Womens Rights Essay, Research Paper

Not ago, in the 19th century, the words that our sires wrote in the Declaration of Independence, & # 8220 ; that all work forces were created equal, & # 8221 ; held small value. Human equality was far from a world. If you were non born of white male decent, than that phrase did non use to you. During this period many great leaders and reformists emerged, contending both for the rights of African Americans and for the rights of adult females. One of these great leaders was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton dedicated her full life to the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion, despite the resistance she received, from both her household and friends. In the class of this paper, I will be taking a critical expression at three of Stanton & # 8217 ; s most acclaimed addresss & # 8220 ; Declaration of Sentiments & # 8221 ; , & # 8220 ; Solitude of Self & # 8221 ; , and & # 8220 ; Home Life & # 8221 ; , and develop a claim that the rhetoric in these addresss was an effectual tool in progressing the motion as a whole.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York. She was born unto a conservative, Presbyterian household of considerable societal standing. Her male parent, Judge Daniel Cady, was considered to be both a affluent landholder and a outstanding citizen with great political position ( Banner 3 ) . Stanton was one of seven kids, 6 of which were misss, to be born to Daniel and Margaret. Turning up in the period that she did, Elizabeth was really fortunate to have the outstanding instruction that she did since it was non every bit of import to educate girls as it was boies. She overcame that boundary when she began go toing Johnstown Academy. She was the lone miss in most of her categories, which was unheard of in those yearss. Even when females did go to schools, they were larning about & # 8220 ; womanly & # 8221 ; things, like how to run a family, non advanced math and scientific discipline classs, like she was in. She so went on to foster her instruction at a really outstanding educational establishment, Emma Willard & # 8217 ; s Troy Seminary. After that she studied jurisprudence with her male parent, who was a New York Supreme Court Judge. It is through this preparation that her consciousness was raised about the favoritism that adult females were subjected to.

In 1840, Elizabeth married an abolitionist organiser named Henry Stanton, much to her household & # 8217 ; s discouragement. After their matrimony, Elizabeth and her hubby traveled to London for a world-wide antislavery convention. It was here that she met Lucretia Mott, another well-know adult females & # 8217 ; s rights reformer, who was chosen as an American delegate to the convention. They were both outraged that the female delegates that were go toing this convention were denied engagement because of their sex. It was at this convention that their fire was ignited and they became Alliess in the war against the favoritism of adult females & # 8217 ; s rights.

The first moving ridge of the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion is said to hold begun approximately in the twelvemonth 1840, and lasted through the twelvemonth 1925. While the convention in London sparked the fire in 1840, it was non until 1845, that the fire was a full blazing. The signature event that is believed to be the official get downing point of the adult females & # 8217 ; s right to vote motion was in 1848 when a group of adult females met in Seneca Falls, New York ( Wood 66 ) . The Senaca Falls Convention was organized by a group of adult females, including Stanton, that were fed up with the mistreatment of adult females in the antislavery conflict. They were now traveling to chiefly put their focal point on the rights of adult females. Consequently, the motion became about wholly white, both in involvement and rank ( Wood 68 ) . It was at this first convention that Stanton delivered the Speech the & # 8220 ; Declaration of Sentiments & # 8221 ; which addressed the grudges that adult females had suffered under the & # 8220 ; unfair authorities of work forces & # 8221 ; . I will travel into much greater item refering the particulars of this address, subsequently in the paper.

In the beginning, the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion was non merely a single-issue motion. Stanton realized that adult females were being oppressed in every facet of their lives. Among the causes that she advocated are as follows: coeducation, girls & # 8217 ; athleticss, occupation preparation, equal rewards, labour brotherhoods, birth control, concerted baby’s rooms and kitchens, belongings rights for married womans, kid detention rights for female parents, and reform of divorce Torahs ( Wood 67 ) . Many adult females did non happen a job with contending for these grudges, they were, nevertheless, fearful of the right to vote issue. They felt that it was merely excessively extremist. Stanton, nevertheless, recognized the importance of the political relations, due to the influence of her male parent, during the early old ages of her life. She knew that without the right to vote, or political acknowledgment, adult females had small opportunity of promotion.

