Women and Their Rights in the

United States

Prepared by Ms. Zelkowitz

5-512

In the beginning…

Women came to the United States in the earliest colonial times

In colonial days, women were responsible for the 4 Cs…

Can you guess them?

Cooking

Cleaning

Childcare

Clothing

The Salem Witchcraft Trials

One of the first instances of discrimination specifically against women

Women in Boston, Salem, and other New England villages were accused of being witches and hanged/burned/tortured

Women in the Revolutionary War

Margaret CorbinOperated a cannon when her husband was killed

The first woman wounded on the battlefield in the Revolutionary War

Molly PitcherBrought water to thirsty men at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey

Sybil LudingtonThe female “Paul Revere,” she rode 40 miles on horseback to alert a Connecticut militia that the British were attacking Danbury, CT

The Early Nineteenth Century (1800s)

Women began to work in factories, especially in the garment (clothing) industryWomen could also be teachers or nurses, but that was about itWomen participated in abolition activities (getting rid of slavery)

The Early Women’s Movement

In the 1830s, Lucretia Mott, a Quaker woman, tried to argue that women should be represented in government as well

In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the “Declaration of Sentiments,” modeled after the Declaration of Independence, in connection with the Seneca Falls convention

Later, Susan B. Anthony fought for women’s rights in addition to temperance (a ban on alcohol)

The Seneca Falls Convention

Took place in 1848 in upstate New YorkOrganized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and William Lloyd GarrisonAimed to raise awareness about women’s rights and wantsFirst suggested that women should be given the right to vote

Women’s Suffrage

Suffrage = the right to vote

Victoria Woodhull argued that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (equal protection) guarantees women suffrage along with former slaves

Finally, in 1919, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote

•Which of these cartoons are pro-suffrage?

•Which are against?

•How can you tell?

In the 20th Century… (the 1900s)

Women could still work in factories, as teachers, as nursesWomen started to work as secretaries as wellWomen did increasingly more jobs when men went off to fight in World War II

What might this famous political cartoon, created during World War II, symbolize?

Today…

More women than men go to college

Women are professionals: doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.

Women can choose what they want to do with their lives

Famous American Females

and Firsts

Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet's book of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, is published in England in 1650, making her the first published American woman writer.

Betsy Ross

American legend has it that Betsy Ross, a Quaker seamstress, sewed the first American flag at George Washington’s request in May or June of 1776

Elizabeth Blackwell

In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree and become a doctor in the United States

Shirley Chisolm

In 1969, Shirley Chisolm becomes the first African-American woman in the US Congress. Her motto is, "Unbought and unbossed." She served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years.

Sandra Day O’Connor

In 1981, O’Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to be the first female justice of the Supreme Court

Madeleine Albright

In 1997, she becomes the first female Secretary of State for the United States

Holding this position, she was the highest-ranking female government official