Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Women's Rights Movement

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice. The best protection any woman can have... is courage.”

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Introduction

The Women’s Rights Movement began in 1848, and lasted for about seventy years. The years leading up to the movement were very difficult for women. Women were considered weaker than men, therefore they were not treated equally. Women at this time were made totally dependant on men, and they had very few rights in their lives. Some examples of their hardships include: they were not allowed to vote, married women had no property rights, they were unable to be fully educated, etc.

When the movement began, there were a few women who stood apart from the rest. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is one example of these women. She was a leader and a reformer who worked for more than a half-century to obtain voting rights for women in the United States, and she also questioned the social and political views on women of her day. When she was a young girl, she heard women being discriminated against because of their sex all the time and she thought it was wrong. She was very interested in anti-slavery and temperance, but then somewhat later became fully launched as a reformer. She worked with many women on reforming the way women were

Elizabeth’s speech was about how the male element was overpowering the feminine element. She talked about how society is a reflection of man himself, and it is untempered by woman’s thought. It also talks about how if women want to succeed, then they must be as similar to men as possible. According to society, women should reflect men’s ideas, their opinions, virtues, motives, prejudices, etc. After she gave this speech, along with many other speeches, Stanton became an increasing large voice for women in the United