Stanton and the other adult females like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth, who organized the Seneca Falls convention, had great hopes that this convention would trip & # 8220 ; a series of conventions encompassing every portion of the country. & # 8221 ; And that is precisely what happened. Women & # 8217 ; s rights conventions were held on a regular footing from 1850 until the start of the civil war ( Gurko 27 ) . It was after the civil war, that the motion suffered a reverse. The chief focal point of political reform that dominated after the civil war was Black right to vote. This really much so influenced the battle for adult females right to vote. The emancipationists, whom the adult females had fought for and felt they were Alliess with, turned their dorsum on the adult females. The emancipationist wanted nil to make with the adult females & # 8217 ; s battle for freedom until their rights were secure. It was at this clip that to adult females realized that deriving the right to vote had to be their most of import focal point. It was so that & # 8220 ; adult females & # 8217 ; s rights & # 8221 ; became about synonymous with & # 8220 ; adult females & # 8217 ; s suffrage & # 8221 ; ( 88 DuBois ) .

Although the confederation with the emancipationists had been broken, this disaffiliation refueled the adult females & # 8217 ; s fire and made them reassess the substance every bit good as the signifier of the adult females suffrage motion. Their base of statement was no longer on & # 8220 ; cosmopolitan right to vote & # 8221 ; , instead the right to vote of adult females, based on the existent grudges of adult females & # 8217 ; s lives.

Stanton brought into attending the sexual development of adult females, the nature of matrimony, and the demand for divorce reform ( DuBois 94 ) . She made the connexion between these developments and the demand for political equality in a address that she delivered in 1875, & # 8220 ; Home Life & # 8221 ; . Again, I will be turn toing this address in greater item, subsequently in my paper.

Elizabeth Stanton was no alien to unfavorable judgment. Subsequently in the motion she introduced many controversial beliefs that many critics would state discredited her answerability as a great leader ( Banner 159 ) . Stanton believed that organized faith had a conservative impact on society, which led adult females to tolerance and entry to authorization, which counteracts the motion & # 8217 ; s belief in equality. Stanton made her sentiments public that she felt the church is was major cause of adult females & # 8217 ; s subjugation. This belief was non popular among many of the followings, therefore doing them to turn against her. The ulterior portion of the 19th century was non an easy clip for Stanton. She was heralded as being a radicalist in a clip were conservativism was dominant. Stanton, realized that her clip as a cardinal leader of the motion was running out. In her most celebrated address, & # 8220 ; Solitude of Self & # 8221 ; , which was delivered when she resigned as president of the NAWSA ( National American Women Suffrage Association ) , Stanton presented the philosophical nucleus of her idea about adult females & # 8217 ; s emancipation. She besides addressed the differences between her controversial thoughts and those with more conservative beliefs, that were coming to rule the right to vote motion ( 187 DuBois ) . Her basic message in this address was that of the necessity of equal rights for all persons, a subject that was cardinal to all her Hagiographas and addresss. While Stanton ne’er did acquire to see the wagess of her life long battle, the 19th amendment, which allowed adult females the right to vote, was passed about 20 old ages after her decease. Her battles and adversities she had endured were non in vena. Victory prevailed.

Now that I have provided an extended overview of Elizabeth Stanton and the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion during the late 19th century, I will now be taking a closer expression at the rhetorical constituents of three of Stanton & # 8217 ; s addresss that I have merely mentioned. Addresss can be highly hard to analyse due to their complexness. The manner that I, as a critic, intend to undertake these complexnesss will be by using the following four stairss: observation, analysis, reading and rating ( Foss 26 ) .

The first address I will concentrate on is her reference that she delivered at the Senaca Falls convention in 1848. The & # 8220 ; Declaration of Sentiments & # 8221 ; focal points on adult females & # 8217 ; s right to demand political equality, a base that gave feminism a clear scheme that set it upon house land. Stanton, while she was non the exclusive composer of this address, was the chief drive force behind it. Upon first observation of the address you will detect that she carefully drafted it to closely resemble the 1776 Declaration of Independence, therefore linking the adult females & # 8217 ; s run for equal rights straight with the American symbol of Liberty. Using this former papers as a theoretical account, she utilized every bit much of the original diction as possible. She besides created a list of 18 of the adult females & # 8217 ; s grudges, the same Numberss that were in the 1776 papers. By utilizing the 1776 declaration as a theoretical account, Stanton demonstrated great persuasive technique. Thomas Jefferson, who as the writer of this papers, was in his ain clip a great reformist, and since the rhetoric had already been widely accepted one time, why non seek it once more?

