The First Wave

The American women’s rights movement : 

The American women’s rights movement The First Wave 1840 to 1963 by K.C. Gott

Woman Suffrage : 

Woman Suffrage

Dual Causes: Abolition and Woman Suffrage : 

Dual Causes: Abolition and Woman Suffrage The first wave of activism rose out of the abolition movement where women learned to organize 1840 – World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London England 1848 – First women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY

Terms to Use : 

Terms to Use Suffrage – The right to vote Elective Franchise – Franchise is the “privilege conferred on an individual by a government;” here: The right to vote Suffragist – An advocate of Woman’s Suffrage (used primarily in the United States) Suffragette – Also an advocate of Woman’s Suffrage (used primarily in Great Britain) Picket – A person or group “staked” or stationed to protest a policy or support a strike

Mary Wollstonecraft : 

Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 English foremother of American Women’s Rights Movement A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792

Elizabeth Cady Stanton : 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815-1902 Principal author: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Founder and philosopher of Women’s Rights Movement in the First Wave

Lucretia Coffin Mott : 

Lucretia Coffin Mott 1793-1880 Co-author: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Active in the underground RR

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 : 

Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 First Women’s Rights Convention Held in Seneca Falls, NY Organized by Lucretia Coffin Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 300 people attended Primary document – Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions : 

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Denounced laws that discriminated against women and demanded that women be recognized as the equal of men Modeled after and paralleled the language of the Declaration of Independence Most controversial resolution was Stanton’s call for the “sacred right to the elective franchise.”

Margaret Fuller : 

Margaret Fuller 1810-1850 Woman in the 19th Century was the first full length feminist work Influenced the thought of American women more than any woman previous to her time in the First Wave “Let them be sea captains if they will.”

Sojourner Truth : 

Sojourner Truth 1797-1883 Name describes her vocation - “Traveling Preacher” The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 1850 Gave a speech commonly referred to as “Ain’t I a Woman?” Also critical of religious arguments against suffrage

Sarah and Angelina Grimke : 

Sarah and Angelina Grimke 1792-1873(S);1805-1879 (A) Resisted church’s subjugation of women Freed slaves left to them by family Became Quakers Introduced dual cause of abolition and women’s rights to Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony

Lucy Stone : 

Lucy Stone 1818-1893 Refused to pay taxes and did not take her husband’s name Her speech converted Susan B. Anthony to the Women’s Rights Movement.

Susan B. Anthony : 

Susan B. Anthony 1820-1906 Appeared before Congress every year for 37 years appealing for women’s right to vote The Revolution “There is no true freedom for a woman without her own money”

Amelia Bloomer : 

Amelia Bloomer 1818-1894 Editor, The Lily Advocated dress reform (bloomers), education for women, and woman suffrage

Mother Mary Jones : 

Mother Mary Jones 1837-1930 Active in worker’s union movement Leader in protesting child labor laws “You don’t need a vote to raise hell – you need convictions and a voice!”

Francis Willard : 

Francis Willard 1839-1898 Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Aligned temperance movement with women suffrage efforts

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw : 

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw 1847-1919 First woman to preach in the Methodist faith in the U.S. Medical degree from Boston University A master orator and crusader for social justice

Victoria Woodhull : 

Victoria Woodhull 1838-1927 First female broker on Wall Street First woman to run for president in 1872 for the Equal Rights Party

Ida B. Wells-Barnett : 

Ida B. Wells-Barnett 1862-1931 One of the founders of NAACP First black woman to run for public office Argued that lynching was about more than “protecting white womanhood”

Jeanette Rankin : 

Jeanette Rankin 1880-1973 First woman elected to Congress in 1916 from Montana Elected again for Congress in 1940 Peace advocate, woman suffragist, and child labor activist

Carrie Chapman Catt : 

Carrie Chapman Catt 1859-1947 Carried the torch for suffrage after Susan B. Anthony’s death Credited with winning the final battle for woman suffrage in 1920 Warned women that “winning the vote is only the opening wedge”

Harriet Stanton Blatch : 

Harriet Stanton Blatch 1856-1940 Daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton Founded Women’s Political Union which joined with Alice Paul’s Congressional Union Concerned with working women’s rights

Mary McLeod Bethune : 

Mary McLeod Bethune 1875-1955 Prominent educator 1st African American woman to be a presidential advisor and serve as head of a federal agency VP of the NAACP

Margaret Sanger : 

Margaret Sanger 1879-1966 Nurse who worked for women’s reproductive freedom Set up the first birth control clinic “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body.”

Alice Paul : 

Alice Paul 1885-1977 Wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1921 Organized the National Women’s Party Called an “Iron-jawed Angel”

Lucy Burns : 

Lucy Burns 1879-1966 Contemporary of Alice Paul Editor, The Suffragist Treated brutally in prison, arrested and imprisoned six times for suffrage Worked within Catholic Church after passage of 19th Amendment

Inez Milholland : 

Inez Milholland 1886-1916 New York University educated labor lawyer Collapsed and died while campaigning from pernicious anemia Last public words: “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”

19th Amendment : 

19th Amendment “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Affords woman suffrage (right to vote) Passed in 1920, after a 72-year long battle Also known as the “Susan B. Anthony” Amendment Tennessee and Harry Burn