Early Women’s Rights Advocates
In retrospect, it’s easy to view the story of women’s rights as one that naturally came about as society advanced. This was not the case, however: many women’s rights advocates were crucial in campaigning and demanding that women be recognized as equals. Without these advocates, it’s unlikely that women would enjoy the same rights they have today.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1798): This writer and philosopher was one of the earliest to articulate why women should deserve equal rights in society. She wrote novels, critical reviews, pamphlets, and papers about women’s education, politics, and history. Vindication of the Rights of Women is her most famous work, and its radical feminist message still has power today.
Lucretia Mott (1793-1880): Lucretia Mott was an early women’s rights worker, who found her voice through her Quaker background. She married her husband James Mott when she was 18, and she soon began speaking at Quaker meetings. She was renowned for her elegant talks, and she spoke mainly on reform topics like women’s rights and abolition, rather than religious ones. She teamed up with E.C. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to put together the first women’s rights convention in 1848.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902): Stanton was a leader, writer, and important driving force behind the women’s rights movement in the latter half of the 19th century. She was introduced to reform movements in her childhood, and she went on to marry Henry Stanton, an abolitionist. She met fellow women’s rights advocates Mott and Anthony at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Stanton helped organize the 1848 convention, and helped write important documents like the Declaration of the Rights of the Woman of the United States, in 1876.
Lucy Stone (1818-1893): Stone was another important contemporary of Stanton and Mott. She eschewed the idea that women shouldn’t be educated, and went on to graduate from Oberlin College in 1847. She lectured for the Anti-Slavery Society, organized the first women’s rights convention, and founded the American Women Suffrage Association in 1869.
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850): Fuller was an important intellectual, writer, and philosopher, as well as women’s rights advocate. She attended several schools, spoke German and Italian, and worked as a teacher. She founded a women’s salon in 1839, edited a literary journal with Ralph Waldo Emerson, and traveled Europe advocating women’s rights.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906): Anthony was born into an abolitionist Quaker family in Massachusetts. In her younger years, she campaigned for temperance and anti-slavery. She became friends with the women’s rights workers Stanton and Amelia Bloomer, and became an important writer and leader in the women’s rights movement. She led marches for women’s rights, was arrested for voting in city elections, and lectured widely for women’s suffrage.
Sources:
Mary Wollstonecraft: (2010) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
A Short Biography of Lucretia Mott. (2011) Temple University.
Perspectives in American Literature. (2010) California State University Stanislaus.
Lucy Stone. (2011) Oberlin.
Sarah Margaret Fuller. (2011) Virginia Commonwealth University.
Susan B. Anthony. (2011) Rochester.