Role of Seneca Movement in Promotion of Women Rights

Role of Seneca Movement in Promotion of Women Rights
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Role of Seneca Movement in Promotion of Women Rights
United States of America remains a home of rich history on human rights in many fronts. Nothing explains the claim better than Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. This was the first national Women’s Right Convention ever called to discuss the civil and political rights of women. The two-day gathering was organized by famous American abolitionists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, eight years after they were denied the opportunity to speak or to be seated as delegates in the meeting of World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840. The purpose of the Seneca Convention was to find ways to secure equal treatment of women just like men. The Convention was a pivotal event in the continuing history of United States and women’s right (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 2019). This research will discuss and provide insights on the roles Seneca movement played in the promotion of women’s rights during the period of 1848 until late nineteenth century.
Women Empowerment, Exposure and Self realization
Seneca Convention is undoubtedly a project that shaped the controversial and vital subject of women’s rights not only in America but the world over. Since it was the first ever gathering to discuss women’s rights, Seneca movement was an eye opener both to the women who didn’t know they had rights just like men and those who knew they had the rights but lacked the avenue or opportunity to express it. Over the 300 people who attended the historic meeting at Weyslan Church Chapel in Seneca and majority were women. After two days of vigorous discussion and debate, 100 women and women signed the Seneca Falls Convention (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 2019). Women were empowered by the resolutions in the Declaration of sentiments which Santon described as “all the freedom men had taken away from women and the resolutions the women asked for.”
The resolutions called for repeal of laws that enforced unequal treatment of women, recognition of women as the equals of men, granting of the right to vote, the right of women to speak in churches and equal participation of women with men in various trades, professions and commerce (Flexner & Fitzpatrick, 1946). Women learnt from the convention that they were equal to men and were entitled to all the rights that men enjoyed thus exposing them. This exposure was brought about by the pattern in which Seneca Fall Declaration was crafted. It mimicked the Declaration of Independence which independence revolutionaries, among the Thomas Jefferson stated that “all men are created equal.” In the Declaration Stanton replaced this with “all men and women are created equal”
The Seneca Falls declaration held that all men and women were created equal and were endowed with inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It went ahead to list 18 charges of repeated injuries that man has committed against women such as the denial of the right to vote, unfair laws on separation and divorce and equality regarding education, employment and religion (Anderson, 2000).  This sent a strong message not only to the woman who attended the gathering but all American women. The long fight and eventual securing of women rights made them realize their worth as human being equal before the law and with the man.
Rights of Married women to own property
Previously, women lacked the capacity to sign contract and that could only be done on her behalf by their husbands. Women had no title to property even where that property was acquired through inheritance. They had no title to their own earning. They did not have title to their own children in case of legal separation or divorce. Technically, they were there to be seen and not to be heard.
Among the 12 resolutions articulated in the Declaration of Sentiments was the call to repeal laws that enforced unequal treatment of women. Law relating to ownership of property was one of such laws anticipated by the Seneca Declaration.
It seemed that women’s right to anything essential for their pursuit of happiness only became an issue when they get married. This was particular to the right of women to own property. It is common sense that a parent in his right senses would not treat her daughter as a sub-human being by disinheriting them. However, owning the inherited property was not an issue until a woman gets married. It was after marriage that the capacity of a woman to own property including the one acquired by inheritance was questioned. This did not go well with the proponents of the Movement who held a conviction that men and women were equal and therefore need to be treated equally. If a man could own a property, there was no reason why a woman could not yet they are both human beings. These are discriminations and inequities that Seneca movement sought to address and indeed addressed through their various federal amendments and petitions to the Congress.
It is because of the Seneca Falls Convention and the subsequent Conventions that today American Women have a right to own property among other rights previously nonexistent. Seneca movement caused more states to enact Women Properties Act as this was a responsibility of individual states. The membership of Seneca Movements was spread across United States with membership drawn from many states. This made it easy for the realization of the rights of women to own property since enactment of laws such as those that relates to ownership of property was individual state responsibility. As the activities of the Movement intensified and its membership spread across United States, more states enacted married women property Acts.
Emergence of Women Associations on the Right of Women
The ratification and subsequent publication of the Declaration of Sentiments led to many ...