nthony Were All LeadElizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B.
Anthony were all leaders of theearly women’s rights movement. Select one of these women and discuss hercontribution to the movement and the difficulties she encountered. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, NewYork. She was the fourth of six children.
Later she would meet and marry Henry B. Stanton, a prominent abolitionist. Together they would have seven children. Although Elizabeth never went to college she was very learned in Greek andmathematics. During her life, Elizabeth was a very important person to thewomen’s rights movement.
This paper will present to you the difficulties sheencountered and her major contributions. Nothing is easy when you are trying to change the opinion of the world. In the nineteenth century it was only harder if you were a woman. ElizabethStanton not only faced opposition from the outside world but also from thoseclosest to her. After her only brother died she tried to please her father bystudying and doing the things that her brother had done.
Her father’s responsewas that he wished she had been a boy. Her high hope of working with her husbandto abolish slavery was shattered when she was not allowed to enter into theconventions. She, as a woman, was told to keep silent and to do her work quietly. Who better than her husband, who champions the rights of black people, shouldunderstand and applaud her work.
However, that was not the case. During theSeneca Falls convention that she had organized, her husband left town ratherthan witness here propose the idea of women’s suffrage to the group. When shelectured she was often booed and hissed at. She suffered much at the hands ofthe media. The only support that she ever received was from her fellowsuffragists.
This did not stop her from continuing her work and becoming anintegral part to the early women’s rights movement. With seven children and an entire household to manage, Elizabeth CadyStanton somehow found time to help found the women’s rights movement. Hercontributions were considerable. After attending an abolitionist convention inLondon she decided to concentrate her work on the rights of women. Her firstcause was that of Divorce.
She believed that people ought to be able to obtain adivorce on any grounds. She also championed the married women’s property act. Perhaps one of her greatest contribution she had was the Seneca Falls convention. There she helped draft the Declaration of Sentiments. This was a list of twelveitems that were unfair to women.
The twelfth, concerning women’s right to vote,would probably have not been included if it was not for Elizabeth. She laterpublished the Women’s Bible in two volumes. These books refuted the idea thatGod had set man to rule over women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked hard for a thankless task. She receivedopposition from every where, even the women whom she was championing.
She neversaw the results of the fire that she lit. There is no doubt that the women’srights movement would have started without her but it would probably not havestarted when it did. It would also have lacked some of its fire. WithoutElizabeth Cady Stanton we might not have some of the rights that we enjoy today.
