Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first woman to start the women's rights movement. It all started in London, when she and another fellow American, Lucretia Coffin Mott were attending an abolitionist meeting. Because they were women, they were forced to sit in the back so nobody would see them. When they went back to America, she organized the first women's rights convention. She held it at her home at Seneca Falls. There, Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. She wrote it using the Declaration of Independence as her model. For an example, the Declaration of independence states that "All men are created equal", but Stanton wrote, All men AND women are created equal".
During the Civil War, Stanton worked hard for abolishing slavery and women's rights. When her abolition group favored voting rights for blacks but not for women, she left the group. Then, Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. She was the president up until 1890. In 1878, she persuaded the Senator of California to sponsor a women suffrage amendment for the Constitution of the United States of America. The amendment was reintroduced every year until 1919, when Congress finally agreed to amend the Constitution for women's rights in 1920. This became the 19th amendment to the Constitution.
Stanton was born in 1815 in Johnstown, N.Y. and graduated from the Troy Female Seminary, known today as the Emma Willard School. In the 1930's she became interested in women's rights and abolishing slavery. Because of this, she met her husband, Henry B. Stanton. They were abolitionist leaders and they married in 1840.
I chose this woman to write a report on because she started the whole woman's rights movement. If it wasn't for her, women might still be controlled by men and have no freedom today. She wrote the Declaration of Sentiments, fixing the Declaration of Independence. She also played a major part in getting the 19th amendment that gives women equal rights.
