March 12th, 2008 Shawna
The Women’s suffrage movement was formally set into motion in 1848. And the first Women’s Rights Convention was in Seneca Falls, New York.
The catalyst for this gathering was the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in 1840 in London and attended by an American delegation which included a number of women.
In attendance were Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They were forced to sit in the galleries as observers because they were women.
This poor treatment did not rest well with these women of progressive thoughts. So it was decided that they would hold their own convention to “discuss the social, civil and religious rights of women.”
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March 11th, 2008 Shawna
Society also held the belief that intense physical or intellectual activity would be injurious to the delicate female biology and reproductive system. As a result, women were taught to refrain from pursuing any serious education.
Instead, women were considered merely objects of beauty. They were looked upon as intellectually and physically inferior to men. (And some would stay this is still the case.)
This belief in women’s inferiority to men was further reinforced by organized religion. How so? By preaching strict and well-defined sex roles.
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March 11th, 2008 Shawna
Sometimes it is hard to see where you are going or how far you have come without first looking back. And so begins a look back at women’s history.
In the early nineteenth century, women were considered second-class citizens.
In fact, women’s existence was limited to the interior life of the home and care of the children. At the time, women were considered just extensions of their husbands. After marriage women did not have the right to own property, maintain their wages, or sign a contract. And, of course, they could not vote.
At the time, society was such that it was expected that women be obedient wives. This meant that they were never to hold a thought or opinion independent of their husbands. And it was considered improper for women to travel alone or to speak in public.
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