Women's Rights Movement in North America

Women's Rights Movement in North America
Author's Name:
Affiliated Institution:
Course Code:
Date:
Women's Rights Movement in North America
The first movement for women's rights began in Canada and the United States of America and gained momentum in North America with the help of the American Revolution (Ohio History Central, 2020). During this era, women perceived those men fighting for independence against Great Britain as hypocrites because they claimed to be opposing the governance of King George III for refusing to give the colonists a representation in the national assembly. On the other hand, the radicals supported the idea of no taxation without representation. This encouraged women to point out to men arguing that they too lack representation as men held total power over them in the same style as King George's government had absolute control over its colonists (Ohio History Central, 2020). As a result, in the mid-nineteenth century fight for women's suffrage started, and leaders decided to first focus on acquiring the vote for women.
In 1848, Cady Stanton, a resident of New York, made the first attempt to organize a national women suffrage movement that took place at Seneca falls (McMillen, 2009). During this conference, a document was introduced declaring human rights and sentiments, which were vital for women, who represented 60% of the attendees in the meeting, and 40% were men who were the escapees from slavery by Frederick Douglass (Ohio History Central, 2020). The document presented the unbalanced state of possessions rights and sentiments, the nonexistence of women's suffrage, and unfair economic and educational opportunities, arguing that all women and men are born equal (McMillen, 2009). The 1960s and 1970s movement are recognized as the second wave of the women's rights movement as they focused on each part of women's experience such as sexuality, politics, the family, and work unlike, the first wave, which concentrated only on legal rights for women, particularly the right to vote (Burkett, 2020).
The movement faced obstacles during the implementation of women's equal rights to men. The implementation of the voting right of a woman faced objections from some individuals, such as Josephine Jewell Dodge and Lucretia Mott, perceiving that the provision is to be ridiculous ( HYPERLINK "/by/jennifer-schuessler" Schuessler, 2020). On the other hand, some men, such as Lord Curzon, a great anti-suffrage leader, fought against voting rights among women. In most of his arguments, he stated that giving women the right to vote would give them the power to make laws that men must enforce (Bush, 2018). Also, he said that it would give them a chance to join the police or army, which is a responsibility to be carried out by men. Thus, this made him feel that men would become inferior. In 1866 Cady Stanton and other women's rights activists started to push for an amendment that would guarantee voting rights without gender or racial discrimination. However, during the 14th amendment, none of the congressmen supported the proposal for women's suffrage (U.S. Department of the Interior, 2021).
Women organized for their pressure group called National Organization for Women (NOW), which faced internal challenge...