A History of U.S. Feminisms by Rory Dicker

Furthermore, the Declaration declared that women should have the right to vote. A women's lack of access to education and professional careers, and the low status accorded to women in most churches was also addressed. Women were required to turn these things over to their husbands the laws requiring this in effect throughout America were called coverture laws. The declaration went on to specify female grievances in regard to the laws denying married women ownership of wages, money, and property. For example, the Declaration of Sentiments stated, 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.' The Declaration further stated, 'The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation on the part of man towards woman.' The Declaration of Sentiments was written in the style and format of the Declaration of Independence.

At the conclusion, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the M'Clintock family. Īn estimated three hundred people attended the convention, including notables Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass. Stanton, the young bride of an antislavery agent, and Mott, a Quaker preacher and veteran of reform, talked of calling a convention to address the condition and treatment of women. The conference refused to seat Mott and other women delegates from America because of their gender. The Seneca Falls Convention was inspired by the experiences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. The first wave of feminism in the United States began with the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848. Īs of 2023, the United States is ranked 17th in the world on gender equality.

Feminism in the United States is often divided chronologically into first-wave, second-wave, third-wave, and fourth-wave feminism.

It has had a massive influence on American politics. Feminism is aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.

A History of U.S. Feminisms by Rory Dicker