How did the Womens Rights Movement of the 19th Century Emerge out of Abolition Activism - Literature review Example

American Women History: How did the Women’s Rights Movement of the 19th Century Emerge out of Abolition Activism? Date: American Women History: How did the Women’s Rights Movement of the 19th Century Emerge out of Abolition Activism? The American women’s rights movement is seen to have emerged out of the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth-century. During the nineteenth century, women across the country were seen to be joined by male protesters in actively condemning and calling an end to the peculiar institution of slavery. It is through their involvement in the abolitionist movement that women were seen to have acquired the organizational skills seen to be necessary in the coordination of a successful reform movement. After the successes of the abolitionist movement, most of the female abolitionists were seen to eventually go on to become successfully leaders in the women’s rights movement. This paper seeks to examine how the women’s rights movement of the 19th century was able to emerge out of abolition activism. The Development of a Gender Consciousness and the Recognition of women’s subordination to men in American Society In the build up to the American Civil War, there emerged a number of different movements advocating for social change. The reform organizations and reformers were able to successfully create a number of new institutions such as orphanages, asylums, they were also active in attempts to try and strengthen family life and social order by eradicating some of the social ills such as drunkenness and prostitution. However the two most controversial reform movements that are seen to have also had the largest impact on American society were the abolition of slavery and the reform movement advocating for the rights of women that was to later emerge from the abolition reforms. The work that women undertook in the abolitionist movement is seen to have played a particularly vital role in the eventual creation of an organized women’s rights movement in the country. The early women rights organizers are seen to have initially began working with the black women who had successfully managed to escape from slavery and were interested in learning how to write and read. Those women who were courageous enough to attempt speaking in public concerning both female abuse and the institution of slavery are seen to have been met with extremely vicious attacks (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). For white women, campaigning for abolition is seen to have made them critically aware of their own lack of rights and the incessant sexism that they happened to experience within the abolitionist movement helped in sharpening this awareness. The origin of women rights in the United States is seen to have stemmed from the refusal by the 1840 world Antislavery Convention organizers to seat female delegates. Before leaving England, the women activists decided to launch an aggressive campaign advocating for women’s rights across the United States (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). The Articulation of an Alternative Vision of the Future for Women The plans by these women’s rights leaders are seen to have eventually succeeded when the first ever formal women’s rights convention was held at Seneca Falls New York. The convention had an estimated 300 women in attendance and it is these women that ratified the declaration of sentiments, which was a document that was essentially based on the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed that women and men are created equal, and as such, women should be afforded the very same social and legal parity as men including their having a right to vote (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). This declaration by women is seen to have been met with a massive storm of criticism all round from the religious leaders and newspapers. However, despite these criticisms, women rights activists in the United States are seen to have continued organizing similar gatherings around the country.Fuller (1843), argues that if indeed women are the weaker party, they ought then to be afforded legal protection that would help ensure that the various forms of oppression to which they are subjected to do not occur. These oppressions include the innumerable instances in which idle men are seen to live upon the earnings of their industrious wives or the men undertaking to run into massive debts at the expense of these women. The Development of an Agenda for the Improvement of Women’s Status Abortion as a Women’s Rights Issue in the 19th Century Abortion during the early parts of the nineteenth century is seen not to have elicited as much controversy or comment as it does today (Storer, 1868). However during the later parts of the century, the right for women to be able to freely and legally obtain an abortion was taken up by a number of the women’s rights organizations as they sought to emerge from abolition activism. Although abortion is seen to have not been actively encouraged it was often condemned in some of the social circles. The practice was also not dismissed out of hand if it happened to be carried out early in a woman’s pregnancy. Abortion conducted before quickening, which was a term used to denote the very first signs of fetal movement which are usually seen during the second trimester, was largely considered as being acceptable (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). In the 1800s, there were no laws in the United States designed to address abortion and the only guidelines available were derived from the English common law. As a result of this, most of the different forms of abortion were found to not be illegal and it was easy for women to obtain an abortion if they wanted to. In 1821, Connecticut