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| Elizabeth Cady Stanton |
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| Susan B. Anthony |
It's not easy to know how different the world was in the early 1800's. We think probably people looked a lot like us (they did) but next to impossible to know what their lives were like day-to-day, yet we tend to think they were pretty much like our own. They were not. There have been so many social revolutions, technological innovations, wars, upheavals--advances and retreats--that what we think of as progress, when examined, appears at times to be the opposite. This is why when we look at the actual thinking of the distant past, we wonder.
One change we cannot question is the position of women in society since the 19th century--and for the better. Despite the conflicts and catastrophes, the change for women has happened thanks in large part to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and a phalanx of women who joined them over the 60-year period they gave their lives to the cause.
Before Women's Liberation--before a movement of any kind was organized--it was known that there was some agitation for rights for women. This controversy was called "The Woman Question" and nobody was equipped or motivated to address it; even those who acknowledged that it would have to be reckoned with somehow, someday. Women were assumed to be inferior to men. The science of the day indicated that the brains of women were smaller than those of men, therefore their power to think and analyze was faulty and they needed men to do the work of thinking for them. Women, for some reason, accepted the place assigned to them (until the time came when a critical mass of them didn't).
Because women didn’t have the right to vote—a right given to “the most ignorant and degraded men”—they were forced to submit to laws to which they did not consent. Women were denied an education and issued an subservient role in the church. Women were required to be obedient to their husbands and were prevented from legally owning property, including the wages they earned, which technically belonged to their husbands. And they received unequal rights upon divorce.
It began to come to a head with the cause of abolition. Women took their place in the crowds in the Northeast who opposed slavery; women attended meetings, and conferred among themselves about establishing a fair doctrine for the enslaved race. I must note here that in those days women were seldom allowed to conduct meetings or be the speakers at any gatherings. This did not prevent them from comparing notes with each other, or conferring in small groups. The more they talked the more they began to note in their "inferior" brains that much the same legal treatment was being dished out to them as it was to slaves, and resentment grew.
Lucretia Mott, a strong Quaker woman from Philadephia, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, from western New York State, were delegates to the World Anti-Slavery convention in 1840 in London. They bonded when, after arriving a the door to the hall, they were told women would not be allowed in the convention--and argued together for seats in the hall. They won, after a fashion, were allowed in the hall, at the back of the room, behind a rope barrier. They became cohorts in the cause of women's rights from then on. Mott was ten years older, and a voice of reason and experience working with the burgeoning movement. The Quaker faith recognized women as equals, and Mrs. Mott had learned to be an effective speaker at their conferences. She was a charismatic person, with a good education, and a fitting mentor for the determined Elizabeth. Together, they decided to hold a conference for those interested in in the rights of women in Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848. Elizabeth was a gifted writer, and she drafted the history document "A Declaration of Sentiments" which she presented at the meeting.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” the document stated. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments asserted women’s equality in politics, family, education, jobs, religion and morals. It went on to list 11 resolutions, the most controversial of which was the one deemed most important--the right to vote. This was the focus of the movement which was officially born in Seneca Falls.
Susan B. Anthony missed that first women's convention, but she made it a point to meet Stanton as soon as she could. She too was an abolitionist concerned with voting rights for women, and she was a friend of Amelia Bloomer, who, like Stanton, lived in Seneca Falls. Anthony descended from a long line of Quakers, giving her a head start in both equal rights causes--abolition of slavery and voting rights. Working with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony was to become the face of the women's rights movement in its early days.
Susan was visiting Mrs. Bloomer in the spring of 1850 and the two attended a temperance meeting and found Elizabeth on the sidewalk with a fellow women's rights advocate--wearing bloomers--and they were introduced for the first time.
As a side note I must elucidate the importance of the bloomers. Think of the fashions of the mid-1800's if you can. Corsets, hoops, petticoats--and yards of skirt, often dragging the ground--they were uncomfortable and unwieldy. Elizabeth's cousin Libby Smith Miller created a costume that would give women's legs some freedom, making housekeeping and daily life easier and safer. It was a shorter dress, underpinned with "Turkish style" long pantaloons.
Amelia Bloomer, published the first newspaper by and for women, a newsletter called Lily. In 1852 Lily published a sketch of the pant-dress, which received a flurry of requests for a pattern. She published that too and the style became came to be named after her, "bloomers." Women loved the freedom afforded by wearing bloomers, and the fashion caught on for several years. Bloomers were a liberating addition to women's wardrobe, but as time went by only militant activists chose to wear them because they were something of a joke to the general population. Much as they liked the innovation, nobody liked to be jeered at on the street. After about six years of relative popularity, bloomers were set aside as a fad and pants for women were not taken up again for another 75 years or more.
