Let Women Vote!
Gathering with women has been an invaluable source of strength in my life. Hearing their stories and sharing my struggles has given me the courage to conceive and realize a vision of myself as an independent, loving, loved and fulfilled woman. It is because of these conversations and connections that I see the beauty and power of being a woman. It was a winding struggle before I understood how lucky I was to have femininity as a resource – as a way to be a force for positive change in this world.
By Marlene Targ Brill
Page 15 – “Most early American could not own property or sign contracts. Their husbands owned their clothes, household goods, and anything they brought to the marriage. If a woman earned wages, they belonged to her husband.”
Page 16 – “Divorce between husband and wife was almost impossible. And if a divorce was granted, the woman lost all rights to her children, no matter how badly the father behaved.
After visiting the United State, French author Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, ‘No people, with the exception of slaves, had less rights over themselves in eighteenth-century and early nineteenth century America than married women.’”
Page 23 – “After abolitionists Angelina and Sarah Grimke toured New England, Massachusetts clergy issued a strong letter attacking their speeches. Churches throughout the state read the letters condemning the women. The clergy claimed that ‘when a woman assumes the place and tone of man as public reformer…her character becomes unnatural.’
Sarah Grimke answered the clergy in a series of letters. She argued that they misquoted the Bible to keep women down. She wanted equal rights for women.
‘All I ask our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy,’ she wrote.”
Page 26 – “On July 13, 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Stanton, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha Wright and Jane Hunt met for tea. “At the July 13 tea, Stanton admitted to the women how truly miserable she was.
I poured out, that day, the torrent of my…long discontent, with such vehemence and indignation that I stirred myself, as well as the rest of the party, to do and dare anything.
…The following day, Stanton announced the Women’s Rights Convention in the Seneca County Courier. The notice read:
A convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of woman will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, Seneca Falls, New York, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th of July.
The next morning the women met to plan the meeting and prepare a statement of basic women’s rights. At first, Stanton searched through papers from antislavery meetings for ideas. Then she read the United States Declaration of Independence….
Stanton rewrote the Declaration to include the work women: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal….” Then the women agreed on a list of demands for true equality with men. They include the right to earn wages, go to college, own property, pursue a career, have equal say about children after divorce, and be heard in court. Stanton added one more demand – the right to vote….Some women feared that wanting the vote went too far…”
By Marlene Targ Brill
Page 15 – “Most early American could not own property or sign contracts. Their husbands owned their clothes, household goods, and anything they brought to the marriage. If a woman earned wages, they belonged to her husband.”
Page 16 – “Divorce between husband and wife was almost impossible. And if a divorce was granted, the woman lost all rights to her children, no matter how badly the father behaved.
After visiting the United State, French author Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, ‘No people, with the exception of slaves, had less rights over themselves in eighteenth-century and early nineteenth century America than married women.’”
Page 23 – “After abolitionists Angelina and Sarah Grimke toured New England, Massachusetts clergy issued a strong letter attacking their speeches. Churches throughout the state read the letters condemning the women. The clergy claimed that ‘when a woman assumes the place and tone of man as public reformer…her character becomes unnatural.’
Sarah Grimke answered the clergy in a series of letters. She argued that they misquoted the Bible to keep women down. She wanted equal rights for women.
‘All I ask our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy,’ she wrote.”
Page 26 – “On July 13, 1848, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Stanton, Mary Ann McClintock, Martha Wright and Jane Hunt met for tea. “At the July 13 tea, Stanton admitted to the women how truly miserable she was.
I poured out, that day, the torrent of my…long discontent, with such vehemence and indignation that I stirred myself, as well as the rest of the party, to do and dare anything.
…The following day, Stanton announced the Women’s Rights Convention in the Seneca County Courier. The notice read:
A convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of woman will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, Seneca Falls, New York, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th of July.
The next morning the women met to plan the meeting and prepare a statement of basic women’s rights. At first, Stanton searched through papers from antislavery meetings for ideas. Then she read the United States Declaration of Independence….
Stanton rewrote the Declaration to include the work women: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal….” Then the women agreed on a list of demands for true equality with men. They include the right to earn wages, go to college, own property, pursue a career, have equal say about children after divorce, and be heard in court. Stanton added one more demand – the right to vote….Some women feared that wanting the vote went too far…”
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