Women's Rights Convention Outline

OPENING STATEMENT. In June 1840, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were barred from participating in the World Anti-Slavery Convention. Several ladies came to the event, but after “the excitement and vehemence of protest and denunciation”, said by Stanton, women were barred from involvement. They were kept in a separate section, unable to speak or vote.

In July of 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. It was a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women. The first day was exclusively for women, and the general public was invited on the second day. This convention was the first step towards women’s suffrage in America.

In mid April of 1850, another woman's rights convention was held in Salem, Ohio. This convention brought the issue further west and attracted even more women, especially younger women. Additional resolutions were adopted and women wrote a petition for the Constitutional Convention. In October of that year, the First National Women’s Rights Convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts. This convention brought people who would form the foundation of the suffrage movement.

In 1851, Sojourner Truth spoke at a women’s rights

which followed the same route as the president’s inaugural parade. In 1917, female protesters begin picketing the White House. In 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment and the first states ratify the amendment. Women’s long struggle to vote in America was finally successful in 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment. On August 26th, the 19th Amendment officially became part of the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. While women have achieved the right to vote, they still have a long way to go. Their representation in Congress is very low (a little over 19%) and there has never been a woman elected President nor even