Degradation Of Women In The 19th Century

"Woman's degradation is in man’s idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man." A quote from Elizabeth Stanton. Women during the 19th century were judged by four outstanding qualities according to the Cult of True Womanhood; “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.” Men deemed piety to be the foundation for a good wife. Religion would not take a woman away from her “proper sphere” known as her home which kept her in isolation. Another way men would control women was by her purity. A woman in the 19th century was to remain pure and innocent. Remaining so meant she was intelligent. So a woman in the 19th century was an intellect creature based on the intact hymen she
This notion follows women into marriage. To be a good wife in the 19th century, a woman must know her place. For example, if a woman's abused through her marriage she must remain silent because she is dependent upon all things her husband provides. Lastly, a true woman of the 19th century must be domestic. She must keep busy with uplifting tasks such as being able to cook, clean and tend to the children. After Elizabeth Stanton had traveled to London for a conference, the women attending were denied the right to participation among the men. Infuriated on her trip home, Stanton decided it was time for the women to make a stand. Not only was Stanton over inequality so were other women who pushed the social norms to the limit. So how did Elizabeth Stanton defy the role of women in the early 19th century? In my research, I found she defied the role of women in fighting for women’s suffrage and equality. Through these actions Stanton challenged her gender's role; organizing the first women’s rights convention in the United States, she became president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association and wrote the History Of Women’s Suffrage and the Woman’s Bible to promote women’s
According to the article becoming the birthplace of women’s rights: the transformation of Seneca Falls, New York, “Amelia Bloomer introduced Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony, who had recently become active in the Rochester branch of the Daughters of Temperance. Over the course of the next two years, Anthony was converted to the cause of women's rights, forging a close friendship and working relationship with Cady Stanton that lasted for more than fifty years.” Stanton’s influence on her close friend would help Anthony continue the fight for women’s rights after Stanton's retirement. The Convention promoted to both men and women about women’s social, civil, and religion rights. On July 19, 1848, Elizabeth Stanton along with other women’s activist spoke at the first women’s right convention to almost 300 people. She talked about the unfair treatment of women and presented documents that she would send to the New York State Assembly. The Declaration of Sentiments which was proposed similar to the Declaration of Independence listed the women’s complaints and solutions to equal treatment from society. At the end of the two-day convention, sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the Declaration of Sentiments in favor of the women’s rights movement. The Declaration of Sentiments fortified the fight for women’s rights and the suffrage movement. Stanton’s success at Seneca Falls was forgotten