Great Final Jeopardy question

In the 1848 Seneca Falls declaration, these two words were added to the statement in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

You can certainly ask Google, but I'm curious if anyone knows this off the top of their head. All three contestants got it right, and so did I, but I wonder how many Americans even know what the Seneca Falls declaration was or its significance.

"and women."  As in "all men and women are created equal..."

Ding! I hope you wagered enough to win.

I remember learning the Declaration of Independence early in life and thinking, hey, wait a minute...shouldn't that be "people" or "human beings" instead of "men"...? It's still one of the most profound statements in human history, in that human rights are stated as self-evident truths rather than abstract concepts, and that the speakers ("we") not just believe in but "hold" them.

I keep harking back to this moment in our history, every time I discern that many (many, many) Americans absolutely do not agree with or believe in that. We the people routinely deny and disregard the rights of human beings, whether they're brown people assaulted and dragged off without due process or habeas corpus, motorists arrested for the crime of driving while black, or women losing job opportunities, education, or elections because they don't have a penis. And of course, we kill people for exercising their right to protest. We continually pat ourselves on the back for our noble sentiments that supposedly guide our nation and then we don't follow them.

And misogyny, the topic of the Seneca Falls declaration, still flies high and mighty in our noble land. Why hasn't the Equal Rights Amendment been ratified? Why have two female Presidential candidates lost to one of the worst human beings to ever walk the earth? Why do women STILL earn less than men, even though overall, they're now better educated than men?

I'm going to do some research and delve into what the reaction was to the Seneca Falls declaration back then. Was it ignored? Was it the subject of angry newspaper editorials denouncing them uppity wimmenfolk? Did it get anyone arrested? Because we sure didn't adopt it 

Though modeled after the US Declaration of Independence, only roughly a third of attendees to the Seneca convention signed it.  The ideas of women's rights only became mainstream after the American Civil War and Reconstruction.   Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920 granted women the right to vote.  

Two good web sites:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sentiments (original name of the declaration)

https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights

Multiple pages of the History, Art & Archives, The Women's Rights Movement, 1848 and onward, multiple pages covering at least up to the 1920 passage of the 19th.  A lot to read, a lot to take in, if you are really interested.  I scanned it.  Would take me many, many hours to read, but good coverage.

Candy

Thanks, Candy, I'll take a look. It's telling that though women were granted the right to vote in 1920, they weren't explicitly said to have the same rights as men, as per the Seneca Falls "Sentiments" and the Equal Rights Amendment that is still ln limbo. I get the sense that in 1848, and in 1920, and maybe long afterward, most men and maybe even most women felt that women were in fact not equal to men. And for all our posturing as an advanced nation, we were one of the last in the world to abolish slavery, to grant women the right to vote, establish a universal health care system, and to realize that peanut butter is not an adhesive.

I've referred to the periodic polls taken that ask, among other things, how people feel/would feel about a female President. Interestingly (and kind of sickeningly), over the last twenty or so years, the percentage of respondents who said they would never vote for a female Presidential candidate has remained fairly steady at about 5%. So that's the headwind that neither Hillary nor Kamala were able to overcome.

Interestingly, the only area of society wherein women have not only caught up to men but surpassed them is higher education. More women in college and graduating than men. About time. And the next equalization will be in medical practice. Give me a female doctor every time.

What a great topic.  

For another bit of trivia......Who was the only male speaker at the Seneca Falls Convention?

I'm gonna make an educated guess: Frederick Douglass?

Exactamundo!

I think we're already there.  When I was in med school in the mid-70s, there were 5 women in our class of 96.  Today, there are more women than men in the class; I seem to remember reading that nationally, med school enrollment passed the 50% female mark about 15 years ago.

Lots of good trivia material within the history of women's rights. 

Here is one:  What was William Lloyd Garrison known for?

Hint:  Anti-slavery movements found dissent among men unwilling to include women's rights.   

Candy