The Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, and stated,- “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”. It took more than 70 years for women to speak out about the fact that they still didn’t have the complete liberty that the Declaration of Independence offers to men. In July of 1848, two valiant women named Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott took a prodigious step advocating a step further into women’s path to liberty. They organized the first women’s conventions at Seneca Falls. More than 300 people attended. Among them, most were women, but also some men such as former African-American slave and activist Frederick Douglass attended. They all agreed that American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities and freedom.
In the Seneca Falls Convention, a document was share called the “Declaration of Sentiments.” This document was a cry for change and activists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton wanted a simple modification in the Declaration of Independence: to add, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This modification meant that women would have the right to vote, to be educated and employed with men before the law. However, the idea of adding of “all men and women are created equal” seemed extremely radical to some and many mocked the idea of women receiving the right to vote, eventually withdrawing their support of the Declaration of Sentiments.
Ever since the Seneca Falls Convention the fight for women’s right to liberty remained slow. Until nearly 70 years later, a fierce activist named Alice Paul in 1916 established a women’s political organization called National Women’s Party that advocated the fight for women’s suffrage.Alice Paul and her supporters believed that women needed to be more belligerent in their demands for equal rights. They made newspaper headlines and challenged traditional views of women's roles by forming picket lines near the White House, being arrested by the police, and going on hunger strikes while in prison.
The United States was shaken by this movement, and rebellious women fought for women’s rights not only on the streets but also in prison. When Alice Paul was in prison, she refused to eat and went on a hunger strikes. They were often force fed. News of such acts caused the movement to become more accelerated. Under this pressure, President Woodrow Wilson changed his position to support an amendment, and in 1918, the political balance began to shift. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State, Bainbridge Colby, certified the ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.
The 19th amendment stated: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Although the ratification of the 19th Amendment stood out as a milestone for women’s rights and liberty, there were still some pieces of the puzzle missing. Women were constant victims of oppression and inferiority. The voting rights may have given men and women equal voting rights politically but, culturally speaking, women were still stuck in a Cult of Domesticity. The National Women’s Party didn't stop working after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. In fact, Alice Paul started drafting another amendment called the Equal Rights Amendment which would state, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." The ERA was finally proposed to Congress by the National Women's Party in 1923. Many feminists desired for the Amendment to be ratified and believed that it was the only distinct way to receive gender equality in the United States.
It was not until 1972 that both houses of Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. Organizations like National Organization of Women (NOW) began a hard push for the ERA in 1970. Women from all over the United States joined this new wave of feminism and started to protest in order to get the ERA ratified. On the contrary, another highly organized campaign reigned over the ERA movement, called the STOP-ERA CAMPAIGN. The STOP-ERA Campaign believed women should adhere to their traditional roles by maintaining ideas from the Age of Conformity. While supporters of ERA believed that the new amendment would end gender based discrimination, opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment believed this amendment would bring many hardships for women politically and culturally. Although both sides wanted to empower women in one way or another, each group’s strong sentiments allowed women to pit against another.
The conservative backlash against feminism destroyed support for the Equal Rights Amendment, which ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the a required 38, or three-fourths, of the states.
Today, nowhere in the United States Constitution does it say that “all men and women are created equal, ” making it the flaw in the American society explicitly evident. Despite, all the backlash women had to face on their path to earning complete liberty, they remained diligent and determined and made astronomical accomplishments in American society by breaking the “gender-gap.”The path to liberty for women still continues. Will you be the next one to take action?