Seneca Falls Convention Began Women’s Rights Movement
Issued declaration calling for equality with men before the law
Women's suffrage march
Women march for the right to vote in 1915. (League of Women Voters)
The women's rights movement in the United States began in Seneca Falls, New York, in
July 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott called for a convention "to
discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman." In effect, Seneca
Falls would become the genesis for the women's rights movement.
Cady Stanton and Mott had met in London in 1840 as delegates to the World AntiSlavery Convention. But when denied a place on the floor with the rest of the female
delegates, Mott and Cady Stanton left the hall and began to talk about the lack of
women's rights in general. What was needed, they determined, was a convention for
women to discuss how they could secure the same rights as men. But it would be almost
eight years before the two women met again and called for such a convention in Seneca
Falls , New York.
Mott and Cady Stanton had plenty of ammunition in calling for a forum on women's
rights. From colonial times, unmarried women enjoyed many of the same legal rights as
men, although custom required that they marry early. With marriage, women virtually
lost their separate identities in the eyes of the law. This was so prevalent that the French
writer Alexis de Tocqueville made the observation that "in America a woman loses her
independence forever in the bonds of matrimony."
With the coming of the American Revolution, at least one woman, Abigail Adams,
thought that women might finally be considered equal. On learning that the Continental
Congress was debating the merits of a new nation, she wrote her husband, John: "In the
new code of laws ... I desire you would remember the ladies. ... If particular care and
attention is not paid to the ladies, we will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which
we have no voice or representation." Her words would be remembered almost 100 years
later, when Susan B. Anthony would attempt to challenge the 14th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution by calling for the right of a woman to register to vote.
Beginning in the 1830s, there was a general reform movement in all areas of U.S. society.
The two most active groups -- temperance and abolition -- became a wellspring for
women. Not only were women able to participate in a common cause, but they also were
able to bring their own ideas and opinions to that cause.
When the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia in 1833, although
women were invited to join, they were not allowed to speak. This carried over from the
general belief that women speaking in public took away from their chaste and feminine
demeanor. There were enough women in the abolitionist movement, however, to form
their own anti-slavery society. From this point on, women would never be silenced.
At Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton would present the Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions, based on the American Declaration of Independence. Among the demands
in the declaration was equality with men -- before the law, in education and employment.
From the convention in Seneca Falls, a revolution would take place concerning women's
rights. Women were gradually allowed to speak in public, something that had been
strictly forbidden before. Individual states adopted laws protecting the rights of married
women, granting them the right to own property in their own name, keep their own
earnings and retain guardianship of their children in case of divorce.
With the advent of the Civil War, women's positions were permanently altered through
their contributions to the cause, by knitting clothing, making bandages and forming
committees to raise money for medicines and other supplies. These same efforts would be
repeated during World War I. Women had discovered the heady feeling of thinking for
themselves, making their own decisions and being a part of a worthwhile cause.