Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration Of Sentiments: Gender Equality

Gender Equality Throughout America’s history, women have struggled to obtain basic human rights, gender equality, and general respect from men. These issues continue on into our current day-to-day life and will seem to continue for many years to come. In American literature, there are two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth, amongst many, who voiced their struggles as women in America. Stanton’s piece, “Declaration of Sentiments”, is a revised version of the “Declaration of Independence”, and it outlines the many rights women have been withheld from. Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman”, speaks about how women can do anything a man can. Both of these women help to ignite the fire in women throughout the years to fight for their

Most have only gotten full equal rights within about the past one-hundred years, including women. There were many attempts for “equality”, such as the “Declaration of Independence”, however, it only originally seemed to include men. Stanton takes a stab at this very thing when she corrects one of the most infamous opening liners in history, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal;”(Stanton, 79.) What she has corrected, is making the wording “men and women” as opposed to just “men.” Additionally, Stanton also addresses womens lack of the right to vote and lack of representation in the government and official offices, “Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.”(Stanton 79.) While women do have the right to vote in the present, there is still a major lack of women representation and voice in the

Many women don’t go a day without hearing some misogynistic remark or demeaning insults. Often, women lose respect for themselves over the years of hearing degrading words from men. Stanton speaks on this by saying, “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.”(Stanton 80.) Much respect is lost when all someone hears is how they should act or that they aren’t perfect. Men can do many things without being shamed or disgusted for. Women on the other hand, will do the same things a man has done and will be scrutinized for it. Stanton expands on this moral dilemma by saying, “He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man.” (Stanton 80.) This type of behaviour is often seen in parenthood, sex culture, clothing, and many others. Women are constantly fighting to sustain the little respect they currently get and maybe one day women wont have to worry that too much skin is