Women s Rights Movement Of The Nineteenth Century

The women s rights movement of the nineteenth century had a major impact for women. It had unified women around a number of issues that were seen as fundamental rights for all citizens. These rights included: access to higher education, the right to own property, reproductive rights, and suffrage. All was achieved and even more between 1870 and 1930. Before all the changes happened for women. â€Å"Women were completely controlled by the men in their lives. First, by their fathers, brothers and male relatives and then once married, their husbands. A women’s sole purpose in life was to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving their husband.† (Smith, 2002) When a women married, â€Å"her husband had rights to†¦show more content†¦Then in 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act was in action. This act meant that wages and property earned through a wife s own work, and investments made with that earned money would henceforth be regarded as her own. This also meant that women could hold rented property in their own name. This act also made women legally liable to maintain their children. In 1871, the first state laws specifically making wife beating illegal were passed, though proliferation of laws to all states and adequate enforcement of those laws lagged very far behind . â€Å"In 1878 a woman suffrage amendment was first introduced in the United States Congress, but it did not pass. Then in 1879, a women named Belva Lockwood became the first woman allowed to argue before the Supreme Court. Her first case was the 1880 case Kaiser v. Stickney.† (Wikipedia, 2016) In 1890, various women s clubs united to form the General Federation of Women s Clubs. Also in 1890, the two largest women s suffrage organizations united to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Then â€Å"in 1891 Marie Owens, born in Canada, was hired in Chicago as America s first female police officer† (Wikipedia, 2016). This was significant since not that long ago women were looked down upon for getting jobs, and a police officer job was concentered a man’s job. In 1891, â€Å"women were told that they could not be forced to live