Blog # 1 - Dubois, Truth, Sentiments

The most pervasive idea in Dubois article, Feminism: Old Wave and New Wave, is that “women must lead the way,” in the battle for equality. Dubois illustrates, through the struggles of women’s activists, such a those of Lucretia Mott, that women cannot rely on male politicians and reformers to fight for gender equality. The equality that these activists strive for will only be reached if all women unite and fight for their beliefs. Lucretia Mott dedicated years of her life to the abolitionist movement during the nineteenth century, only to be turned away from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, because the male delegates at the convention were “offended by the thought of women functioning politically as the equals of men.” Reading about the adversity Lucretia Mott faced not only frustrated me to think that such an influential person was looked down upon for being a women, but also made me think about the article “Imagine My Surprise” and in general how women are viewed in today’s society. The women of the Old wave of feminism were the first to question the “programming” described in Ellen Neuborne’s article. Most people were shocked by the ideas that people like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Caddy Stanton were fighting for, because it put into question everything they had ever been taught. Even women during the nineteenth century were apathetic to the arguments raised by feminine activists, and to this day apathy and indifference is one of the major hindrances to the feminist movement. In order to change the way men view women in society, all women need to care enough to identify sexism and fight for change. Dubois piece serves as a timeline that depicts the long and hard struggles that the women of the Old Wave have overcome to gain legal equality. But now it is up to the New Wave of feminist to combat the programming in society, and gain freedom from the “women’s sphere,” or the accepted role of women.

The Declaration of Sentiments, is one of the oldest and most influential pieces of feminist literature. The authors of the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled the document after the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Sentiments was such a brilliant piece of writing because it illustrated to people the struggles that women were facing by relating it to the struggles that the colonists experienced with Great Britain during the Revolution. By modeling the Declaration of Sentiments after such a well known document, women’s rights activist were able to connect with all Americans and show them the level of oppression women were subjected to. Drawing parallels between women’s struggles during the nineteenth century and the colonist hardships a century earlier, helped people to better understand the grievances of women. For example the Declaration of Sentiments focused on the unconstitutionality of women being forced to abide by laws that they did not vote on. This issue directly relates to the idea of no taxation without representation, which the colonists vehemently opposed and which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution.