Womens Lib Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook, someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. Because two women, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, fought for equal rights, women today have an equality that was once thought impossible. They began by educating women on the rights they should have, then forming the National Woman?s Suffrage Association, and finally, together, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony would change the way that the United States viewed women, they would give them the right to vote.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the fight for women?s rights at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York 1848. She spoke out on the so-called equal rights that women had, saying ?It is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.? With that great statement Elizabeth Cady Stanton showed that women do have an opinion and they want to voice it. As her speech progressed she spoke about the ?inalienable rights? that the constitution granted to all Americans; and how these rights were not given equally to women. Her radical new ideas sparked a controversial battle that would last well into the next century. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the first women to wear bloomers and not a dress around her town and home, causing her husband (a judge) much ridicule and embarrassment.

In 1851 at another convention in Seneca Falls, she met Susan B. Anthony, a woman as passionate about the fight for women to vote as she was; oddly enough, they met while Stanton was wearing bloomers. The women immediately became friends, and started full force to gain equal rights for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote most of the speeches delivered by Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the woman behind the scenes, and as the years progressed so did their fight. Susan B. Anthony helped start the movement for women?s rights in 1851 when she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Between the two of them, these women started in New York and slowly worked across the country educating women on what rights they should have and why they did not have them. The two were strongly fighting for a woman?s right to vote. At the time the only people allowed to vote were white males over the age of 21, no slaves, no colored people, and no women.

From 1854 to 1860 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked in New York to change all laws discriminating against women. Anthony began organizing women all over the state to help with this fight. In 1869 Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lucy Stone and Henry Beecher joined forces to organize the National Woman Suffrage Association. This group would work to get a constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote (the idea was sparked by the 15th amendment which stated that the newly freed slaves had the right to vote). To make their statement more dramatic Susan B. Anthony and 12 other women cast their votes in the 1872 presidential election. These votes were one of many dramatic steps in gaining voting rights for women. Anthony was arrested, convicted, fined $100, and then set free for this, she soon became an icon in history.

In 1920 the fight for a women?s right to vote was soon over as the 19th amendment to the constitution was passed allowing this right. The fight that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony had so nobly battled ended in victory. This also allowed women to become more outgoing and true to their own beliefs. This was just the beginning in the battle for women to become men?s equals. Not only did these two wonderful women help to gain other women the right to vote, it gave strength to the many other minorities to fight for equality.