Now lets take a closer expression at the important alterations and deductions that were made in making the new papers. In the really first paragraph, of both paperss, although a little word fluctuation, it is set out that their purposes in this papers are to & # 8220 ; declare the causes that impel them to such a class & # 8221 ; . The causes for Jefferson may differ in the actual sense, but in kernel, they were both composing these paperss on behalf of their ain people, demanding degree Fahrenheit

reedom, whether it be from the oppressive regulation of King George, or the oppressive regulation of adult male. In the first line of the 2nd paragraph, the original transcript read, “We keep these truths to be self apparent, that all work forces are created equal” , while Stanton’s copy read “that all work forces and adult females are created equal. Equally normal as that sentence may sound now, back in 1884, it was a controversial announcement. The following important alteration that was made was the skip of the words “among men” in the line, “to secure these rights, authoritiess are instituted among men” . Stanton believed that males merely should no longer run the authorities. It was clip for adult females to derive the right to political power as good. The concluding noteworthy alteration was in the concluding sentences before the grudges were listed. Stanton changed the original, from labeling the Colonies, as the 1s who have suffered in the custodies of Great Britain’s King, to read it was “the patient sufferance of the adult females under this government” . By doing this alteration it is easy to see the sarcasm that this American authorities, which the people created to get away the oppressive regulation of Great Britain, was the same authorities that was enforcing its’ ain oppressive regulation over adult females.

Like the Declaration of 1776, Stanton & # 8217 ; s version of the Declaration included a list of adult females & # 8217 ; s grudges every bit good. A brief statement, non found on the 1 1776 papers introduced the list. The statement read as follows, & # 8220 ; The history of world is a history of perennial hurts and trespasss on the portion of adult male toward adult female, holding in direct object the constitution of an absolute dictatorship over her. & # 8221 ; She so went into the list of the particulars, which included: Womans non being allowed to vote, married adult females being dead in the eyes of the jurisprudence and holding no belongings rights, adult females holding to subject to Torahs they had no pick in, and hubbies holding legal power and duty for their married womans to the extent that could incarcerate or crush them. These were merely among the few of the 18 grudges that were listed. I think that what Stanton was seeking to indicate out was that these patterns of mistreatment were considered to be the norm, non but 70 old ages after the new, idealistic democratic American Government was formed.

That in kernel, adult females were contending for that same thing

that the sires of our state were contending for when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, freedom and equality.

The following address I will analyse is & # 8220 ; Home Life & # 8221 ; , which is a speech Stanton gave on matrimony and divorce. In this address that Stanton delivered during talk Tourss in the 1870 & # 8217 ; s, she speaks of morality, maternity, and the defining of kids & # 8217 ; s character ( Dubois 131 ) . She touched on the topic of the function that faith dramas in maintaining adult females oppressed. This controversial belief would finally be the cause of Stanton losing many followings.

& # 8220 ; Home life & # 8221 ; starts off by speaking about the job at manus, & # 8220 ; whether a adult male and adult female are equal, joint inheritors to all the profusion and joy or Earth and Heaven, or whether they were everlastingly ordained, one to be autonomous, the other slave & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( DuBois 132 ) . Ultimately, this is the same job that she addressed in the & # 8220 ; Declaration of Sentiments & # 8221 ; address. She merely says it in a much more realistic, about upseting, manner. She is able to make this because the motion was no longer new. Peoples were used to hearing about adult females & # 8217 ; s subjugation, and Stanton had to come up with new ways of people to see it for the cruel unfairness that it was. One job I see in comparing it to that of bondage is that many people of this twenty-four hours and age did non see slavery as incorrect, hence, by comparing to intervention of adult females to slavery, they may non see the intervention of adult females every bit subsidiaries as incorrect either.

The chief issue that she addressed in the address was covering with the subject of matrimony. She offers a really valid ground why, despite all the advancement they have made therefore far, their still is no equality of adult females in the church and province, because & # 8220 ; work forces are non ready to acknowledge it in the place & # 8221 ; . What she means is that by work forces giving into the adult females & # 8217 ; s desire to derive political equality, it will therefore do them to demand more control in place life every bit good. Work force feared this, and adult females yearned for it. Stanton recognized that adult females were being oppressed in all facets of their lives, and that the right to vote would finally be the remedy to all their jobs, because it would take o political release, which would take to domestic release.

