Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Women's Rights And Equality

To understand Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s beliefs regarding women’s rights and abolition, it is important to recognize the origins and influences that may have shaped her passions. Elizabeth Cady Stanton came from a well-educated family in Johnstown, NY which contributed to her excellent education. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a U.S senator and Supreme Court Judge for New York, and his value in education and politics sparked the same in his daughter. Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked in her father’s senatorial office after finishing Seminary school, where she discovered the discriminatory policies that were practiced against women locally and nationally. This information only inflamed her passion for women’s equality and her marriage to Henry Stanton,

On July 19-20 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, Stanton and Mott held the first women’s rights convention rightly called “Seneca Falls Convention”. There she delivered the Declaration of Sentiments for the first time, which aimed to "employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf.” 300 people attended the convention, largely by women who were active in the abolition and temperance movements, however roughly 40 likeminded men such as Frederick Douglass. Following this convention, Stanton and Mott continued to plan conventions in various parts of Pennsylvania and New York, as well as spread the Declaration of Sentiments nationwide. The Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, detailed the inferior status of women and called for extensive reforms, effectively launching the American women’s rights movement. The declaration lists 18 grievances and 11 resolutions for women’s