ELIZABETH CADY STANTON
Most modern feminists would not agree with this quotation by one of the great early femonists.
In this famous declaration, Stanton summarized the relative status of men and women in the society at that time. Women then could not control their own property, have their own money. “Chastisement” referred to the fact that a husband could then legally discipline his wife physically and beat her if she were not suvviciently obedient.
Almost all religions placed women in an inferior status in society with little of the freedom or power—civil or religious—for men that the religion urged.
Note, that like other feminist leaders of the time, she viewed the fetus as a person. However, between the economic pressures and the illegality of birth control devices and information provision, abortion was a critical decision that had to be faced by many women. Later, feminist leadership had to come to grips with the issue of who makes the decision in these areas, and placed the right of the woman to make these decisions, as opposed to husbands, fathers and government, as the highest priority. Then, when the drivers for abortion could not be eliminated, it was women who were criminalized. Feminists then fought for the right of abortion and the right of the woman to make decisions, but feminine leadership has never—in America—been advocates of abortion as opposed to the right of abortion, a subtlety that often is lost.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leader of the women's rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-1800s. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women's rights, and was the primary author of its Declaration of Sentiments. Her demand for women's right to vote generated a controversy at the convention but quickly became a central tenet of the women's movement. She was also active in other social reform activities, especially abolitionism.
