A major social problem of the Progressive Era was the rights of women (or lack thereof). This became a growing concern the 19th century and reformers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were vocal in American society about a need for equal rights for women. Read the following passages as well as the material from other resources to help understand the issues facing women in the 19th century.

Women’s Suffrage

In addition to educational opportunities, many women began to demand political rights, especially the right to vote, or women’s suffrage. Under leaders Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony, the movement gained substantial momentum during the antebellum era. Stanton and Mott astounded Americans and Europeans alike when they organized the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. There, women leaders heard Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, declaring that women were equal to men in every way. Of the many sentiments declared, the most shocking was the call for full suffrage for all women.

Here is the Declaration of Sentiments which was passed at the Seneca Falls Convention: