Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first woman to start the women’s rights movement. It all started in London, when she and another fellow American, Lucretia Coffin Mott were attending an abolitionist meeting. Because they were women, they were forced to sit in the back so nobody would see them. When they went back to America, she organized the first women’s rights convention. She held it at her home at Seneca Falls. There, Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. She wrote it using the Declaration of Independence as her model. For an example, the Declaration of independence states that â€Å"All men are created equal†, but Stanton wrote, All men AND women are created equal†. During the Civil War, Stanton worked hard for abolishing slavery and women’s rights. When her abolition group favored voting rights for blacks but not for women, she left the group. Then, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was the president up until 1890. In 1878, she persuaded the Senator of California to sponsor a women suffrage amendment for the Constitution of the United States of America. The amendment was reintroduced every year until 1919, when Congress finally agreed to amend the Constitution for women’s rights in 1920. This became the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Stanton was born in 1815 in Johnstown, N.Y. and graduated from the Troy Female Seminary, known today as the Emma Willard School. In the 1930’s she became interested in women’s rights and abolishing slavery. Because of this, she met her husband, Henry B. Stanton. They were abolitionist leaders and they married in 1840. I chose this woman to write a report on because she started the whole woman’s rights movement. If it wasn’t for her, women might still be controlled by men and have no freedom today. She wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, fixing the Declaration of Independence. She... Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the best known and most conspicuous advocate of woman’s rights in the nineteenth century. For almost fifty years she led the first women’s movement in America. Stanton set its agenda, drafted its documents, and articulated its principles. Her followers grew from a scattered network of local reform groups into a national population of political active woman. Although, Stanton’s feminism was not limited to suffrage, she believed that women had been predestined to an inferior status by unshakable attitudes based on Judeo- Christian tradition, English common law, American statutes, and social customs. She frequently compared the position of woman to that of slaves, and she worked to abolish both forms of bondage (Griffith 60). In addition to suffrage, she promoted co-education, equal wages, property rights for wives, child custody rights for mothers, and reform of divorce laws. Stanton was the first person to launch every major advance achi eved for woman in the nineteenth century and many of the reforms occurring in the twentieth century. So why did Elizabeth Cady Stanton believe there were so many rights denied to the female sex? I believe that this becomes apparent by looking at her childhood. Almost from the start, Elizabeth was a rebel. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a judge and Congressman, and her mother, the former Margaret Livingston, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War officer. Elizabeth was the fourth of six children, of whom only one was a boy (www.rootsweb.com). Her brother Eleazer’s death, when she was eleven years old, was a turning point in Elizabeth’s life. Not only was she faced with death, but she was also tormented at her father’s grief. Judge Cady mourned the loss of his only son and the hopes that had died with him. However, determined to take her brothers place, Elizabeth set out to master such traditional masculine skills, such as mathematics, Greek, Latin, and riding. She a... Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an important element of the Women’s Rights Movement, but not many people know of her significance or contributions because she has been overshadowed by her long time associate and friend, Susan B. Anthony. However, I feel that she was a woman of great importance who was the driving force behind the 1848 Convention, played a leadership role in the women’s rights movement for the next fifty years, and in the words of Henry Thomas, â€Å"She was the architect and author of the movement’s most important strategies ad documents.† Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in 1815 into an affluent family in Johnstown, New York. Now, while Stanton was growing up, she tried to imitate her brother’s academic achievements due to the fact that her parents, Daniel and Mary Livingston Cady, preferred their sons to their daughters. In trying to copy her male siblings, she got an extraordinary education: she went to Johnstown Academy and studied Greek and mathematics; she learned how to ride and manage a horse; she became a skilled debater; and she attended the Troy Female Seminary in New York where she studies logic, physiology, and natural rights philosophy. However, it wasn’t her education, but watching her father, who was a judge and lawyer, handle his cases, that cause her to become involved in various movements because it was in court with her father that she saw firsthand how women suffered legal discrimination. It was here that she realized that the laws were unfair and resolved to do whatever she could to change them. She used her unique ability to draw from wide-ranging sources in legal areas as well as in political and literary areas. With her knowledge of literature, he created narratives that produced a variety of emotions ranging from delight to destruction. However, as this was going on, another important even took place. In 1840, Elizabeth married abolitionist organizer a... Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton If I were given the opportunity to be anyone for a day, I would have to say, â€Å" Set the time machine for the year 1870!†. One person in this period revolutionized social structure and society‘s view of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s struggle with women’s rights began with her sister’s birth. In the midst of the excitement, confusion overwhelmed her as she heard her mother say, â€Å"What a pity it is she’s a girl!†. Another influence to her lifetime struggle would be her brother’s death. Elizabeth clinged onto her father as he cried, â€Å"Oh my daughter, I wish you were a boy!†. She tearfully promised to be all her brother was. While striving to fulfill her promise Elizabeth realized that she should not be obligated to replace her brother’s worth. She should be able to build her own journey without limitations based on gender-affiliated stereotypes and injustices. Stanton is an icon that reminds us that it only takes one person to begin a life altering reform. Stanton surpassed adversity to pioneer a movement. There is no doubt in my mind that the women’s rights movement would not have occurred without Elizabeth’s perseverance. In 1876 as vice president Thomas Ferry stood before American citizens reading the Declaration of Independence, Elizabeth, enraged by their denial to present the president with the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, uninvitingly walked to the platform and handed the document. This daring maneuver generates a veneration within me. Her determination was so strong that she lost perception of all fear and decorous nature to react spontaneously. Eventually, she realized that despite her diligent effort she would not see women vote within her lifetime. Even so, she never gave in. Her continuance of the women’s rights effort while aware that she would gain nothing from her pleas illustrates her selfles s passion. It was 1870 when Stanton joined a lecture circuit that spoke to small groups ... Free Essays on Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first woman to start the women’s rights movement. It all started in London, when she and another fellow American, Lucretia Coffin Mott were attending an abolitionist meeting. Because they were women, they were forced to sit in the back so nobody would see them. When they went back to America, she organized the first women’s rights convention. She held it at her home at Seneca Falls. There, Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. She wrote it using the Declaration of Independence as her model. For an example, the Declaration of independence states that â€Å"All men are created equal†, but Stanton wrote, All men AND women are created equal†. During the Civil War, Stanton worked hard for abolishing slavery and women’s rights. When her abolition group favored voting rights for blacks but not for women, she left the group. Then, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was the president up until 1890. In 1878, she persuaded the Senator of California to sponsor a women suffrage amendment for the Constitution of the United States of America. The amendment was reintroduced every year until 1919, when Congress finally agreed to amend the Constitution for women’s rights in 1920. This became the 19th amendment to the Constitution. Stanton was born in 1815 in Johnstown, N.Y. and graduated from the Troy Female Seminary, known today as the Emma Willard School. In the 1930’s she became interested in women’s rights and abolishing slavery. Because of this, she met her husband, Henry B. Stanton. They were abolitionist leaders and they married in 1840. I chose this woman to write a report on because she started the whole woman’s rights movement. If it wasn’t for her, women might still be controlled by men and have no freedom today. She wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, fixing the Declaration of Independence. She...