Essay On Women's Suffrage Movement

The Women’s Suffrage movement was a long and hard fight. It began in 1948 at the Seneca Falls Convention. At the Convention, most delegates agreed that women needed their own political identities, and equal rights. There, Elizabeth Cady Stanton presented a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. The document detailed the inferior status of women, saying, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men and women are created equal.” After the meeting, supporters of the movement began petitioning for equal rights, but politicians did not listen, unwilling to support a group without the right to vote. In the wake of their failure, women realized that in order to change discriminatory laws, they needed the right to vote. The women began

Suffragists used many different methods to fight for a change. For example, they would lobby congress and the president for an amendment. Some groups would take direct action, using methods such as protests, petitions, and challenging male only voting laws. Other groups would use less direct methods. They would set up parades, hunger strikes, and silent vigils, and would work at passing the amendment in individual states, instead of directly challenging laws. As a result of their protests, suffragists were often heckled, jailed, and physically abused. Despite the risk, two brave suffragists rose to the challenge, and fought for women’s rights. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, learned of discriminatory laws that women lived under while studying law through her father, a congressman. As soon as she heard about the laws, she was determined to get equal rights for women. She became a speaker on women’s rights, and helped create petitions that secured property rights for married women. At the Seneca Falls convention, she introduced the Declaration of Sentiments, and the document started the Women’s Suffrage movement by calling for equal rights. During the movement, Stanton worked with