On a recent beautiful April weekend, four of us set out for Seneca Falls, NY, the birthplace of the women's rights movement in the United States. After a fun four hour ride, we found our hotel, ate some good food, then set out to discover the wonders of women's history and our Founding Mothers. We visited the National Women's Hall of Fame (see below), the site of the 1848 Women's Right's Convention, the museum-like Visitor's Center and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's house. We did some great shopping for the Womens' Center and friends and family, hung out at a cool coffee shop, and lazed by the river. As it was the end of the semester there was studying to do, and there was plenty of time in the van and the hotel to do that. Overall it was fun and relaxing, and very interesting - we learned so much and had a great time doing it!!
The Women's Center is making this an annual trip, so if you're interested in going next April, get in touch by calling (860) 297-2408, or email: Laura.Lockwood@trincoll.edu. Here's a sampling of what we saw! A pamphlet at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY reads:
“What are we next to do?” asked Elizabeth Cady Stanton after the 1848 convention. The women of Seneca Falls had challenged America to social revolution with a list of demands that touched every aspect of life. Testing different approaches, the early women’s rights leaders came to view the ballot as the best way to change the system, but they did not limits their efforts to one issue. Fifty years after the convention, women could claim progress in property rights, employment and educational opportunities, divorce and child custody laws, and increased social freedoms. By the early 20th century, a coalition of suffragists, temperance groups, reform-minded politicians, and women’s social welfare organizations mustered a successful push for the vote.
Although the ballot was never the primary agent of social reform, as many had hoped, the fight for suffrage expanded the women’s influence in the political arena. Again the question arose: What next? Immediately after 1920 many worked for reform through groups such as the League of Women Voters and national political parties. Some women asserted their rights on a personal level by attending college, taking jobs, adopting new clothing fashions, and practicing birth control. Then, as now, each woman sought her own definition of freedom.
In 1848, the Seneca County Courier warned that the convention’s resolutions were “of the kind called radical…Some will regard them with respect-others with disapprobation and contempt.” The story of the women’s movement is the story of ideas one controversial, now unremarkable.
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We went to the Visitor Center where one can view an inspirational film and experience interactive exhibits. You can then proceed to the Wesleyan Chapel and imagine yourself a participant in the First Women’s Rights Convention. Then take a guided tour of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House where she raised seven children and started a women’s rights movement. In nearby Waterloo, one can visit Hunt House where the Convention was planned.
At the National Women’s Hall of Fame, we learned about a multitudeof women who contributed to America in the fields of science, education, civil is as follows:
“To honor in perpetuity those women, citizens of the United States of America, whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been the greatest value for the development of their country.”