Stanton argues in this address that there needs to be a reform on whether or non marriage demand be an insoluble tie. She says that & # 8220 ; from a adult female & # 8217 ; s standpoint, I see that matrimony as an insoluble tie is slavery for adult females, because jurisprudence, faith, and public sentiment all combine under this relation, whatever it may be and there is no other human bondage that knows such deepnesss of dedregation as a married woman chained to a adult male whom she neither loves nor respects & # 8221 ; . This to me was the most powerful portion of the address. She is doing an entreaty to all the adult females who are in a matrimony in which they are unhappy, mistreated, abused, and felt they had no manner out. She was seting into words what so many adult females of that clip were experiencing, weakness. Still there was the concern that matrimony was a sacred contract of the church. She addresses that concern with that statement that & # 8220 ; the bible can be quoted on both sides & # 8221 ; . Besides she addressed the concern that matrimony is a civil contract non to be broken. She raises the point that if matrimony truly were a civil contract & # 8220 ; it should be capable to the Torahs of all other contracts, carefully made, the parties of age, and all understandings dependably observed. She pointed out, that on the contrary to the aforesaid, matrimony is frequently enter into male child male childs and misss 12s and 14 old ages of age, without legal consent of their parents.

In this address, Stanton is really effectual at turn toing any uncertainties or inquiries the audience may hold, without them of all time holding to oppugn her. It was this ability to foretell possible grounds for resistance that made her such a outstanding talker and leader in the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion. In the terminal of this address, she makes a concluding supplication, that when matrimony is based more on equality, so a & # 8220 ; nobler type of manhood and muliebrity will laud the race! & # 8221 ; This here, is great illustration of her effort to widen the range of the adult females & # 8217 ; s motion, by proposing that the equality of adult females will hold a huge impact on all of world, non merely adult females.

The concluding address that we will be looking at, which many consider to be one of the most moving statements of feminism, is titled & # 8220 ; The Solitude of Self & # 8221 ; ( DuBois 246 ) .

The message of this address was a demand for adult female & # 8217 ; s absolute autonomy taking into history physical, emotional, fiscal, political, rational, and legal independency. Stanton argued that adult females must be free to take duty for their ain lives.

This address differed greatly from many other of the addresss that she delivered, including the two that I talked approximately in this paper. Alternatively of animating her audience in an optimistic mode, in spoke less-then-optimistic tones about the indispensable isolation of each person. She claimed that adult females were more vulnerable than work forces were because adult females were less prepared to support themselves, nor were they expected to. However, harmonizing to Stanton, both sexes shared the same experiential destiny. No affair what Torahs were base on ballss, no affair what reforms were established persons would still be responsible for their alone and alone ego. She begins the address with the gap line & # 8220 ; The point I wish obviously to convey before you & # 8230 ; is the individualism of each human psyche & # 8221 ; . She goes on to speak about the & # 8220 ; atrocious solitude & # 8221 ; that all persons, particularly adult females have had to digest over the class of their life, particularly during: childhood, matrimony, childbearing, widowhood, old age, poorness, calamity, and decease.

She besides speaks of the importance of instruction in this address. She believes that adult females need to be decently educated, because adult females need non be dependent on no 1 but themselves. It is in the class of this treatment that Stanton acknowledges that non all adult females prefer independency, some prefer & # 8220 ; to tilt, to be protected and supported & # 8221 ; . She says that regardless of what the adult female desires, she must cognize how to and be able to back up herself, because genuinely all people are entirely in this universe. Stanton besides used the political deductions of self-sovereignty to counter-act the claim that work forces, could utilize their ability to vote and do Torahs, to move on the behalf of adult females. Harmonizing to Stanton beliefs, no 1 could stand for anyone else but themselves.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a innovator in the modern pursuit for adult females & # 8217 ; s rights. She is one of the few adult females whose impact on the defining of America has been by and large acknowledged, and truly so. Her societal vision was to emancipate society from false perceptual experiences, outdated imposts, unfair Torahs and false spiritual philosophies. Through analysis of three of Stanton & # 8217 ; s addresss all these visions became rather clear. Unfortunately, Stanton did non populate long plenty to see her ultimate end attained, the terminal to adult females & # 8217 ; s right to vote, it is cleat to me that it was the rhetoric of Stanton & # 8217 ; s addresss that advanced the motion to where it is today.

Bibliography

Banner, Lois W. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, A Radical for Women & # 8217 ; s Rights. Boston: Little, Brown and Company,

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DuBois, Ellen, erectile dysfunction. Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Susan B. Anthony:

Correspondence, Writings, Speeches. New york: Schocken

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Foss, Sonja. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and

Practice. Illinois: Waveland Press, 1989.

Gurko, Miriam. The Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of

The Women & # 8217 ; s Rights Movement. New york: MacMillan Printing

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Wood, Julia. Gendered Lives. New york: Wadsworth Printing

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