Although wearing bloomers was a bit of a statement, Elizabeth and Susan B. Anthony had much bigger things on their minds, and to do the work of winning the vote for women, they both set aside the fashion and worked together for some sixty years in converting Americans to the cause. They were a superb team. Elizabeth had the personality and charm and Susan was happy to do the organizing and planning. When Susan had a good idea, she would talk it over with Elizabeth and usually get her to put it in writing for a speech or news article. Susan was often the source of the idea; Elizabeth was the writer. Both women were self-taught speakers, but Elizabeth excelled at it and Susan urged her to take the stage. Susan was focused; Elizabeth always had a lot of irons in the fire, and as the movement was just taking on momentum in the 1850s and 60s she was homebound, having babies and caring for them. She is the only woman I ever heard of saying she looked forward to menopause so she would have time for the work she had to do. And she did go on to travel, lecture, and write well into her 80s.
For her part, Susan had little patience with Elizabeth's tendency to get pregnant and commit herself, year after year, to more child rearing (Elizabeth had seven children), but she bore up and soldiered on, enlisting more women and men to the cause, and communicating all along with her friend and compatriot. The two had arguments, sometimes not speaking to each other for years at a time, but their mutual commitment to the rights for women kept them together in spirit until the day they died. Elizabeth had made some dreadful errors in judgment, and flew off the handle many times, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, but the two of them deserve a place in the company of extraordinary women who changed the world. In my next post, I'll have something to say about Elizabeth and the conflicts and catastrophes.
Lucretia Mott, a strong Quaker woman from Philadephia, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, from western New York State, were delegates to the World Anti-Slavery convention in 1840 in London. They bonded when, after arriving a the door to the hall, they were told women would not be allowed in the convention--and argued together for seats in the hall. They won, after a fashion, were allowed in the hall, at the back of the room, behind a rope barrier. They became cohorts in the cause of women's rights from then on. Mott was ten years older, and a voice of reason and experience working with the burgeoning movement. The Quaker faith recognized women as equals, and Mrs. Mott had learned to be an effective speaker at their conferences. She was a charismatic person, with a good education, and a fitting mentor for the determined Elizabeth. Together, they decided to hold a conference for those interested in in the rights of women in Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848. Elizabeth was a gifted writer, and she drafted the history document "A Declaration of Sentiments" which she presented at the meeting.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” the document stated. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments asserted women’s equality in politics, family, education, jobs, religion and morals. It went on to list 11 resolutions, the most controversial of which was the one deemed most important--the right to vote. This was the focus of the movement which was officially born in Seneca Falls.
Susan B. Anthony missed that first women's convention, but she made it a point to meet Stanton as soon as she could. She too was an abolitionist concerned with voting rights for women, and she was a friend of Amelia Bloomer, who, like Stanton, lived in Seneca Falls. Anthony descended from a long line of Quakers, giving her a head start in both equal rights causes--abolition of slavery and voting rights. Working with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony was to become the face of the women's rights movement in its early days.
Susan was visiting Mrs. Bloomer in the spring of 1850 and the two attended a temperance meeting and found Elizabeth on the sidewalk with a fellow women's rights advocate--wearing bloomers--and they were introduced for the first time.
As a side note I must elucidate the importance of the bloomers. Think of the fashions of the mid-1800's if you can. Corsets, hoops, petticoats--and yards of skirt, often dragging the ground--they were uncomfortable and unwieldy. Elizabeth's cousin Libby Smith Miller created a costume that would give women's legs some freedom, making housekeeping and daily life easier and safer. It was a shorter dress, underpinned with "Turkish style" long pantaloons.
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| Bloomers |
Although wearing bloomers was a bit of a statement, Elizabeth and Susan B. Anthony had much bigger things on their minds, and to do the work of winning the vote for women, they both set aside the fashion and worked together for some sixty years in converting Americans to the cause. They were a superb team. Elizabeth had the personality and charm and Susan was happy to do the organizing and planning. When Susan had a good idea, she would talk it over with Elizabeth and usually get her to put it in writing for a speech or news article. Susan was often the source of the idea; Elizabeth was the writer. Both women were self-taught speakers, but Elizabeth excelled at it and Susan urged her to take the stage. Susan was focused; Elizabeth always had a lot of irons in the fire, and as the movement was just taking on momentum in the 1850s and 60s she was homebound, having babies and caring for them. She is the only woman I ever heard of saying she looked forward to menopause so she would have time for the work she had to do. And she did go on to travel, lecture, and write well into her 80s. For her part, Susan had little patience with Elizabeth's tendency to get pregnant and commit herself, year after year, to more child rearing (Elizabeth had seven children), but she bore up and soldiered on, enlisting more women and men to the cause, and communicating all along with her friend and compatriot. The two had arguments, sometimes not speaking to each other for years at a time, but their mutual commitment to the rights for women kept them together in spirit until the day they died. Elizabeth had made some dreadful errors in judgment, and flew off the handle many times, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, but the two of them deserve a place in the company of extraordinary women who changed the world. In my next post, I'll have something to say about Elizabeth and the conflicts and catastrophes.
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