Blog 9 - Women's rights - why not sooner?

I believe that there are many reasons that women did not organize themselves earlier. These reasons include: the cult of domesticity, men running politics. The main reason I believe women started working together is because of the abolition movement. The abolition movement was the first time that women had the chance to be active in a form of politics. The abolition movement gave women the chance to get out of the cult of domesticity and fight for something. Women had the chance to be somewhat active in politics during the American Revolution but after that they lost their political power. During the American Revolution women would organize boycotts, help soldiers and there were a few women that actually fought. However, after the American Revolution the idea known as the cult of domesticity rose into power. The cult of domesticity told women that they had to stay at home and provide for their families. They were suppose to support their husband in any way possible and politics was seen as man work that wasn’t fit for women. The second great awakening helped end the cult of domesticity. The second great awakening helped get women out of the house and into the public sphere. Women would leave the house and attend the church meetings. This led to women later getting active I the abolition movement. Sense many felt that it was a Christian duty to be an abolitionist; women were not excluded from helping. The abolitionist movement gave women black and white a chance to work in politics and fight to end slavery. When many think of the women in the abolitionist movement they think of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, however, there were more white women than black women that were prominent in the abolition movement. This was for many reasons; white women had more freedom, had better income, had a better education, etc. The abolition movement gave women the chance they needed to work in politics and eventually this leaded them to work on getting equal rights for themselves. I do not know if what I am going to sat is true, this is just a hypothesis of why I think women did not get rights sooner. I think that women maybe did not get rights sooner because they just were trying to support there men in the revolution and felt that the would eventually get rights. I believe that women thought that if they helped in the revolution that they would soon enough get equal rights when a government was set up. I think this was there plan before the cult of domesticity took control of women. I believe the most interesting part of the cult of domesticity is that it formed in Great Britain then moved to the United States of America. I thought that women in the United States wouldn’t let Great Britain hold them back, however, they did especially among the upper class. The upper class would also be the most educated women which is why this is a shame that they bought into the cult of domesticity. The upper class women have then best chance to make a change and when they are following popular trends and not trying to learn, women aren’t going to have equal rights. The cult of domesticity was a lot about being a good Christian. When abolitionists started stemming from churches women had their chance to enter the political sphere and be seen as good Christians. This eventually stemmed into women realizing that they needed to get there right to vote and acting upon it. If it wasn’t for the abolitionist movement I believe that it would have been a while until women got equal rights.