Primary Sources: Women's Rights in America

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices

The Convention defines discrimination and provides a map for the development of gender equality in all aspects of life. Member nations are bound to work toward this equality, allowing for the complete exercise of human rights and freedoms by women.

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
"Although others made important contributions, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is often celebrated as the most important orator of the early women’s movement. Stanton was born into a prominent family of public servants, the daughter of a congressman who, against common practice, encouraged Elizabeth to follow her intellectual curiosity and pursue an education... Despite being praised for her ambition, it was clear to Elizabeth that as a woman she would never enjoy the full esteem of her father, nor the respect of her male contemporaries. "

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
"Born a slave in a Dutch settlement, Isabella Baumfee—later Sojourner Truth—received her emancipation in 1827 under New York state law. One of thirteen children, Isabella spoke Dutch until age eleven, when she was sold to a new master, who forced her to use English. Her Dutch, however, remained with her for the rest of her life."

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
"Susan Bronwell Anthony was born in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter of a Quaker activist and abolitionist. From an early age, Anthony learned the importance of education, social and economic justice, and moral righteousness. She brought that passion and commitment into the classroom, where she taught for fifteen years before becoming actively involved in the temperance movement and other women’s causes. This experience, and her acquaintance with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, drew her to demand equal rights for women—concluding that only with full citizenship could women become effective workers for social betterment. Soon after, Anthony dedicated her life entirely to the cause of women’s suffrage."

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
"At the frail age of seventy-six, after five decades of service to suffrage and equal opportunity, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered this address after stepping down as president of the National American Women Suffrage Association. In a trembling and emotive voice, she emphasized the importance of individual responsibility and women’s rights, including female autonomy and, of course, the right to vote."

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
"...In 1969, at the First National Conference for the Repeal of Abortion Laws in Chicago, Illinois, Friedan declared in this speech that women could achieve liberation only through individual responsibility and contended that abortion and reproduction were civil rights to be enjoyed by all women."