The Women’s Rights movement was an important event in the history of the United States of America. It began as the women’s fight for a vote and resulted in many other movements that affected America in the mid to late 1800s. During that time period, American women’s enfranchisement was closely connected to the movements for racial justice, the labor movement, the alcohol regulation campaign, and other important events. However, one of the most significant movements that affected America was the antislavery movement. Women joined the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), which was established in 1833 and promoted the ideals of freedom and liberty (Parker, 2002, p. 27). The AASS’s primary demand was to abolish slavery and provide full rights to African American citizens. Thus, this antislavery movement demonstrated the power of women and became a generator for their activism.
As a result of the antislavery movement, many activists began to see women as equal to men. In 1838, Sarah Grimké concluded that men and women were identical, and their rights were equal too (Bartlett & Grimké, 1988, p. 38). Several years later, female activists began to demand more power for all women, and the labor movement occurred. Women fought for better working conditions and higher wages. After that, rural and urban females started the movement for moral reform, fighting against male sexual misconduct and sexual double standards (Glenn, 2007, p. 560). The temperance movement’s purpose was to make men control their desire to drink alcohol, thus protecting women from family violence. All these and other movements greatly impacted American society because they helped women assert their rights and needs and achieve equality eventually. The Women’s Rights movement became the starting point in the women’s long path to equality and liberty in the patriarchal world.
References
Bartlett, E. A., & Grimké, S. (1988). Sarah Grimké: Letters on the equality of the sexes and other essays. Yale University Press.
Glenn, M. C. (2007). Book reviews: “The first of causes to our sex: The female moral reform movement in the Antebellum Northeast, 1834-1848.” Journal of American History, 94(2), 559-560. Web.
Parker, A. M. (2002). “The case for reform antecedents for the woman’s rights movement.” In J. H. Baker (Ed.), Votes for Women: The struggle for suffrage revisited, pp. 21-41. Indiana University Press.