Women’s Rights Movement

1. Women’s Rights Movement

Objectives:
1. Identify leaders of the Women’s rights movement in the
1800’s
2. Describe the traditional attitudes about the role of women.
3. Describe the reforms the leaders of the women’s rights
movement sought to achieve

2. Quiz

____ 1. During the 1800’s women in most states had the right to vote.
____2. During the 1800’s women could hold national political positions, like senator
or judge.
____3. Before 1850, women were able to attend any college they desired.
____4. Before 1850 , married women were able to own property under most states laws.
____5. Before 1850, married women were allowed to keep the money that they
earned at work to spend on their own under most states laws.
____6. Women abolitionists and reformers were encouraged to express their
viewpoints in public meetings during the 1800’s.
____7. Before 1850 women had equal opportunity for the same job as men.
____8. During the 1800’s women and men who performed the same job usually got
paid the same wage.
____9. During the 1800’s many ministers in Christian churches were women.
____10. During the 1800’s women and men were treated equally under the law.

3. Susan B. Anthony

• Leading organizer for women’s
suffrage and equal rights.
• Founded organization to
promote women’s suffrage.
• Dedicated life to inspiring
other women to demand
equal rights

4. Susan B. Anthony Quote:

“there never will be complete equality until women themselves help to
make laws and elect lawmakers…. The fact is, women are in chains, and
their servitude (enslavement) is all the more debasing (despicable) because
they do not realize it. O to compel them to see and feel and to give them the
courage and the conscience to speak and act for their own freedom , though
they face the scorn and contempt off all the world for doing it”

5. Quote A

• “ Women have enough influence as mothers
and wives that they don’t need to be involved
in politics. Because of their influence in the
family, they are already very powerful – giving
them the right to vote is unnecessary.”

6. Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Planned first women’s rights convention
and authorized “Declaration of Women’s
rights”
• Pushed for full political equality for
women , including the right to vote.
• Wrote Women’s Bible, which criticized
religion for subordinating women.

7. Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quote:

• “The Bible and Church have been the greatest
stumbling blocks in the way of woman’s emancipation
(freedom)… The Bible teaches that woman brought sin
and death into the world, that she
precipitated(brought about) the fall of the race, that
she was arraigned before the judgment seat of heaven,
tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was
to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period of
suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection,
she was to play the role of a dependent on man’s
bounty for all her material wants…”

8. Quote B

• “In His infinite wisdom, God has created two
different, but very acceptable, roles for the
sexes. Man in his role and woman in her role
work together in harmony. When either man
or woman steps out of the at role, it hurts the
family and disrupts the harmony of society”

9. Sojourner Truth

• Enslaved half her life before earning
her freedom.
• Testified in court and before congress
on behalf of African American rights.
• Well traveled public speaker on such
topics as women’s rights and
abolition.

10. Sojourner Truth quote:

• Nobdy eber help me into carriages, or ober mud
puddles, or gibs me any best place! A’n’t I a woman?
Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and
planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could
hear me! And a’n’t I a woman? I could work as much
and eat as much as a man – When I could get it – and
bear de lash as well! And a’n’t I a women? I have
borne thirteen chilern, and see ‘em mos’ all sold off
into slavery, and when I cried out with my mothers
grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a’n’t I a woman

11. Quote C

• “ Women have delicate bodies and emotions.
They should not be placed under unnecessary
stress or physical strain. This could overwhelm
them and, ultimately, harm their ability to
have children.”

12. Lucy Stone

• Established Woman’s suffragist
organization
• Urged states to protect women’s
rights
• Founded women’s journal which
chronicled women’s progress in
politics, employment , and law

13. Lucy Stone Quote:

• ‘We want rights. The flour merchant, the
house builder, and the postman charge us no
less on account of our sex; but when we
endeaver (try) to earn money to pay all these,
then indeed we find the difference.”

14. Quote D

• “ The man is the wage-earner and provider for
the family. A woman who works is simply
bringing in extra money to the family, and
thus does not need to be paid as much as a
man”

15. Elizabeth Blackwell

• First American woman physician
• Overcame scorn and discrimination
throughout medical school and
career
• He success as a doctor inspired first
women’ s medical school

16. Elizabeth Blackwell quote:

• “ The idea of winning a doctor’s degree
gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral
struggle, and the moral fight possessed
immense attraction for me.”

17. Quote E

• “ A women’s most important job is caring for
her family and tending to her home. To place
anything above her domestic duties – a career,
personal ambition, or other interests – is
irresponsible.”

18.

19.

20.

21. Create a diagram which contrasts the traditional views of a woman’ s role in society with reformed viewpoints on the role of

women
Contrast attitudes concerning the following issues: marriage, work and career, participation in
politics, pay, physical abilities, emotional stamina, duties in the home, motherhood,
individualism and independence, education.
On the left hand side pick at least six
of the issues listed above and
describe the traditional attitudes
about this issue as it relates to the
role of women
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
On the right hand side, using the
same six issues that you picked on
the left, describe the new reform
attitudes about this issue as it relates
to the role of women
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.