Suffragate City

Suffragette City

Julie Luedeman

CSU Global

You’ve Come a Long Way Baby!

“The seed for the first Woman's Rights Convention was planted in 1840, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton met Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, the conference that refused to seat Mott and other women delegates from America because of their sex.” ("Women's Suffrage," 2003) Women began to organize into a movement for their own rights. During that time women could not make a will or have control of her property or her children. As soon as she was married, she and possessions became her husband’s property. If she wanted to sign a contract or go to court, she had to have her husband’s permission. Women were expected to focus on caring for the family by performing housework and raising the children. Wishing for more rights was nothing new to women, even John Adams’ wife Abigail asked him to “Remember the ladies” while drafting the Declaration of Independence. (Tindall & Shi, 1984/​2010, p. 173) To which John replied, “"We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the petticoat, I hope General Washington and all our brave heroes would fight." (The Liz Library, 1998) I translated this to, “Woman, have you lost your mind?”

In 1848 Mott and Stanton organized the first women’s rights convention (the Seneca Falls Convention) that drew in about 1,000 delegates. They created the Declaration of Sentiments that “proclaimed the self-evident that all men and women are created equal.” (Tindall & Shi, 1984/​2010, p. 374) About a third of the delegates signed the document, but everyone there knew that important work had just taken place. During the next years and all through the Civil War, the movement continued on and eventually collected Susan B. Anthony into their ranks. “Suzie B” was already an activist in temperance and anti-slavery groups. If she were alive today, I could picture her...