Why did it take so long to grant women suffrage? Because it meant changing views and attitudes that had been dominant <u>for centuries</u>. If you look at it in the context of women's place in the world throughout history, it's no surprise that movements to gain equal rights for women took over 100 years to convince societies to change.
Women's rights movements did not really begin until the time of the Enlightenment in the 18th century -- but even then, many Enlightenment thinkers were not "enlightened" when it came to how they viewed women.
At the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, which was the first women's rights convention in the US, a "Declaration of Sentiments" was put forth that listed ways in which societies throughout history had shown prejudice against women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a key organizer of the convention and the lead author of the Declaration. The Declaration of Sentiments listed grievances against how man had oppressed woman in regard to civil rights. Here's a small sample of some of the "sentiments" which were expressed:
<em>The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:</em>
- <em>He has not ever permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.</em>
- <em>He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.</em>
- <em>He has withheld her from rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.</em>
- <em>Having deprived her of this first right as a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.</em>
Because those are the ways in which men treated women through the centuries, it was a long, uphill battle for women to gain the right to vote and other civil equalities.
