The women’s rights movement began in the early nineteenth century. Some participants were Sojourner Truth, Susan B Anthony, and Alice Paul. This all started because women didn’t have many rights, they weren’t allowed to vote, and they weren’t “equal” to men. The right to vote was called suffrage. Women who fought for the right to vote were called suffragettes.
Women were not allowed to vote in local, state, or presidential elections. Since women couldn’t vote, they didn’t change laws. Women didn’t have the same social rights that men had. They had to drop out of school when they got married. If they got divorced men got custody of the kids. There were even laws telling women what to wear. Most women who were married could not work, poor women had to but received a smaller pay then men did even though they worked for the same hours.
Women felt they deserved the same social, economic, and political rights as men. Some women decided to fight first for the right to vote. They needed men in congress to change the US Constitution to give women the right to vote. Then three quarters of the states need to agree.
Women fought for their rights and also for the rights of others. Many suffragettes also fought to end slavery. After the civil war, they fought to get African American men and women the right to vote. But the fifteenth amendment only gave African American men the right to vote. Women didn’t like that they were not “equal” to men. They protested and marched, and created The Declaration of Sediments. It was based on the Declaration of Independence. They write that all men and women are created equal, and should be treated equally in the
U.S. This convention was an important beginning in the women’s struggle for civil rights.
Their hard work paid off because now men and women are equal. Men and women have equal rights and they can vote in any kind of election. They were determined to receive their rights. They marched and protested and eventually earned their rights. Women are now viewed as men’s equals.
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