The Fight for Women's Rights

    Ever since the start of civilization, women had been treated as people who are beneath men. Women have been seen as the weaker, less intelligent and less capable of preforming daily tasks of the two sexes. For centuries women have accepted this role and fell into the social stereotype that they were given. This all changed in the mid-19th century. Around this time a document was released called The Rights of Women: Laws and Practices. This document provided women with the social practices and laws that they should live their live by. Some of the laws and practices that are included is the law that its legal in most states to beat your wife with a horsewhip every couple of weeks to keep her from nagging. Another practice that is included is the practice that it is considered improper for women to speak in public. Women during this time were seen as propriety to their husbands. The only public job available for women was teaching but they were paid only 30-50% of what men were paid for the same job. Women's usual jobs included cooking, cleaning and caring for children.

   Being treated this way for so long finally got to women and they decided to do something about it. This created the Seneca Falls Convention in the fight for women's rights. Out of the Seneca Falls Convention came the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, a document that stated resolutions to the Practices in The Rights of Women. The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was a very controversial piece, it was the first time women had out-lashed against society, and the declaration got a lot of attention. Reactions to this declaration were both positive and negative. An article that reported on the declaration is The Mechanics Advocate, Female Department. The article states that the women's convention was "all wrong" and "any true-hearted female would think that its was unwomanly". From this article we can see that The Mechanics Advocate, Female Department was strongly against the Seneca Falls Convention. Although this was the case for this article, not all articles were like this. There were some articles that praised the convention like the National Reformer.  The National Reform said that "Their standard is now unfurled by their own hands. The convention of Seneca Falls has appealed to the country." 

    Even though women today do not face as harsh treatment as they did in the 19th century, they are still judged on most of the things they do. Women are judged on the way they dress, how they act and who they talk to both by men and other women. I think its important as women to stand together to fight for respect from men rather than tearing each other down. Often in society women can be labeled as something negative while doing the same thing as men. In this Pantene commercial shown below, we can see how women are labeled in the same situation that men are in. 

As we can see from the result of the Seneca Falls Convention, women's rights have changed in previous years. My hope for the future is that we can continue in this path and women would be seen more as equals and not be labeled negatively in the same situations as men.