Women's Rights & Equality Project

For this project in our American Studies class, we designed a campaign for awareness of the complex history and social issues of one disenfranchised minority group - women.

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Please open up Speaker's Notes (found under the gear icon) if the text is not clear. Each slide's text can also be found there. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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Susan B. Anthony

                    Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was a prominent women’s rights activist and especially believed in women’s suffrage. She is extremely well known for playing a significant role in the passing of the 19th amendment, which finally gave women the right to vote. She achieved this by founding the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This organization was entirely dedicated to gaining women the right to vote. As the vice-president of the NWSA, Antony continuously tried to make alliances with other women’s suffragist groups, trying to persuade people that their message would be stronger if all the women spoke with one voice. In February 1890, Anthony managed to merge the NWSA with Lucy Stone’s American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), creating the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton

                 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was an early women’s rights advocate and a very influential figure in the civil rights movement. Not only did she advocate for feminism and women’s rights, she also advocated for the end of slavery and equal rights for African Americans. However, after the Civil War, she spent most of her time focusing on the feminist issues and female suffrage. During her lifetime, she fought for many social reforms too, such as gender-neutral divorce laws and increased economic opportunities for women. One of Stanton’s biggest accomplishments was the Seneca Falls Convention. On July 19 and 20 of 1848, she, Lucretia Mott, and other women organized the first women’s rights convention. This convention was attended by over 300 people, 100 of which signed the Declaration of Sentiments. She is considered by many people to be one of the key founders of the women’s rights movement in the US, most likely because of the number of influential books and pamphlets she wrote, including Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, A Petition for Universal Suffrage, History of Woman Suffrage, and The Woman’s Bible.

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Margaret Fuller

          Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an extremely important women’s rights advocate during the American transcendentalism movement. As an advocate of women’s rights, including women’s right to education and employment, she was looked up to by many other advocates for women’s rights, including Susan B. Anthony. She advocated that not only should women be able to have jobs, they should be able to do any job they want to, even if it is not a “feminine” job such as teaching. One of her famous quotes show how strongly she believed in this ideal: "If you ask me what office women should fill, I reply—any ... let them be sea captains if you will. I do not doubt that there are women well fitted for such an office". However, although Fuller was a strong source of inspiration for others, she was considered more a talker than an activist. Because of this, her importance died down quickly after her death.

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1776

Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, asking that he and the other men--who were at work on the Declaration of Independence--"Remember the Ladies." John responds that the Declaration's wording specifies that "all men are created equal."

CAUSE: Abigail Adams requests that her husband remembers the women who supported the men.

EFFECT: There was no change made to the Declaration of Independence.

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1821

Emma Hart Willard founds the Troy Female Seminary in New York--the first endowed school for girls.

CAUSE: Emma Willard created the school so as to provide young women with the same higher education that their male peers received.

EFFECT: If this were to happen we had have more educated women that could do certain jobs with men.

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1839

Mississippi passes the first Married Woman's Property Act.

CAUSE: It was to give women equality in marriage, so that they would still be able to own their own things when married.

EFFECT: It allowed married women to own and control property in their own right, so if a couple were to ever get a divorce, she would be able to own things and not be left out in the dirt.

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1848

The first women's rights convention in the United States is held in Seneca Falls, New York. Many participants sign a "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions" that outlines the main issues and goals for the emerging women's movement. Thereafter, women's rights meetings are held on a regular basis.

CAUSE: Women wanted more equality, sure they got things in the past but they still weren’t quite equal yet.

EFFECT: In response petitions are created, meetings were held on a regular basis.

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1851

Former slave Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech before a spellbound audience at a women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio.

CAUSE: A former slave delivers her “Ain’t I A Woman?” speech for women’s rights and to support her fellow sisters

EFFECT: It moved people at a convention, causing tears to be shed.

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1859

The successful vulcanization of rubber provides women with reliable condoms for the first time. The birth rate in the United States continues its downward, century-long spiral. By the late 1900s, women will raise an average of only two to three children, in contrast to the five or six children they raised at the beginning of the century.

CAUSE: It was created for women to still have sex without the worry of getting pregnant and unwanted children.

EFFECT: Usually women have up to five or six children, but with the new condom, the population spiraled downward.