Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner
“Resolved…it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means.” These words were issued at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the foundational event for the American women’s suffrage movement. The gathering was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott on July 19-20, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. The organizers were motivated to make the public aware of the broader inequalities women faced in American society. One of the most important features at the convention was the drafting of the Declaration of Sentiments, a keystone document of the women’s movement.
At the center of the women’s suffrage campaign was the principle of citizenship. The principle was anchored in the premise of gendered equality and equal abilities. By not recognizing women’s legal right to engage in political processes, the state denied half the population the ability to consent to be governed. Being denied the legal ability to vote, women were rendered invisible to the state and thus denied the protections of the state that are extended to recognized citizens. These grievances, it was argued, made women “civilly dead.”
The Declaration of Sentiments was intentionally modeled after the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence expressed the nation’s core political beliefs. It presented a political framework inspired by John Locke and classical liberalism, which sought a minimal government and maximal individual freedom, which included the sanctity of property rights, individual rights, and the extension of rights through the instrument of voting. Based on those beliefs, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott declared that “it is the duty of women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.”
The similarities between the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments were deliberate. The Declaration of Independence issued bold statements to justify separation from Britain and to explain the cause of independence to the colonists. The drafters at the Seneca Falls convention issued equally bold statements that indicted patriarchal society as the cause of women’s oppression. They claimed gender equality, and presented their case to the American public that women were citizens necessitating full participation in politics and the social contract.
Like the Declaration of Independence, the Seneca Falls convention issued a list of grievances that detailed the injustices suffered by women, including their inferior legal status, the lack of voting rights, the limited educational and employment opportunities, and ultimately, the economic and physical subordination of women across all socio-economic classes. The notable grievance was the denial of the right to vote. It was argued that in denying women the right to vote, a society “has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.”
It is necessary to point out that modern-day thinking about voting portrays it as a collective practice in expression, whereas the Declaration of Sentiments offers another way to think about voting: as a legal act of conveying consent instead of mere expression. Of course, voting possesses expressive benefits, but voting is much weightier; it is an action to convey legal consent to representation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott understood that voting implied entering into a legal contract. When we vote, we render our consent to a political candidate to honor that contract. The attendees at the Seneca Falls Convention believed that the idea of democracy, and the experiment of self-governance, is truly a bottom-up organization that requires all citizens to participate in the practices of consenting to being governed.
The boldness of the Declaration of Sentiments did not promote women’s separation from political society, but issued a call for the inclusion of women as legal citizens to enjoy the rights and protection of the state—to consent to being governed. The vote represents a single instrument of citizenship, and being denied that sacred right fell short of the vision set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
Ultimately, the Seneca Falls Convention framed women’s rights not simply as a political
preference, but as a moral imperative rooted in the nation’s founding beliefs. By echoing the language of the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments set out to reveal the contradictions embedded in the political practices that defined the era.
The struggle for the right to vote was portrayed as part of a larger effort to reform the exclusions of half its citizens from political participation. In demanding the vote, Stanton, Mott, and the attendees at Seneca Falls were not asking for special privileges, but for the nation to fully embrace its own professed principles. The Declaration of Sentiments became the philosophical foundation of the women’s rights movement and helped set in motion the long campaign that would eventually reshape the meaning of American citizenship itself.
Dr. Heather Yates is a political scientist and independent scholar who studies a variety of topics focused on American politics with specific attention given to the American Presidency, campaigns, and elections. She has authored three books, numerous book chapters, and dozens of public articles analyzing local and federal elections. Dr. Yates spent 14 years as a university professor teaching a range of topics related to American politics. Dr. Yates now applies her expertise as a researcher and writer at Ballotpedia, the digital encyclopedia of American politics.
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Dr. Heather E. Yates is a professor of American politics at the University of Central Arkansas. She has published books and articles on regional and national politics with emphasis on the American presidency, political campaigns, and voting behavior. Her political analysis has been featured in national and regional print and broadcast media. She also speaks to community forums and events about the significance of electoral politics and civic engagement.