Name: Date: First-­‐Wave Feminism: Declaration of Sentiments Warm-­‐Up: Please use the cartoon below to answer the following questions… 1. Describe what’s happening in the cartoon. 2. Is the illustrator for or against women’s suffrage? How do you know? 3. In what year do you think this cartoon was created? 4. Why/how would the viewer’s response be different if the man and woman switched places in the cartoon? Seneca Falls Convention Year: Location: Organizers: Famous Attendee: Connections to earlier unit themes: Purpose: Outcome: Although it would be another seven decades before women gained the right to vote nationally, the Declaration of Sentiments was a catalyst for the rights movement. Stanton teamed up with the younger Susan B. Anthony in 1851 to continue the efforts from Seneca Falls and hold more conventions across the nation. Both women died before legally gaining the right to vote, but did survive to see small legal gains such as property rights for women on a state-­‐by-­‐state basis. Women’s suffrage m onument in DC – Mott, Anthony & Stanton à Grievances Summarized Stanton borrowed from the Declaration of Independence when formatting this declaration for women. Use the abridged version below to answer questions on the next page. 1.
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He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. • Women were not allowed to vote. He has compelled her to submit to law in the formation of which she had no voice. • Women had to obey laws created without their input. He has withheld from her rights given to the most ignorant & degraded men, both natives & foreigners. • Women had fewer rights than men with low morals and men who were not citizens. Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. • Because women could not vote, they could be more easily exploited. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. • Married women were, for all intents and purposes, legally dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. • A married woman had no rights to property or the money she earned. He has made her morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master — the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty and to administer chastisement. • Men were given complete control over and responsibility for their wives. He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes and, in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of the women — the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man and giving all power into his hands. • Women in divorce cases had no say over matters such as who would raise the children. After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it. • Unmarried women were taxed with no say in how the money was to be spent. 10. He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. • Women could not be ministers, doctors, or lawyers. Women’s work was low-­‐paying. 11. He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her. • Women could not attend college. 12. He allows her in church, as well as state, but a subordinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, & with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the church. • Women were not allowed to hold important positions in the church or the state. 13. He created a false sentiment by giving the world a different code of morals for men & women by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man. • There was a different standard of behavior for men and women. 14. He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God. • Men were unrightfully “playing God” by deciding what was appropriate for women. 15. He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-­‐
respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. • Women’s self-­‐esteem was ruined due to their treatment at the hands of men. Follow-­‐Up Questions1 You can work alone or answer with a partner. Please refer to the complaints as they are numbered. 1. Which complaint(s) would you consider the most serious? Why? I i i i i 2. Which complaint(s) most resemble complaints of colonists prior to the Revolutionary War? Explain. I i i i i 3. Which complaint(s) relate more to entrenched (something systemic/ingrained behavior) attitudes about women than they do to legal obstacles to equality? How? I i i i i 4. Which—if any—of the problems referred to in the complaints do you regard as still problematic today? (Can look onto the extended readings for some inspiration.) I i i i i 5. Which problem(s) referred to in the complaints, once solved, likely led to an improvement in society for everyone? Discuss if the history to follow/American society since supports your claim. I i i i i 1
This activity was made possibly by the good people at EdSITEment.com; thanks, National Endowment for the Humanities! Here’s some related reading if you finish the assignment on the next page early and are feeling motivated J In 1977, activist Gloria Steinem attended the National Women’s Conference in Houston, meant to bring together thousands of advocates and observers in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. Steinem’s reflection on her role as the “Minority Plank” scribe is reminiscent of the intersectionality between abolition and suffrage a century ago: [from the New Yorker] “…The women of color who came as delegates to Houston were scattered across the country. They had never met as a group before. ‘It was the first time I realized that being a writer was also being an activist,’ Steinem told me. The African-­‐American women raised ‘the umbrella issues of racism and poverty.’ The Asian-­‐Americans added language barriers, sweatshops, and isolation. The Chicana women added the ever-­‐present fear of deportation—and of having to leave their children behind to be brought up by strangers. But Steinem says that nothing prepared her for the Native American women, who wanted to protect their languages and their culture, and to reclaim something of the tribal sovereignty guaranteed by the treaties that, as often as not, had betrayed them. They had one of the toughest jobs in Houston: to educate the only country we have, as one of the delegates put it, to the fact that we are also here.” In 2014 Nadia Shahram, an Iranian-­‐born professor at NYU Law, presented the “Declaration of Equalities for Muslim Women.” The document is modeled after the Declaration of Sentiments and presents 21st century issues for women in various parts of the world: [abridged] …We hold these truths to be indisputable – that all society is equal, and all women as members of society are worthy of the rights we here demand. Whenever any system of law becomes destructive to these ends, it is the responsibility of those in the legal and scholarly community to refuse allegiance to an unjust system, and insist upon the institution of a new framework, laying its foundations on such principles that will affect equality and just treatment for all of society. • We insist upon the right of self determination for all women, to ensure her rights as an individual to make decisions for her own life are paramount. For from this right, all other rights can grow; and • We insist that women have the opportunity to gain permanent custody of children subsequent to divorce, and to ensure the mother is considered an equally suitable option to create a stable family unit; and • We insist that prosecution of crimes against women be swift and neutral, to ensure that woman shall no longer be harmed or killed in the name of “honor” at the hands of their male community members; and • We insist that crimes such as stoning, burning, acid pouring, and mutilation not only be illegal and punishable, but the perpetrators be publicly prosecuted by the courts; and • We insist that women and girls gain greater access to education and all attacks directed at blocking female children from attending school are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure women have the opportunity to achieve intellectual growth and fulfillment; and • We insist that restrictions on women’s employment be removed, to ensure woman the opportunity to participate freely in their nation’s economy and be afforded economic independence; and • We insist upon gender neutral inheritance rights, to ensure that women no longer statutorily inherit less than their male family members from their common ancestors; and • We insist that women gain equal rights to citizenship and nationality, to ensure that their status as citizens of their nation is protected as an independent individual; and • We insist that women have equal rights and opportunity to end the marital relationship; and • We insist that women do not require permission to travel; and Now, in view of this legal disfranchisement of millions of Muslim women of this world—in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because these Muslim women are systematically aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their human rights by their governments, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as members of humanity. In entering this great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to obtain our objective. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the Muslim world. Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and the True, we do this day affix our signatures to this declaration.”