FREE ESSAY ON WOMENS LIB

WOMENS LIB

Throughout the years, women have been seen as someone to have children, someone to cook,
someone to clean, and someone who does not deserve rights. Because two women, Elizabeth
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, fought for equal rights, women today have an equality that
was once thought impossible. They began by educating women on the rights they should
have, then forming the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and finally, together,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony would change the way that the United States
viewed women, they would give them the right to vote.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the fight for women's rights at a convention in Seneca
Falls, New York 1848. She spoke out on the so-called equal rights that women had, saying
"It is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right
to the elective franchise." With that great statement Elizabeth Cady Stanton showed that
women do have an opinion and they want to voice it. As her speech progressed she spoke
about the "inalienable rights" that the constitution granted to all Americans; and how
these rights were not given equally to women. Her radical new ideas sparked a
controversial battle that would last well into the next century. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
was one of the first women to wear bloomers and not a dress around her town and home,
causing her husband (a judge) much ridicule and embarrassment. 
In 1851 at another convention in Seneca Falls, she met Susan B. Anthony, a woman as
passionate about the fight for women to vote as she was; oddly enough, they met while
Stanton was wearing bloomers. The women immediately became friends, and started full
force to gain equal rights for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote most of the speeches
delivered by Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the woman behind the scenes,
and as the years progressed so did their fight. Susan B. Anthony helped start the
movement for women's rights in 1851 when she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Between the two
of them, these women started in New York and slowly worked across the country educating
women on what rights they should have and why they did not have them. The two were
strongly fighting for a woman's right to vote. At the time the only people allowed to
vote were white males over the age of 21, no slaves, no colored people, and no women. 
From 1854 to 1860 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked in New York to
change all laws discriminating against women. Anthony began organizing women all over the
state to help with this fight. In 1869 Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lucy
Stone and Henry Beecher joined forces to organize the National Woman Suffrage
Association. This group would work to get a constitutional amendment that would grant
women the right to vote (the idea was sparked by the 15th amendment which stated that the
newly freed slaves had the right to vote). To make their statement more dramatic Susan B.
Anthony and 12 other women cast their votes in the 1872 presidential election. These
votes were one of many dramatic steps in gaining voting rights for women. Anthony was
arrested, convicted, fined $100, and then set free for this, she soon became an icon in
history.
In 1920 the fight for a women's right to vote was soon over as the 19th amendment to the
constitution was passed allowing this right. The fight that Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Susan B. Anthony had so nobly battled ended in victory. This also allowed women to become
more outgoing and true to their own beliefs. This was just the beginning in the battle
for women to become men's equals. Not only did these two wonderful women help to gain
other women the right to vote, it gave strength to the many other minorities to fight for
equality.