Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley

In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, women’s struggles to gain equal rights
with men began as women in the United States spoke up for equal rights

. Women's movements began due to several factors. People began to question the established political authority and emphasized the importance of equality, and liberty. The new educated atmosphere also helped in justifying women’s rights to full citizenship.

Early Women Leaders and their Contributions

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

- English author who was one of the first and most important advocates of women’s equality. Wrote in the late 1700’s about women’s right to vote, own property, and same education as men.

Emma Willard (1787-1870)

- was the first American woman who supported higher education for women publicly. Her efforts developed that movement in the United States. She also wrote poems about women’s right to higher education.

Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880)

- was a leader of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements in the United States. She and Elizabeth Stanton organized the nation’s first women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls.

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

- was a reformer and one of the first leaders of the campaign for women’s rights. She helped organize the woman suffrage movement which eventually gave women the right to vote.

Lucy Stone (1818-1893)

- helped organize the women’s rights movement in the United States. She was one of the first American women to lecture on women’s rights and the first married woman to keep her maiden name.

Frances Elizabeth Willard (1839-1898)

- was an American educator and social reformer. She organized the temperance movement and was the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She was also a powerful advocate of woman suffrage.

Esther Morris 1814-1902)

- led the fight for women’s suffrage in Wyoming. Her efforts led Wyoming to pass a women’s suffrage law in 1869 that became a model for later suffrage laws. Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote.

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

- was an American writer, lecturer, and reformer. She was one of the most famous women of her time. She introduced the idea of Mother’s Day.

Paulina Wright Davis (1813-1876)

- was an American social reformer. She pushed for the right of women to own property and to vote. In 1840, Davis joined a women’s campaign against the property laws of the day. The campaign led to a New York law that gave wives control of property they had owned before marriage.