In the years after the American Revolution (1775-1783), some American women were becoming restless. Two of those women, Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), had become involved in a drive to end slavery in the United States. In the summer of 1840, they made an arduous journey by ship to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery conference. Shortly after their arrival, they learned that the male delegates had voted to exclude women from the deliberations. It was an experience they would never forget - and one that sparked them to accelerate their campaign for women's rights for the rest of their lives..
Prior to being treated disrespectfully across the Atlantic, Mott and Stanton had already become conscious of the subordination of women at all levels of society and had worked towards equal rights. London, however, was the final straw. Eight years later in 1848, a year which coincided with the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and revolutions that swept across Europe, Mott and Stanton organized a Women's Rights Convention in upstate New York - what has become known in American history as the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.
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The Declaration of Sentiments
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Over two days (19-20 July), approximately three hundred men and women took part in the making and signing of a truly revolutionary feminist document. In The Declaration of Sentiments, Mott, Stanton and a host of others condemned the patriarchal order and demanded change. The principle statement in the body of the text redrafted one of the most famous lines ever written. Rather than "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal" as Jefferson had put down in The Declaration of Independence (1776), the Seneca Falls Convention produced a new version that read, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal" (italics added). From there, the document is essentially a list of indictments against gender-inequality in a set of resolutions.
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In order to appreciate The Declaration of Sentiments as a set of radical ideas for both its time and for much of the world in the twenty-first century, several resolutions from the text appear below (bold and italics) and are followed by a bit of commentary.
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The Thesis and Resolutions
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"The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world."
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This is not only largely true of history, but it is unfortunately true in many parts of the world today. Rather than leading full lives as human beings - equal to any other human being - women remain restricted socially, economically and politically in their roles in many societies.
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"He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise"
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When slaves were freed in the United States in 1865 after a brutal four year civil war, black men were given the right to vote. Black women, along with all other women however, remained without the franchise in most states until 1920. Nearly a century later, a significant number of women are either denied or limited in their participation in the political process in many countries.
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"In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming to all intents and purposes her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty and to administer chastisement."
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In the absence of equal protection under the law, women have and continue to suffer greatly. Similar to America in the early nineteenth century, many married women have been made legally and culturally subordinate to their husbands across the world. This is unconscionable and inexcusable.
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"He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration"
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Not only must women have equal access to education and all forms of employment, but they need to be accorded equal pay for equal work - no exceptions.
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"He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God."
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This may be the most important resolution for both 1848 and 2012. As authorities of The Bible (men) have interpreted "scripture" to cast themselves at the forefront of society and have assigned women secondary roles, self-appointed authorities of other religious texts (i.e. The Qur'an) have used theology to circumscribe women's lives. Fortunately, feminist or gender-neutral interpretations of sacred books have become standard or are gaining more acceptance around the world.
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"He has endeavored, in every way that he could to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life."
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How ought nations be judged? Should they be assessed by their economic prowess, their military might or their technological sophistication? No. Nations should be judged on how they support and care for their finest citizens - women. When a man - who was given birth by, loved by, nurtured by and educated by his mother - turns around and adopts a patriarchal mentality and treats women as subordinate persons, he is not only doing a disservice to women - he is degrading mankind and humankind as well.
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A true man - a civilized gentleman - would act in the exact opposite of the above resolution. He would do everything possible to increase the confidence and increase the self-respect of women - allowing all women to lead fulfilling, independent lives.
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Many societies have already liberated women from repressive laws and customs. A significant amount of progress has been made since the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848.
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Yet, there is still half a world to win for the sake of "the better half."
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(Photo: Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
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To view The Declaration of Sentiments in its entirety, please click onto the following link: http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/seneca.html
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J Roquen