During the 1800s and into the 20th century women were treated as second class citizens. In this post on how women were treated during the 1800s, there will be exploration into the pressures of women during this time period, ways they rebelled against these things, and who's voices were left unheard in these happenings.
In the 1800s women were pressured to fit into a model that the men of society at the time believed they had to follow. During this time period women were expected to follow four ideals. These ideals were piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. The ideal of piety meant that a women was to be religious and she was seen as a new Eve who was to help destroy sin in the world through her suffering. Purity meant that a women was to keep her virginity until she was married. A women's virginity was seen as her most important gift and without it she was seen as useless and not acceptable in society. After giving up her virginity she was reliant on her husband because with out him she became useless in the eyes of society. The third ideal was submissiveness, women were seen as the quiet bystanders who watched as men and god created the world around them. Women were required to wear tight corsets that would pinch their internal organs and restrict their lungs. These would make a female have a slim figure as well as causing her to have restricted movement which enforced the submissive ideal. The last ideal was domesticity, women's place in the world was her home. Women were to do housework and take care of the children while the husbands worked. The idea of domesticity lead into the culture of private vs public spheres. The private sphere was the home were women were to work the public sphere was the place for men to work and were the important acts in society took place. Women weren't allowed to talk in public so many of their ideas were squashed and not allowed any footing in society. Domesticity also lead to the overall idea of the cult of domesticity which was the overall four ideals for women and how they were to live their domestic lives.
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. Women were tired of being treated as second class citizens and wanted to have equal or fairer rights to that of men. The women who took part in the convention created a declaration called The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (created in July 1848), this document wrote out the rights that women wanted to have, so that they could be more equal to men. This document resembled the Declaration of Independence in its opening and in some of its structure. The document was essentially women's own Declaration of Independence against the rules set forth by society and men. The most controversial subject that women asked to change was suffrage. Women had not been allowed the right of suffrage because male politicians believed women would have to vote the same their husbands, thus giving two votes per a political candidate instead of one. Of all the other subjects that were put into the women's declaration only suffrage wasn't unanimously chosen to be put onto the declaration. Suffrage only marginally made it onto the declaration because the women at the convention believed that if it was included their cause would seem outrageous to men or supporter's of their cause.
Even though the Seneca Falls Convention was created to help create better opportunities for women and create a more gender equal society, many women were given no voice in this convention. Only white middle to upper class women were allowed to go to the convention. This means that women of less economic class or of different race were still not given the same rights to speak. In class we were assigned different classes of women who were not included in the convention. These classes included women of African American heritage and of Mexican descent. The group that I was assigned was the New Mexican women; they wanted to have more equal economic opportunities to that of white men. Due to women of different social classes not being included many of the problems that didn't effect white middle class women, but effect those of the non-included classes remained unresolved.
Of all of the different rights that women were trying to get the most important still seems to be the right to vote. Once women were able to achieve the right to vote the finally got an equal say in the political matters of society. This was extremely important in women finally being of equal social standing in society and that they were finally given equal opportunity,.
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