Passage 1 is an excerpt from the “Declaration of Sentiments,” presented by Elizabeth Cady Stanton on July 19-20, 1848, at the Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. Passage 2 is adapted from a speech delivered to the Congress of Women in May 1893 by Lucy Stone, “The Progress of Fifty Years.”
Passage 1
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one portion of the family of man to assume among the
people of the earth a position different from that which they
have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and
of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel
them to such a course.
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; that to secure these
rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to
insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath
shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the
women under this government, and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to demand the equal station to which
they are entitled.
Passage 2
The commencement of the last fifty years is about the
beginning of that great change and improvement in the
condition of women which exceeds all the gains of hundreds of
years before.
Four years in advance of the last fifty, in 1833, Oberlin
College, in Ohio, was founded. Its charter declared its grand
object, —“To give the most useful education at the least expense
of health, time, and money, and to extend the benefits of such
education to both sexes and to all classes” . . . .
The anti-slavery cause had come to break stronger fetters
than those that held the slave. The idea of equal rights was in
the air. The wail of the slave, his clanking fetters, his utter
need, appealed to everybody. Women heard. They went out to
speak for the slaves. . . . Such a thing had never been heard of.
An earthquake shock could hardly have startled the community
more. . . . But, with anointed lips and a consecration which put
even life itself at stake, these peerless women pursued the even
tenor of their way, saying to their opponents only: “Woe is me,
if I preach not this gospel of freedom for the slave.” . . .
Half a century ago women were at an infinite disadvantage
in regard to their occupations. The idea that their sphere was at
home, and only at home, was like a band of steel on society. . . .
Every departure from these conceded things was met with the
cry, “You want to get out of your sphere,” or, “To take women
out of their sphere;” and that was to fly in the face of
Providence, to unsex yourself in short, to be monstrous women,
women who, while they orated in public, wanted men to rock
the cradle and wash the dishes. We pleaded that whatever was
fit to be done at all might with propriety be done by anybody
who did it well; that the tools belonged to those who could use
them; that the possession of a power presupposed a right to its
use. This was urged from city to city, from state to state.
Women were encouraged to try new occupations. We
endeavored to create that wholesome discontent in women that
would compel them to reach out after far better things. . . .
The last half century has gained for women the right to the
highest education and entrance to all professions and
occupations, or nearly all. . . . These things have not come of
themselves. They could not have occurred except as the great
movement for women has brought them out and about. They
are part of the eternal order, and they have come to stay. Now
all we need is to continue to speak the truth fearlessly, and we
shall add to our number those who will turn the scale to the
side of equal and full justice in all things.
Passage 1
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one portion of the family of man to assume among the
people of the earth a position different from that which they
have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and
of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel
them to such a course.
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; that to secure these
rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to
insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath
shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the
women under this government, and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to demand the equal station to which
they are entitled.
Passage 2
The commencement of the last fifty years is about the
beginning of that great change and improvement in the
condition of women which exceeds all the gains of hundreds of
years before.
Four years in advance of the last fifty, in 1833, Oberlin
College, in Ohio, was founded. Its charter declared its grand
object, —“To give the most useful education at the least expense
of health, time, and money, and to extend the benefits of such
education to both sexes and to all classes” . . . .
The anti-slavery cause had come to break stronger fetters
than those that held the slave. The idea of equal rights was in
the air. The wail of the slave, his clanking fetters, his utter
need, appealed to everybody. Women heard. They went out to
speak for the slaves. . . . Such a thing had never been heard of.
An earthquake shock could hardly have startled the community
more. . . . But, with anointed lips and a consecration which put
even life itself at stake, these peerless women pursued the even
tenor of their way, saying to their opponents only: “Woe is me,
if I preach not this gospel of freedom for the slave.” . . .
Half a century ago women were at an infinite disadvantage
in regard to their occupations. The idea that their sphere was at
home, and only at home, was like a band of steel on society. . . .
Every departure from these conceded things was met with the
cry, “You want to get out of your sphere,” or, “To take women
out of their sphere;” and that was to fly in the face of
Providence, to unsex yourself in short, to be monstrous women,
women who, while they orated in public, wanted men to rock
the cradle and wash the dishes. We pleaded that whatever was
fit to be done at all might with propriety be done by anybody
who did it well; that the tools belonged to those who could use
them; that the possession of a power presupposed a right to its
use. This was urged from city to city, from state to state.
Women were encouraged to try new occupations. We
endeavored to create that wholesome discontent in women that
would compel them to reach out after far better things. . . .
The last half century has gained for women the right to the
highest education and entrance to all professions and
occupations, or nearly all. . . . These things have not come of
themselves. They could not have occurred except as the great
movement for women has brought them out and about. They
are part of the eternal order, and they have come to stay. Now
all we need is to continue to speak the truth fearlessly, and we
shall add to our number those who will turn the scale to the
side of equal and full justice in all things.