enacted the very first abortion law in the United States. However, this bill was actually more of an anti-poisoning bill than an anti-abortion bill. This initial anti-abortion bill was to quickly be adopted by a number of states across the United States. The contemporary opinions of the medical fraternity are seen to have resulted in women taking up abortion and gynecology as agendas for the improvement of the status of women. The physicians of the mid 19th century are seen to have not enjoyed the social esteem that is seen to have been accorded to both their predecessor and those who followed after them as a result of their often quite indifferent training and cure or kill methods. The administration of drugs, potions and remedies so as to help women to procure abortions was largely frowned upon by both newspapers and the church (Storer, 1868). According to Smith-Rosenberg (1985), the New York Police Gazette is seen to have been responsible for attempting to turn abortion into a scare issue by claiming that women had suddenly started disappearing from respectable homes and that abortionists often undertook to sell the bodies of aborted babies to the surrounding medical schools so as for these bodies to be used for experimentation purposes. The discovery of the bodies of two women that had reportedly died in Boston during abortion is seen to have served to further heighten this hysteria, this was further fuelled by the Gazette’s effort to always focus on mostly urban examples drawn from the well-to-do families. Smith-Rosenberg (1985) further points out that in one of its more sensational issues, the front page of the gazette depicted an attractive and fashionably dressed bourgeois woman whose arms were artistically transformed into devil’s wings. From the woman’s pelvis, there emerged a devil’s head with sharply fanged teeth that were seen gnawing on a plump baby. In the early parts of the 19th century, the emergence of the cult of True Woman is seen to have impacted the manner in which all the bourgeois women happened to conduct themselves in society. The ideals touted by the cult of True Woman required that women be docile, domestic and reproductive. Good bourgeois women were required to limit their fertility by avoiding pregnancy, successfully symbolize their husband’s affluence as well as generally tend to do good within the world. As bourgeois matrons, women were seen to be polished, resplendent in the very best finery of their classes, educated and well invested in economic resources that they did not own. These women were also seen to possess knowledge and skill that were essentially far beyond their set socially ordained spheres and as these women gradually became aware of their position in society in respect to that held by men, they sought to try and change their status in society by overcoming the ideals of the cult of True Womanhood. These attempts by the bourgeois women to try and defend their rather newly hones social roles in advocating for women rights after their successes with the abolition movement is seen to have caused for a conflict between real skills and ascribed status to emerge. Smith-Rosenberg (1985), affirms that it is at this point that the good wife became perceived as a potentially dangerous phenomenon. These women took up the cause of abortion rights for women and were in support of the medico-science insistence that women’s biology was essentially the destiny of women. These women would however face very stiff competition from the male physicians of the age who sought to try and hem in the changes that they had helped initiate that subsequently allowed them to venture into practicing gynecology. Until the nineteenth century, very few men had attempted to try and challenge what was exclusively the female domain of midwifery. The very first American male physician to provide lectures on midwifery William addressed his lectures to women midwives. The first American text on midwifery written by a man was also addressed to a female midwives audience. In 1810, the University of Pennsylvania was the first to establish a medical-school chair midwifery. And while this advancement initiated obstetric training for male physicians, the overall status of obstetrics was seen to generally remain questionable and its actual position in medical education quite tangential (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). Male obstetricians and gynecologists were seen to assume the overall leadership of the anti-abortion campaign and this was perceived to be quite ironical by the general public as it was these very same medical practitioners that were responsible for conducting most abortions which was contrary to the guidelines dictated upon by the Hippocratic oath. The double-entendre caused by these doctors was seen to the term women’s doctor eventually becoming used to not only denote the sexual nature and lowly status of an obstetrician’s patients but also as a common euphemism referring to abortionist. This ironical position is seen to have been highlighted by a physician who writing in the 1870s, pointed out that the men who had systematically been engaging in the extremely abominable business of abortion were actually recognized in both the community and in the profession. In his text, the physician points out that the profession was not entirely clear of complicity in the abominable crime of feticide (Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). References Fuller Margaret. (1843). The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman Versus Women. Retrieved from http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/fuller/debate.html Smith-Rosenberg, C. (1986). Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. Oxford University Press. Storer R. H., (1868). Franklin Fiske Heard Criminal Abortion: Its Nature, Its Evidence, and Its Law. Little, Brown. Read More