Women's Rights Movement Assignment 2022

Running head: WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Women’s Rights Movement
Student’ name
University
Author’s note

1
WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Women’s Rights Movement, alternatively known as Women’s Liberation Movement,
was an unprecedented effort of reform that sought equality and rights of women as per the men
in the society. Largely based in the United States of America, the scholars maintain that the
movement was born out of the first wave feminism, a diverse social movement during the early
19th century that pursued mainly the attainment of women’s legal rights, including the right to
vote and representation in the politics and governance (Evans, 2015).
Throughout the course of history, women were deprived of several civilian as well as
social rights. In the ancient Greece and Rome, they were denied of voting rights, as were they
barred from owning property, studying, or even participating in public life during the mediaeval
Europe. The deprivation and subordination of were sustained through the 19th century and the
early onset of twentieth century as well. Although not in an organized form, many scholars and
social workers contributed to the formation of a strong women’s right movement. For example,
Mary Wollstonecraft, in her work “A Vindication of the Rights Woman” (1972) challenged the
notion that women was destined for pleasing men, advocating for equal rights and opportunities
in education, work and political activities for both men and women.
These activisms were only the building blocks of a greater challenge of the suffrage
movement that culminated in the first ever convention for women’s rights (Beaumont, 2018).
The convention was held in July, 1848 in the town of Seneca Falls, New York. The convention
was conceived primarily by Elizabeth Candy Stanton and Lucretia Mott, aided by Martha
Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock. Stanton drafted a “Declaration of Sentiments,
Grievances and Resolutions” following the Preamble of Independence (Wade, 2018).