college that
admitted men and women.
• The Troy Female Seminary, founded in 1821 by
Emma Willard. It offered college-level courses
in history and science.
• Mount Holyoke College and the Wesleyan
Methodism of Georgia Female College.
• Howe, 464
Catharine Beecher
• Founder of the Hartford Female Seminary
• Served as a self-appointed counselor to
women.
• Believed that women were the “moral leaders
within the famlies, were capable of
performing the role of teacher.” (abc-clio)
Legal status of Women
• Under the common law of England, an unmarried
woman could own property but a married woman gave
up her name and virtually all of her property.
• In the United States a man virtually owned his wife and
children and all of the material possessions of the
household.
– Women could not legally stop their husbands from sending
their children to the poor house in hard times.
• However, soon the equality law develops in the mid
1800’s where a woman could sue her husband and
own property separate from their husbands.
– Mississippi was the first to do so in 1839.
Moving into the Industrial Age
• Women farmers began to work in factories to
help their families financial problems.
• Factory owners thought that women were a
dependable & obedient work force.
• Women factory workers opened the doors for
women in the business world.
1870
Occupations of Women Wage Earners
in Massachusetts, 1837
Textiles
Hats
Miscellaneous other
Garments
Teaching
Domestic Service
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00%
Column1
Column2
Percent
Lowell Mill
• Textile factories in Lowell, Massachusetts
• First Factory to higher women.
• February of 1834, Lowell Mill cut wages and
increased production. The women decide to go
on strike.
• Wanted a 10 hour work day (The Ten Hour
System) instead of their usual 12-14 hours a day.
• The strike proved that women were capable of
organizing and persistent on achieving labor
reforms.
Ca.1850
Lowell Mill Women
Downfall of Working in Factories
• Faced discrimination
• Women were paid 1/2 to 2/3 of what a man
doing the same job received.
• Factories were not heated or air-conditioned, so
factories lacked sufficient light and ventilation.
• If a woman was injured on the job, her employer
provided her with no workers' compensation or
health care benefits.
• Most employers fired the injured worker.
Early Strikes…
• February of 1834, the Board of Directors of Lowell’s textile mills requested
that managers impose a 15% reduction in wages to go in effect on March
1st:
– women become outraged and go on strike, withdrawing their savings
immediately causing “a run” on two local banks.
– strike fails and within days all women either returned or left down.
– the agents took this as a betrayal of femininity or what women were supposed
to stand for.
• January of 1836, a severe economic depression results in another strike:
– -the girls formed the “Factory Girls’ Association” and organized a strike. It was
one of the first times woman had spoken in public for a cause.
– -it attracted over 1500 workers, nearly twice the numbers as the 1834 strike.
– they went on strike in response to a proposed rent hike, which was seen as a
violation of the written contract between employees and employers.
-turn out persisted for weeks and eventually the board took away the rent hike
and it was a successful revolt.
RESULTING IN:
• 1845: Female Labor Reform Association was
started and sent petitions to thousands of
textile workers to the Massachusetts General
Court demanding a ten hour work day.
– in response they send a committee and make the
first investigations into labor conditions of the
factories. However, they came back and said that
it wasn’t the states legislator’s responsibility to
help out the women’s hours of work.
Temperance Movement
• Definition: It was an organized effort to encourage
moderation in the consumption of liquors.
– Urged on by women because of the abuse and terror that
came out when their husbands would drink too much.
– Susan B. Anthony(1820-1906) lectured on temperance,
abolition and women’s rights until 1860 and formed the
Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Abolitionism  Women’s Rights
• Women began to defy the conventional ideas
of their proper sphere by becoming public
speakers and demanding an equal role.
• Most famous of
these are
Sarah and
Angelina
Grimke.
Women in Politics
Lucretia Mott
• Lucretia Mott began to defy public opinion and
speak out in public about women’s rights and in
the public sphere made an implicit feminist
statement. (Howe, 651)
• Lucretia Mott organized the Philadelphia Female
Anti-slavery Society in 1833.
• Many women joined the Philadelphia Female
Anti-slavery Society and they made the abolition
of slavery a public issue and the first political
movement they participated in.
Seneca Falls Convention
• Seneca Falls, New York on July 19-20, 1848.
• Formed by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Staton,
and Elizabeth and Mary Ann McClintock.
• First women’s rights convention in the U.S.
• Created the Declaration of Sentiments.
• Based off Declaration of Independence.
• The women faced a lot of criticism from the press
after the convention
Bibliography
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