Everyone is Equal

A woman in the 1800’s was seen as someone who was generally in the home and took care of the children and provided comfort for the men when they came back from work. There were four features of an ideal woman. The first feature was piety. Piety was religious devotion. Women were thought as new Eve’s who worked with God to end the sin in the world through being pure. Religion was seen as a way for a woman to treat her restless mind and could be done so in the home. A woman that was not religious was seen as on of the most revolting things a woman could possess. The second feature of being an ideal woman was purity. Which is being clean of sins and not being an overly sexual being. If a woman was not pure then she wasn’t even a woman. She was a lower form, a fallen woman, not deserving of respect from other women. A woman needed to protect her virginity. She has to remain pure and not give her “treasure” to the wrong person.

Women could also use their sexuality as somewhat of a power. If they wanted a man to do something they could withhold or grant sex. The third characteristic of being an ideal woman was submissiveness. This was seen as the most feminine of virtues. Men could be religious and pure but never submissive. They were seen as the doers while women were seen as bystanders. Someone who were passive and would stand by to let the men do the work. Even the clothing women wore made them submissive and passive. They wore extremely tight corsets that used whalebones or metal to constrict their body to give them an hourglass figure. They wore large dresses’ and cages that were extremely heavy and limited mobility. The fourth characteristic is domesticity. This meant that women’s place was in the home. Women needed to remain in the home and stay busy. They’re job was to keep the house looking nice and make it feel uplifting and cheerful for the husband when he came home form a rough day at work. The home was seen as the private sphere. It was where the women worked. It was peaceful and out of the public view. The men however worked in the public sphere. This was a busy, violent world of commerce and economy. This was obviously in the public view. The Cult of Domesticity was the belief that women should stay home while the men worked. This occurred as worked stopped being done in the household. Women were expected to stay inside and not be seen by the public. The home was now seen as an isolation form the community. Women were now seen as an object that was beautiful but with no true purpose.

The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention took place in New York, and it was where women from all over the United States came to discuss the rights of women. Here many reforms were proposed that would make women’s lives better. They tried to give women more of a voice and give them more rights. Some things they were trying to fight for were the right to divorce their husbands. Speak in public was seen as improper for a women to do. The most controversial subject that women fought for was the right to vote, also known as suffrage.  At the convention there was both men and women fighting for women’s rights. The idea of letting women vote was very controversial among the men and women at the convention. The women thought that it would disrupt their role. They felt that it would disrupt the family and the public spheres. They thought that they were not ready and that many people would disagree with allowing women to vote. They didn’t see it as one of the main priorities. At the convention the people there wrote the Declaration of Sentiments. It was based on the Declaration of Rights but instead of saying all men are created equal, it said all men and women are created equal. It also said the things the women were not allowed to do and talked about the resolutions. It said what a woman could do after these laws were passed.

Although the convention greatly helped the women gain more rights it did not help others who were not allowed to do certain things. In class I was assigned the group enslaved African American women. During this time of fighting for women’s rights the African American’s were also fighting for their rights. Not only African Americans but also all other races of women did not get the same rights that a rich white woman got. Bottom-line is that if you weren’t a middle to upper class white female you didn’t have the same amount of rights. That includes Cherokee, African Americans, Latin Americans and even lower class white women. My group discovered some African American women, even though they wanted to end slavery, sided more with fighting for women’s rights than ending slavery. In class as well as being assigned a specific group of women we were also asked to come up with resolutions. For example for the African American woman group we resolved that slavery should be against the law. As well that it is against the law for a man to own a man or woman, breeding to produce more slaves was illegal and that speaking in public and voicing ones own opinions is allowed for woman. As a class we came up with resolutions with all the groups ideas being contributed. We came up with that all people regardless of their skin color, gender, and social status are recognized as citizens and have the same amount of rights. That would be if everyone had the same rights as a rich white male landowner.  Ending slavery was also a big one because that affected a larger group than just women. Also the right to participate in all institutions, freedom of speech, and owning property. Lastly we resolved to end abuse of women and improve the working conditions.

Our class’s revolutions and the actual revolutions made at Seneca Falls were pretty close. They stated that women and men are equal which we also somewhat said. But we said all people no matter the gender or race and that was not included in this resolution made by the woman. That was the main one that both resolutions agreed. The one that we didn’t agree upon is the ending of slavery. That was not included in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Although women were trying to abolish slavery that was not as big as gaining more rights for women themselves.

Personally I think that the resolution that all people are equal no matter the race, gender, or social status is the most important. If we fixed that I feel that all the other issues would be fixed by themselves. Also everyone deserves to be equal. There was never a ruler of all beings that said the white people deserve to treat the non-white people badly. And there was never someone who had the power to say women are not as good as men. On the outside people may look different but on the inside we are all the same. We all have the potential to do something great with our lives and succeed and we should not be pushed down or stopped based on how we look.