10. +Women’s+Rights

Women’s Rights Movement Women could not • Vote • Own property • Hold office • Hold a professional occupation

Women also • Were not apart of the legal system o Could not be sued or sue someone • Made less then men did even though they did the same job • Did not have an identity in the society apart from their husbands • Could not keep their children if they became divorced • Did not receive proper education after a preliminary school

The Grimke sisters • Sarah and Angelina o Quakers who were educators and writers o Believed that Men and women should not be treated differently, since both were endowed with innate natural rights. • Advocates of women’s rights and abolition of slavery o Lectured about their first hand experiences with slavery on their family’s plantation o They were abused by society because of their abolitionary and feminist perspective of the world • First women to break restrictions and let women express themselves through writings and lectures o In 1840, sarah wrote letters that were the first modern statement of feminist principles o In 1837, Angelina lectured against slavery to men as well as women • Clergys forbid women the right to speak in public because of Angelina’s movement  In response she made the Letters on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes Declaration of Sentiments • Drafted in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848 which modeled the Declaration of Independence • Document concluded that “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.”

Sojourner Truth • Escaped from bondage and took refuge • At Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851 she demanded that African Americans have the same rights as white women • Wrote “Ain’t I a women”- “I could work as much and eat as much as a man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well!”