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150 Years Of The Women's Rights Movement (Part 1)

© Nancy Coulter

This article is just one of many for the 1998 Women's Equality Day special event page. Be sure to check out the other articles that have been written for other Suite101 topics.

This is Part 1 in a 2 article series about the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement. Click here for Part II.

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One hundred and fifty years ago, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the Seneca Falls convention in upstate New York. Those at the convention were tired of the unequal treatment that women receieved - not only from other people, but also from the government. They wanted to have the same rights as any man. They wanted to be able to make the same choices as a man. They didn't want to be considered second class citizens just because of the fact that they weren't men.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Think about it. In the course of human events, 150 years isn't that long of a time period. The year was 1848. The United States was free from British control, electricity had been invented, and Canada had been unified... BUT, women didn't have the same legal rights as their male peers. In fact, in the United States, women wouldn't legally have the right to vote until 1920 - when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. This amendment guaranteed American women citizens the right to vote. This happened less than 80 years ago.

I can't even imagine living in a time when I wasn't free to vote for whatever government official I wanted to vote for. Or I wasn't able to have a job because I am a woman. Or I wasn't able to save up money to one day buy a house of my own. If I was living in a society like that of 150 years ago, I wouldn't be sitting at my own computer, typing my thoughts freely for anyone to read. I wouldn't be finishing my degree and planning for my independent future. It seems so natural to have the right to go to college or voice my opinions or write an article for Suite101 about women's rights - without worrying if I'm breaking the law or not.

Just think for a second how different your life would be if we lived in a culture that hadn't changed in 150 years.

The convention in Seneca Falls was started because of a general discontent with the situation of women in society. Women and men at the convention felt that everyone should have the same rights. They believed so strongly in that concept that they wrote a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions which expressed the objectives of the Seneca Falls convention. This document was signed by 68 women and 32 men who were in attendance at the convention and it set the agenda for the future of the women's rights movement. These people believed that gender shouldn't determine your place in society or place any limits on what you could accomplished.

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